Abstract: The invention is an apparatus for pre-plating railway ties, including switch ties of varying lengths. An infeed deck and singulator feeds individual ties, each provided with identifying indicia, to a pre-scanner. Using the scanned indicia, a control system accesses stored data to determine a preliminary drill pattern. A scanning and drilling station positions, secures and scans the tie. The scan results are combined with the stored data to produce a corrected optimal drill pattern, which is used to drill the tie. The drilled tie moves to a plate and screw loading station, where the proper plates and fasteners are attached. A fourth station inspects the assembled tie. If it is properly assembled, the screw spikes are tightened and the plated tie moves to an outfeed deck, where it is marked for identification and removed for storage and shipping.

Abstract: An adzer skid assembly having a frame and a base plate attached to the frame. The base plate has an adzer unit attached thereto. The frame has a receptacle for slidably attaching the frame to a railroad track maintenance machine so that up and down motion of the railroad track maintenance machine does not produce up and down motion of the adzer skid assembly. Hydraulic cylinders are attached to the baseplate and are attached to skids, wherein the hydraulic cylinders raise and lower the skids relative to the frame and baseplate and determine the cutting depth of the adzer unit. During the adze cutting process the adzer unit is supported entirely by the skids as the skids move across railroad crossties.