Thanks to having use of a backhoe, we have started our safe ending project. New ties are going in about every 8 feet. The backhoe makes a great tie inserter/extractor. A new tie is butted up against an old one. Then the hoe is used to push the new one in place of the old one by reaching out and 'pulling' the new one into place. The old ties are put into the loader end and taken to a pile where at some point they will be picked up for recycling.
Occasionally, the old tie is so bad that the end is not solid so it can not be pushed out by the new one. At that point, we can take the hoe and jam it down into the tie at a different point on the ties and get it out as the hoe has teeth on it.
I will try to take some pictures for all to see but it is hard to hold the camera and operate the controls at the same time!
