I began my railroad career as a track laborer not long after this photo was taken. Interesting to note the lack of hard hats as the man in the foreground uses a spike claw to lift a tie while the man on the right uses a pneumatic tamper to firm up the ballast beneath the tie. The man in the center presumably is giving the spikes a few taps to tighten them up. To the right are a couple of ballast forks - miserable devices on your lower back.
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Ballast Forks are an invention of the Devil, His Own Self! I tried to use one of those (****) things and oh, baby it hurt! I was a relative kid then, ripping old sidings up as a temporary worker. I was even worse at trying to use a spike maul-ouch! The foreman literally drove me off the jobsite, paying me to leave in cash. He was doing me a favor!
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Yes, no hard hats, no dayglo jackets, and nobody standing there doing nothing. Nice capture of the moment John!
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