John,
The Friends of the EBT rebuilt just this type of tie inserter and it worked well on a shop lead track this summer. Christ Coleman should be able to post a photo of that unit. It works both gauges.
The crew from St Mary, PA (2' meca) brought a simular unit down to the EBT and installed ties on the south leg of the wye behind the trolley barn and tied the whole track in one weekend. And we all offer thanks to them as it is a much nicer piece of track now.
Thanks for posting this nice photos for other as well.