Tamper 7 (officially 7007) was built in 1978 by Plasser & Theurer for Northern Ireland Railways. Its job is to pack ballast underneath sleepers (tamping) and to correct the alignment of the rails to ensure they are as parallel and flat as possible – this is called ‘lining’. Previously, before the advent of tampers, tamping and lining had to be carried out by hand and was back-breaking work. Tampers speed this process up considerably and ensure the track is as smooth, safe and comfortable as possible for passengers.

We acquired Tamper 7 in May 2008 when it was withdrawn by NIR, and it was used for a number of years. Unfortunately not in the greatest condition due to age, and becoming increasingly unreliable and difficult to repair, it has been deemed uneconomical to continue using it. It is now acting as a source of spare parts for our ‘new’ tamper No. 5 acquired from Translink in 2022.