Amtrak Maintenance of Way Vehicle

I decided to head out boatwatching yesterday.  Before I continued on, I remembered that there was a vehicle parked on the tracks in Depot Town that I've wanted to get a picture of.  I figured I would go see if it was still there.

 I've seen this particular vehicle before on my travels via the rails.  So I decided to take a picture of it here.

 After some searching, I discovered that this is a Plasser Dynamic Track Stabilizer.  Basically ballast will get shifted as trains move over the tracks.  This machine is designed to remove some of that setting and make the track more stable.  It was kind of interesting to see a vehicle like this on the track that it was on.  I don't think that particular track has been used in a while.  It makes me wonder if they are setting up the track so that they can be used for commuter railroads.  The other possibility is that it is being tucked out of the way while they aren't doing work.

It is pretty cool to see that the tracks are getting work though.