Tamping Pick "V"

New, Old Stock - Discontinued

Prior to the advent of tamping machines, railroad track workers used tamping picks and other specialized hand tools to manually compact ballast (the crushed stone that the ties are laid on).

These tools remain useful today. At one end of a tamping pick is a 2-1/2” x 3/4” blunt face designed to compact, break, and shift ballast. In particular, it is used to force additional ballast beneath a tie that has sunk. Of course, it’s also useful outside the railroad industry for tasks like chipping or breaking rock. At the other end, a tamping pick features a traditional square pick point for digging and chipping.

The Warwood Tool Tamping Pick “V” weighs 8 lbs. and measures 24-1/2” point-to-point. It is available with a 36” slip-on American hickory handle with or without our proprietary safety grip. Our tamping picks and other track tools are still forged one at a time in Wheeling, WV, by hard-working Americans using premium, U.S.-sourced steel.