Spreader (railroad)

A spreader is a type of maintenance equipment designed to spread or shape ballast profiles. The spreader spreads gravel along the railroad ties. The various ploughs, wings and blades of specific spreaders allow them to remove snow, build banks, clean and dig ditches, evenly distribute gravel, as well as trim embankments of brush along the side of the track. The operation of the wings was once performed by compressed air, and later hydraulics. Besides the MoW-operation spreaders are also used in open cast mines to clean the tracks from overburden tipped from dump cars.