Strange vehicles

This morning I saw what looked like a camper coming down the railroad tracks west of Rensselaer. It was a truck that was checking the rails for faults. You can see the testing equipment hanging off the back. I thought it was interesting that it was not a CSX vehicle. Big as CSX is, they find it cheaper to hire out that service or else they do not have the expertise to provide it themselves. Here is the website of the company doing the testing.

Following this vehicle was a CSX truck that pulled up its rail wheels when it got to this crossing on Mattheson, and drove away on Mattheson.

In the afternoon I noticed the interesting vehicle below on Drexel Drive. It was a machine that made by Ditch Witch that trenches and installs cable.

The men who worked it seemed to be further west on Drexel Drive, working a small backhoe digging holes to get cables under the driveways. They were from a company with the interesting name of Berry It Inc. Underground Utility Services. I did not find out exactly what they were burying--it was an optical cable, but I do not know if it was for phone, television, Internet, or some combination of those.

Update: Stopping by a few days after these pictures were taken, I asked one of the workers who the cable was for. He said it was a Verizon cable.