What is a wet spot machine used for?
A Wet Spot Machine is used to repair ballast beds (the gaps where the stone is between the sleepers) Occasionally the ballast beds in certain areas become waterlogged. This is called a Wet Spot. A Wet Spot will cause bad ride quality as eventually the ballast in a Wet Spot turns into a greyish mud. To sort out this problem, the Wet Spot machine is used. It is like a giant vaccum cleaner. It will suck out all of the crud from in, under and around the Wet Spot, and then it will refill the void (hole) that is left with new stone. There are only a few Wet Spot machines in use in the UK.
