Tampers: Do they work better facing certain direction?

[trainmania100]

I see lots of paths for tampers here and there that look like turning moves to change the tampers direction.
Do tampers work better in a certain direction? Or is it because the tamping operator should be facing forwards when tamping?
Thanks

 

[driver9000]

I believe they can only work in 1 direction and I have often seen they have a notice painted on the side to mark the working direction of the machine.

 

[Ploughman]

Tampers only work in one direction when tamping.
However they do travel both ways to and from sites.
It is often specified as to which direction they face when they arrive on site, especially on renewal sites, when they may need to follow on in the work sequence of renewals.

 

[trainmania100]

Thankyou all for your replies I never knew they only worked in one direction .

 

[jopsuk]

they must be an absolute delight to route between worksites- needing to know both the orientation on site A and required orientation on site B, and find suitable reversing locations as required (or avoiding reversals)

 

[jamesontheroad]

Funny to read this conversation this week: just a few days ago I spotted the “Working Direction” and arrow vinyls on a tamper stabled near Norwich station. Good to know!

 

[furnessvale]

they must be an absolute delight to route between worksites- needing to know both the orientation on site A and required orientation on site B, and find suitable reversing locations as required (or avoiding reversals)

Not as bad as making sure the route a prefab train takes from the depot to its final location.

Many a train took a different route somewhere on the way and had to be taken for a final jolly round the nearest triangle to get it facing the correct way for the weekend possession.

 

[Ploughman]

Had that with an out of gauge train from Doncaster to Crimple near Harrogate.
1 train on 2 weekends had to arrive on a specific line and in a specific direction
First weekend via Leeds, the second via York.

Other examples where the use of the Jarvis Slinger train when the jibs on the train had to arrive facing a particular way.

 

[tsr]

It’s a surprisingly common task for passenger trains to need to present themselves in a certain direction of travel as well, or with a certain side adjacent to a platform at a given station (eg. for window repairs), so it’s not an unusual challenge, albeit quite a big one at times...