A tie crane is a piece of rail transport maintenance of way equipment used to move and handle the railroad ties (sleepers) used in rail tracks using track relaying. The machines are used as an alternative to the manual labour once used.
Mounted on a lightweight chassis with rail wheels, the operators cab and lifting arm pivot on a base, enabling 360 degree rotation. The end of the lifting arm has a gripper for picking up sleepers, and a movable wrist to allow the tie to be positioned. Often a small trolley is connected to the tie crane by a drawbar, for either storage of new sleepers to be placed into the track, or for taking away old sleepers that have been removed.
Famous quotes containing the words tie and/or crane:
“In the multitude of middle-aged men who go about their vocations in a daily course determined for them much in the same way as the tie of their cravats, there is always a good number who once meant to shape their own deeds and alter the world a little.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“they are brown and soft,
And liable to melt as snow.”
—Hart Crane (1899–1932)