Rail plate retainer with stabilized gripping jaws for use with rail tie exchanger

A rail tie plate retaining workhead for use in conjunction with a rail tie replacement machine moving along a railroad track having a pair of rails, said workhead comprising:

• a workhead frame configured for movement along the track relative to the rail tie replacement machine;
• a pair of plate retaining frames, each said plate retaining frame associated with a respective one of the rails, and being connected to said workhead frame;
• a pair of opposed rail tie plate gripping jaws connected to each said plate retaining frame, said jaws being configured for reciprocating along a direction parallel to the rails between a plate release position and a plate grabbing position, wherein each said plate retaining frame has a pair of spaced, parallel guide shafts, and a pair of said jaws are slidable along said guide shafts between a plate release position and a plate grabbing position;
• and
• a ballast scraper assembly mounted to said workhead frame between said plate retaining frames.