Alternative Tampers Abroad

[Dag Bonnedal]

I really like your spirit "Can Do!" and the way you solve all problems that arise. Great to follow your development.

Sorry about the problems with the tamper. I am sure you will solve also those problems.
But just wanted to point out an alternative to consider.
We had an old, classic Matisa BL09M tamper bought for scrap price from Swedish State Railways some 40 years ago.
But in spite changing a lot of the parts, it continued to be quite temperamental.
Thus we bought a new one some years ago from this company in France, specialized narrow gauge equipment.
http://yves.ocquident.free.fr/
Their product is a rather direct copy of the Matisa BL09, built with Chinese components. They can custom build what ever you like, and it does not cost a fortune. Our new unit works quite well.
http://museijarnvagenimariefred.se/flera-lyft-for-banavdelningen/

More pictures from our 600 mm railway on our blog:
http://museijarnvagenimariefred.se/category/oslj/

Dag B

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

Hi! The Chemin de fer de Rillé in France uses  such a tamper. Once a year the track crew comes to Pithiviers to help the AMTP to repair streches of track and they bring their tamper along that  seems to work properly but you have  to push it. I'm going to post a few photos on my fb page. Chemin de fer de Rillé Website https://aefm.fr

[Dag Bonnedal]

Would just want to add.
The reason for investing in a new tamper is that when doing work on the line, we are (just like you have shown yourselves above) a large group of people. And this whole group is dependent on the tamper to get the job done. Without it the whole work process grinds to a halt and the workshop with all the odd mechanical tools is a long way away.

[Gary Kraske]

I really like your spirit "Can Do!" and the way you solve all problems that arise. Great to follow your development.

Sorry about the problems with the tamper. I am sure you will solve also those problems.
But just wanted to point out an alternative to consider.
We had an old, classic Matisa BL09M tamper bought for scrap price from Swedish State Railways some 40 years ago.
But in spite changing a lot of the parts, it continued to be quite temperamental.
Thus we bought a new one some years ago from this company in France, specialized narrow gauge equipment.
http://yves.ocquident.free.fr/
Their product is a rather direct copy of the Matisa BL09, built with Chinese components. They can custom build what ever you like, and it does not cost a fortune. Our new unit works quite well.
http://museijarnvagenimariefred.se/flera-lyft-for-banavdelningen/

More pictures from our 600 mm railway on our blog:
http://museijarnvagenimariefred.se/category/oslj/

Dag B Tried the first link and got a virus warning that was not easy to eliminate on my IPad.  Had to turn off power and wait for a minute and that eliminated the problem.

[Dag Bonnedal]

Dag B Tried the first link and got a virus warning that was not easy to eliminate on my IPad.  Had to turn off power and wait for a minute and that eliminated the problem.

Sorry to hear. It is a serious company and I have an updated antivirus program and have not seen any warning messages.

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

I second John  You all did a good job of work.

[Wayne Laepple]

Just for fun, I had a PM exchange with Dag regarding the French tamper, and we figured that the price of a new machine to us would be around $15,000. I wonder how much has gone into Big Joe over the years?

[Mike Fox]

Wayne, biggest expense for Big Joe to date was the compressor. A lot of other things we had or have made. Probably $1000 in steel. I would say we have no more than $6,000 in it now, with the vast majority of that figure specifically donated for the tamper.

[Wayne Laepple]

Huh. I would have expected more. At any rate, it was a fun exchange with Dag.

[James Patten]

Directly attributable maintenance expenses have come to almost $1900 over its lifetime.  Value of the car is about $3500, new compressor this year was another $4000.  $9400 total.

[Jeff Schumaker]

Just for fun, I had a PM exchange with Dag regarding the French tamper, and we figured that the price of a new machine to us would be around $15,000. I wonder how much has gone into Big Joe over the years?

But would it come with a cupholder and umbrella holder for our fearless leader ???

Jeff S.

[James Patten]

For $15,000 I would hope it had an air conditioned cab.

[Wayne Laepple]

None of the above. Watch the video.

A new main line tamper could cost half a million dollars. It would have an air-conditioned cab with a cup holder.

[Dave Buczkowski]

Around Alna a heater would also be appreciated at certain times of the year - like tonight!

[Wayne Laepple]

Cab, cupholder, heater? You don't get any of these. Matter of fact, there isn't even a seat on this thing! You have to walk behind it.