Re: Hand Cut Ties 1880

Other nonmechanized tools would be a cold chisel and 5lb hammer for scoring rail to break it to length, the rail drill as pictured, spike mauls, tie tongs, rail tongs, sight board with rabbit and site block, level board for superelevation,ratchet jack for leveling track along with aligning bar for a handle and other pry bar uses, tamping bars, spike puller along with that neat-o gaget whose name escapes me that can hook under a spike and has a shank with little balls that you can hook onto with an ordinary spike puller for when the spike is otherwise inacessable. Large auger bits for trestle work and sledge hammers for driving bridge spikes would also need to be on hand. For grading work with horses, slip scrapers and fresnos would be called for. I have seen photos of wagons designed for dumping out material that was loaded, which would be a good thing if you had to haul material away from a cut. In "Kirkman's Science of Railways" published around the turn of the century there is a volume on track work which probably shows the various tools prototypical to that time frame.