Nostalgia & History > When weed control had style!

During my Santa Fe years I spent quite a bit of time on the brakeman’s extra board. The board covered a wide range of ‘outside’ jobs in addition to filling in for regular mainline brakeman vacancies. These outside jobs were in certain small, outlying yards or towns that had a switch engine and/or a local train based there. The extra board also covered work trains for the entire seniority district. I protected my share of work trains and rather enjoyed most of those assignments. It was always a nice change of pace from the grind of the extra board. Work trains were nearly always in daylight hours because they were usually in conjunction with M.O.W. crews.

Without digging out my old time books I can remember at least twice working a weed-spraying work train. I enjoyed working a weed sprayer partially because the actual sprayers were built out of old baggage cars and (I believe) at least one ex-steam tender. And the crews assigned to the weed sprayers tended to be zany characters. Ironically I never shot pictures of the cars I was working at the time. Oh, you know: “I’ll catch & shoot them some time later on…” (oops! >>>that never happened…)

The best shot I ever got of a weed sprayer was taken in Emporia a whole year before I would hire on with the Santa Fe. Of course, it is one I would never worked in. Go figure…

1. AT&SF weed sprayer car 199202 sitting in Emporia, KS in June of 1977.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/22 01:43 by santafe199.

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Great photo. First time I've seen it.

When I first viewed this unit I assumed it was a RDC. was there other power for it?
..........Swede........Albany,Or.

GN_X838 Wrote:
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> When I first viewed this unit I assumed it was a
> RDC. was there other power for it?
> ..........Swede........Albany,Or.

Unpowered. It was a former heavyweight baggage car.

GN_X838 Wrote: > ... was there other power for it?

Just a regular unit, usually some 4-axle job accustomed to plying branch lines...
Here's a link to a few of my work train experiences:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2844664,2844664#msg-2844664>

Lance



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/14 08:36 by santafe199.

Yep....I'd drive it

Posted from Android

johncarr Wrote: > ...another weed sprayer train I caught in 1987...

Wow, that sure looks like one I worked on in August of 1980. Would that be the 199207? I spent 3 days on that one around El Dorado & Augusta, KS.

Lance

Lance:

Here's the 199202 in Flagstaff, so it got around. I don't have a date for this but it was taken by Jim Sandrin.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/14 11:47 by valmont.

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Hey John (a.k.a. LarryDoyle)!

Style, yes or no?

-E.O.

Style is right! That's cool. And a good way to use equipment that isn't needed for the original purpose.
Brian Stevens

OK, weed sprayers!

I scanned a couple of John Dziobko's slides of a weed sprayer, a contract sprayer with equipment wearing SSIX reporting marks, that was working the Rock Island yard at West Davenport, IA., in the summer of '76. So rumors that ROCK didn't have bucks for weed control appear to be in error at this point in time anyway. So, the crew is working the yard then John reports that he thinks it crossed the Mississippi River over to the Rock's Milan (IL) branch. At any rate, put your shirts on guys!

chico

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Looks like 199202 really got around; here it is back around 1973, westbound, in Arcadia CA (about 5 miles east of Pasadena). Note that this scene has completely changed; the 2nd District track has been replaced by a double-track electric railway, and where I was standing to get the photo is now covered by a parking structure. Also note the old paint job; apparently someone in the Santa Fe hierarchy thought 199202 needed a more eye-catching look. Being an old traction enthusiast, to me the spray car looked like the big brother of a Chicago Aurora & Elgin interurban car.

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That's a great look back...and for the record, those "Zany" guys on the weed sprayer are still there...
I worked the train and dealt with those guys...they were all a little "off." I'm guessing it has something to do with constant exposure to herbicides...but I'm no expert!

Very COOL pictures!

Larry

Da ya think they used DDT in the old days?

Chico,
The sprayer out of Huntington WV was the same one we used on the SP. I worked those every chance I got.


V

SLOCONDR

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> Da ya think they used DDT in the old days?
DDT is an insecticide.

Posted from iPhone

That's pretty bad that they were shirtless on that job, especially if they got wind spray of agent white.

mp51w Wrote:
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> That's pretty bad that they were shirtless on that
> job, especially if they got wind spray of agent
> white.

I remember the same thing on the C&NW in the 1960s and
early 70s. No PPE and some railroads used an agent
of another color!

Thanks for the correction. Perhaps I was thinking of something now considered unsafe that DOW would have endorsed...

doge_of_pocopson Wrote:
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> wabash2800 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Da ya think they used DDT in the old days?
> DDT is an insecticide.
>
> Posted from iPhone