Eastern Railroad Discussion > Nipping the Buds: NS Goes After Vegetation Before It’s Vegetati

Here's a scene I haven't seen before:  weed spraying the right of way before the weeds come out. I know, I know, there are herbicides that are made for that, I just haven't seen them used by RRs before.

Also, I hadn't noticed that Asplundh now has a railroad division.  They're all over the place in this area, contracting out tree pruning work for utility lines and storm damage response after major weather events.  But I'd never seen them in RR service before.  A few days later, they were out on CSX.

Interesting that the train is doing its best to kill plants (in Central Bridge, NY), while this man's dog is doing his best to fertilize them.

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Back in the '50s, I remember seeing another kind of weed control: a weed burner. It was like a large speeder and had several burners mounted on moveable arms. A few years ago someone posted a photo of one on TO that is more or less what I recall seeing. Not environmentally friendly!

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3054958,3055964#msg-3055964

Apparently there were several varieties of weed burners. They would have looked cool at night.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/01/20 15:14 by colehour.

Nice catch! My daughter and I saw this on a walk a bit more than a month ago along the Reading Line. As for being more environmentally friendly than burning weeds I’m not sure, the smell of Round up hung in the air through Topton for hours after it went through!

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,5009138,5009138#msg-5009138

Dan

Posted from iPhone

The railroads also steamed them!
As far as Asplundh goes they have been invoved with railroads for decades. I can't say with NS or CSX but they did or do all the vegatation control for the SEPTA rail system. they have hi-rail cherry-picker trucks and even chippers with rail wheels. 
But no weed sprayer train that I ever saw. I also never saw the weed sprayer pass the house on NS but they certainly do run as the vegetation dies back quite nicely for them!
Neat post.
Go

Gonut1 Wrote:
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> The railroads also steamed them!
> As far as Asplundh goes they have been invoved
> with railroads for decades. I can't say with NS or
> CSX but they did or do all the vegatation control
> for the SEPTA rail system. they have hi-rail
> cherry-picker trucks and even chippers with rail
> wheels. 
> But no weed sprayer train that I ever saw. I also
> never saw the weed sprayer pass the house on NS
> but they certainly do run as the vegetation dies
> back quite nicely for them!
> Neat post.
> Go

Asplundh has been spraying for CSX for at least the last couple years... this is from 2018 on the CSX Mt. Sub - 26 July 2018

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Asplundh has been in the railroad weed control business for years, They bought NALCO many years ago. Can't tell for sure but the spray car in the pictures may have originally come from the NALCO shop near Huntington WV.