tamper

7 April 1963 was a Sunday ...

One definition of a tamper is a "neutron reflector in nuclear weapons" ... which could fit with the "other galaxy" appearance. but as we all should know , ramping is a measure of compaction. it's a fine looking bit of kit

remarkable!

There's more to this than meets the eye, and Inspector O'Mahony is on to it! - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000306313 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamping_machine

😲😆...😍👏

Barretstown (or Barrettstown) is in Kildare?

The machine would have held the track up while a series of vibrating prongs were lowered to rattled the ballast/stones under the sleepers. And if its not too early here's a YouTube of the going's on. youtu.be/j60braEk5c8?t=1m15s

The line is still twin tracked, and still very straight near Barretstown, Co. Kildare, if that is where we are.

Apparently for packing stones under railway sleepers. A ganger in the signal maintenance department of the then C.I.E. was killed at Dundrum Station in Tipperary when a tamping machine was reversing, and the man was inspecting pins in the sleepers. (Nenagh Guardian, 21 April 1962) In 1966, British Railways planned to save £5 million every year by replacing pick-and-shovel gangs (reducing line maintenance staff from 23,000 to 16,000) with Tamping Machines. They were made by Rolls-Royce at their Shrewsbury factory. Theirs was called the Duomatic Levelling and Tamping Machine. (Irish Press, 1 September 1966) Could ours be a Rolls-Royce model?

I think the device might be following it, not preceeding it. I'd guess from the three optical instruments on it that it's checking the camber.