Nostalgia & History > OK, Santa Fe off in the weeds now ....

1. #199202 @ Flagstaff 10/7/78 by Jim Sandrin
2. #199206 @ Denver 8/8/81

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Interesting sprayers.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

That cannot have been the healthiest job on the RR...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

MojaveBill Wrote:
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> That cannot have been the healthiest job on the
> RR...

Yeah i see they have windows on the front.  Were those self-propelled?  Or did they get shoved along the ROW by a loco?  The only job worse than crewing the sprayer would be getting assigned to push it.
 

Caught the sprayer off the Engr's extra board at Emporia once. We taxied out to Newton, got the weed sprayer back to Emporia, spraying all the way.... in the rain.

Posted from Android

hotrail Wrote:

> Yeah i see they have windows on the front.  Were
> those self-propelled?  Or did they get shoved
> along the ROW by a loco? 

Santa Fe's weed spray cars were not powered.  They were typically shoved by a locomotive or locomotives at the rear of the train. 

http://northamericanrails.com/yahoo_site_admin1/assets/images/f_48a-25.101112313_large.jpg
http://northamericanrails.com/yahoo_site_admin1/assets/images/f_48a-30.101112410_large.jpg
http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?november12/11-12-12/ATSF199202_Joliet_IL_JAN1979_Weed_Sprayer.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23805061@N04/13944458337/

The exception was "brush sprayer" 199205, which didn't have a proper cab and was generally towed.  gcm has shared photos of this car working in Texas:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,5129524

A few photos from late in the game (early 1990's) do show locomotives pulling rather than pushing the spray car and train:

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/original-slide-atsf-santa-fe-gp7u-511932246

Santa Fe's weed spray cars were converted in the company shops from old head-end cars.  The 199202 started life in 1929 as Pullman-built baggage/RPO 2050 (converted March 1964), and 199206 started out in 1965 as  74' Pullman semi-lightweight baggage 3923 (converted May 1980).