Wilmar (the) Tamper - Official Work Thread

[Wayne Laepple]

A tamper is on its way to the WW&F! A donation from the Wilmar Sugar Refining Co. in Queensland, Australia, in the form of a Vibratool tamper is ready to be shipped to Maine from Brisbane, Australia. It’s tentatively scheduled to leave Brisbane on Nov. 17 and should make it to Sheepscot by mid-January.

The machine was built by the Australian division of Tamper Corp. (now a division of Harsco Corp.) in 1975, and is a scaled-down version of the popular machines built here in the US by Tamper. Many are still in use, and, this week we received an electronic copy of the parts list for this machine from Harsco USA. This machine has the capacity to raise and line track, and once we learn how to operate it, it will greatly speed our track maintenance and construction.

The photo below was taken in Brisbane on Oct. 28.

[Ken Berlo]

Awesome.  Maybe we call it Wilma in honor of the donor, Wilmar Sugar.

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

This amazing  piece of news is going to make my day  Given the time  out her it 'll make my evening.

[Roger Cole]

Wow! Great news.  Very generous of Wilmar Sugar.

[Mike Arnold]

Wow! That would help you guys out a lot. I know you guys like the old way you work but wow it’s going to make expansion better.
Mike

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

Just read the newsletter and I congratulate Wayne and all those that shared in the donation of that tamper that  will be tremendously usefull in keeping up the track.

[Mike Fox]

I believe it has already been named Wilmar. He will be a great addition to the museum.

[Ed Lecuyer]

I believe it has already been named Wilmar. He will be a great addition to the museum.

But in New England, the 'ar' at the end of a word is pronounced 'ah', so his name is in fact, Wilma.

"Go parhk Wilmah in the North Yarhd Carh Barhn."

[John Kokas]

Working with Wayne on this for over a year and a half, this has been an almost exhausting adventure.  I cannot express enough the congratulations that Wayne deserves for all his efforts.  While I ended up striking out time and time again, Wayne managed to find the right folks and contacts to actually make this happen.  I would suggest that the BOD bestow upon Wayne a Lifetime Membership and Pass in recognition of his efforts above and beyond the norm. 

[Wayne Laepple]

Now cut that out, John. I didn’t do anything all that special. I just don’t know when to quit. The majority of all this was serendipity. I was recuperating from surgery and needed something to occupy my time. It was mostly good karma, like when all the traffic lights are green. It doesn’t happen every time, but when it does, it’s good!

[Pete "Cosmo" Barrington]

Fantastic....

...and here I was double checking to see if this was a "sloof-lirpa"!!

Seriously though, what will become of our other tamper?
Would it then become available for lend/lease/sale to Portland or Phillips?

[Mike Fox]

I would hope we would use ours as an air car, maybe go back to hand tampers from that for quick spot work, and just hang onto it.

[Bill Reidy]

I don't know the dimensions of Wilmar, but I suspect it will be too wide to tamp beside the station platforms at Sheepscot, Alna Center and the future Trout Brook.

Then again, I don't know if Big Joe can tamp by station platforms, either.  I don't recall it having any issues travelling by Alna Center, though.

[Alan Downey]

I'm with Mike on this. I assume the potential resale value of Big Joe is less than value of what we might be able to get out of it. With it's moveable tamping heads, I suspect it's a bit more flexible for tamping switches and other odd locations. No harm in holding onto it for those occasions. It's worth mentioning that MNG acquired a re-gauged commercial tamper, so it is unlikely they would want to borrow Big Joe. All in all, I'm very curious to see the difference in effectiveness and speed which Wilmar will be capable of. I suspect a lot of "what ifs" will be naturally answered once it is in service and we've gotten familiar with it.

I'd be interested in seeing if wire or laser guided lifting controls could be added to it over time.

[John Kokas]

Wayne, Mike, and I have been exploring and debating that application already.  Discussions with Harsco after we have Wilma up and running will dictate which way we go as there are several stand-alone applications that are used by earthmoving contractors that essentially do the same function.   The ultimate goal will be a unit which can line and level as part of its tamping function.  Over time this will help greatly in eliminating many of the side-to-side kinks and up-and-down undulations that we have now.  The benefit will be smoother rides, less wear and tear on running gear, and higher mainline speeds.