Nostalgia & History > ATSF weed sprayer.

 ATSF  # 199202  weed sprayer taking on more water at Santa Fe San Bernadino yard. Santa Fe did have some strange stuff for doing certain jobs .The power was on the other end and pushed the tank cars and weed spray car down the track. Date Feb 1978

photo by Chris Marshall

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Nice fresh paint!  I always liked the gull wing design on the front, a nod to Santa Fe's old doodlebug paint scheme.  Those cars usually had a white "wake" down their sides from the chemical spray.  Wonder if 199202 had just been repainted from solid gray (less stylish, but didn't show the spray trail as badly):

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3586356,3586644#3586644

Evan      Thank you for looking and commenting on the photo , Chris

I wonder why they didn't pull the consist, so the crewmen would be coming away from the weed spray instead of going into it??
 

Nice photo!

RC Lundgren
Elgin, TX

Thank you   And thanks for looking.   Chris 

That has got to be the best looking railway weed sprayer that I have ever seen!
When did the Santa Fe go to contractors to spray their weeds?  BNSF uses a contractor with a hi-rail tank truck to spray their weeds in the Riverbank (CA) area.

lynnpowell Wrote:

> When did the Santa Fe go to contractors to spray their weeds? 

Santa Fe replaced the heavyweights like 199202 with three "new" cars converted from semi-lightweight baggage cars in the early 1980's, 199206-199208.  These cars in turn were sold off or converted to other uses in 1991 when Santa Fe turned to contract sprayers instead.

Now this is a really classy weed sprayer.
Bob

lynnpowell Wrote:
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> When did the Santa Fe go to contractors to spray their weeds?

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> Santa Fe replaced the heavyweights like 199202 with three "new" cars converted
> from semi-lightweight baggage cars in the early 1980's, 199206-199208.
> These cars in turn were sold off or converted to other uses in 1991
> when Santa Fe turned to contract sprayers instead.

At least one was retained, #199207 (ex-steam heat car #133, nee-baggage #3922, a rather late car from P-S, built in 1966, to #133 in 1970). It became geometry support car #86 in 1990 and is still on the BNSF roster, still as #86, and is usually paired with geometry/research-and-test car #85 (#800875), which is former business car #39, built by Pullman in 1928 (not sure when it was converted to the #85).

I don't have any notes on the histories for the older heavyweight sprayers or the other 2 lightweights.

Sources:

1. "Streamliner Cars Volume One: Pullman Standard" by W. David Randall (RPC Publications, 1981)

Rainier_Rails Wrote:

> At least one was retained, #199207

That's why I said "sold off or converted" and left it at that.  Giving the histories of the later cars felt like going off into the weeds, so to speak.  You are correct, 199207 was converted into Geometry Support Car 86.  I posted a "before and after" in this old thread:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2862728,2863239#2863239

I read recently that its usual mate, geometry car 85, has been retired, but I don't know if car 86 has been sidelined as well or paired with another geometry car.  The other two similar weed spray cars, 199206 and 199208, were sold to Habco, becoming HABX 206 and 208:

http://northamericanrails.com/yahoo_site_admin1/assets/images/f_410-05a.101113540_large.jpg

I don't know their current status either.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> That's why I said "sold off or converted" and left it at that.

Read too fast, sorry about that.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> I read recently that its usual mate, geometry car 85, has been retired,
> but I don't know if car 86 has been sidelined as well
> or paired with another geometry car.

First I've heard of that, thanks for the update, I'll make a note of that.

Yes, classy looking weed sprayer equipment indeed!
Notice the retractable hydraulic boom,(on which the hoses an spray nozzles are attached) tucked in the vertical cavity behind front cab.

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

Thanks for looking.   Chris

The weed sprayer used to come to California in January and February.  I always thought they were to early in the year for California as March is the month everything turns green for a few weeks before everything turns brown for the rest of the year.  Of course, the rest of the Santa Fe wasn't growing weeds at that time of year either.