Re: Como track work day August 2

John Meixel Wrote:
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> We have to give a HUGE THANK YOU to Chris Tome, a DSP&PHS member who donated the money to buy the air spiker!
He is a very active member who provides a huge amount of help. He also has a
> Bobcat skid steer which he uses to do many of the improvements to the Como yard and roundhouse.
>
> The air spiker is dramatically increasing our productivity, our morale and the health of our
> backs! Any organization, that needs to lay a lot of track must have one! Are the WW&F guys
> listening?

Hi John,
Using an air spiker on the WW&F has been discussed for about 10 years.
The bigger priority was to go automated with tamping which we did about 8 years ago because most volunteers don't like hand tamping.
The work weekends normally get about 100 people over 3 -4 days but over the last couple of years (with the covered bridge project and the mountain extension) we have gotten more. For the Spring work weekend we had 122, just on a Saturday with a total of about 140 over three days.

Quite a few come to hand spike and say they enjoy it. They make teams of spikers that work together so each one can have a break. The joking and camaraderie in the crews is great.

Air spiking has not been ruled out but it's just not necessary for the success of the project and the crew gets the job done. Come visit on a work weekend and you'll see.