Abstract: In a railway track ballast tamping device, a tamping unit is carried for vertical adjustment by a support mounted on the frame structure of a vehicle and comprises at least one pair of jointly-operating tamping tools crossing each other. The arm of these tools are adapted to pivot on opposite eccentric cranks formed on an eccentric shaft rotatably mounted in a bearing rigidly fastened to the support; the upper ends of the arms, opposite the pick-forming thereof, are each pivotally connected to a hydraulic cylinder inclined not in excess of 30.degree. to the vertical; the planes passing through the axis of rotation on the eccentric shaft and the center of the opposite eccentric cranks thereof form between them an angle of 40.degree. to 80.degree. in order to warrant a symmetrical, synchronous oscillatory motion of the packers carried by the lower ends of the picks.

Abstract: This plough adapted to be mounted on a railroad tracklaying machine comprises in its plough area members capable of disaggregating and/or thrusting aside the old compact ballast. These members consist of ejectors acting like pistons and extending through apertures formed in the ploughshares; the ejectors movable across the normal direction of travel of the plough under the control are driven by an actuating mechanism imparting a reciprocating motion thereto, and may be replaced by blades disposed beneath, and substantially parallel to, the ploughshares, the actuating mechanism being adapted to impart to these blades a movement substantially of translation along a closed path.

Abstract: The invention is a method of and apparatus for continuously laying sleepers at permanent positions at predetermined intervals on a bed of ballast for a railway track, by means of a vehicle travelling along the track, which method comprises feeding each sleeper in turn from a stock of sleepers to a laying mechanism where the sleeper is held a little above the level of the bed of ballast, removing vertical support from beneath the sleeper at a position in advance of the intended permanent position of the sleeper so that the sleeper falls onto the bed of ballast in advance of its intended permanent position, drawing the sleeper along the bed of ballast until it reaches its intended permanent position and then completely releasing the sleeper in its intended permanent position. The invention permits the sleepers to be laid with greater accuracy than when using prior apparatus.