Stoneblower for rail applications

A method comprising:

• providing a railroad chassis on a railroad track, wherein the railroad chassis is operable to move along rails of the railroad track;
• determining, using a computing system associated with the railroad chassis, an amount of ballast stones to be dispensed into a bed of ballast stones underlying a rail tie of the railroad track at a first location to achieve an optimal height of the rails at the first location;
• providing a plurality of workheads coupled to the railroad chassis, each workhead having a blowing tube coupled thereto;
• independently positioning one or more of the plurality of workheads comprised in the railroad chassis to position the blowing tubes at the first location;
• rotating one or more of the blowing tubes relative to the workheads;
• and
• blowing, using an air compressor comprised in the railroad chassis, an amount of compressed air through the one or more blowing tubes to dispense the amount of ballast stones into the bed of ballast stones underneath the rail at the first location.

A railroad chassis comprising:

• a supply of ballast stones disposed on the railroad chassis;
• at least one air compressor coupled to the railroad chassis;
• and
• a plurality of workheads coupled to the railroad chassis, wherein each workhead is independently operable, wherein each workhead comprises one or more independently operable blowing tubes configured to dispense ballast stones from the supply of ballast stones into a bed of ballast stones underlying a rail tie of a railroad track, and wherein the blowing tubes are rotatable relative to the workheads.