Perhaps the next step is an attachment for a jack hammer to drive the spikes. That would help those of us who are getting a little long in the tooth for swinging a spike maul.
Jack hammer to drive spikes-- ahhhhh!
Way back when we always had the idea that we were rebuilding the railroad by hand, they way they used to. One by one we made compromises- each for very specific reasons. The obvious one is the tamper- the reasoning that the railroad was never burdened with hand tamping stone ballast in the first place.
I always figured the last bastion would be hand spiking- the literal building of the railroad by hand. It has come up before and I figured it'd come up again; someday we may even need to move on to power spiking if the majority of the crew is giving up on hand spiking. Maybe that's sooner than later, I don't know. But the above, and below, conversation should be had.
If power spiking is to be adopted, there are mechanical realities involved. Jack hammers are not used; spiking hammers are specific devices that are enormously heavier than a tamping hammer (as a point of reference). They are so heavy that unless you're built for this work, can't be effectively controlled. Most of our current spikers wouldn't be spiking. They're so hard to control that quality goes down the tubes. They way one can start a spike tight and draw a rail by hand spiking- may be possible with someone with extreme skill on a power spiker, but I suspect not by any of us. All in all its not a lot of fun; between the noise and the logistics of setting this thing(s) up and dragging it around, the dynamics of our volunteer force rebuilding the old railroad out in the Maine woods would completely change.
Personally I group radio communication and power spiking in the same place, for us.
Just my opinion! Figured the two sides deserve hearing out, as they have been in the past.
See ya
Jason
