Keeping ROW Free Of Vegetation

Flames.

Roundup? 

In the steam era, hot ash and cinders from coal burnt grass and low bushrs.

Some chemical on a spray truck or train. No flames!

How about foamers standing too close to the tracks, stomping around?

That’s why there are so many bald railfans...😉

Curt

I've seen a picture of a crew using steam from the loco boiler to kill vegetation on the ROW.  I don't suppose plants would like getting blasted with 200 degree plus water at 200 psi.

Maybe some shortlines and industrial railroads have used Roundup, but the big carriers use something shorter acting.  Until around 1990, some railroads had their own spray contraptions while others used contractors such as Nalco.  The railroad's weed spray is not as aggressive as Roundup, and pre-emergent sprays are preferred to direct-kill sprays.  Mowing is the contemporary solution for tall right of way weeds.  When I was at Sweetwater, we had a contract mower on a tractor from April through October.  He disturbed lots of rattlesnakes, and was swarmed by ground-dwelling bumblebees and wasps on several occasions.  That was one tough old man.  We also had a contractor who used a special tractor equipped with an evil-looking tree saw that looked like a helicopter rotor.  He cut mesquite that was growing out of the ground outside the right of way, but encroaching over onto our side of the fence and fouling our pole line.

Today, weed spraying is all outsourced, because of the liability to adjacent landowners and the spray employees.  Runoff is a big consideration, and there are food crops growing right up to the right of way boundary in places.  I remember when we accidentally killed acres of cotton, soybeans, and milo, once due to the Santa Fe weed spray crew accidentally mixing up a batch of spray that was too concentrated, and another time due to the Santa Fe crew trying to get finished ahead of the forecasted late afternoon wind, and not quitting when the wind began to increase earlier than predicted.

Steve Patterson, who has put a number of his fine photos on RailPictures.net was employed in the early 1960's by Nalco as supervisor on a weed spray train that sprayed a lot of Southern Pacific and Missouri Pacific weeds.  Many of his photos were taken where the spray train took siding to be met or passed, or where it tied up for the weekend.

I can't speak for all lines, but from the announcement I have to make every year around here:

"THE APPLICATOR WILL BE USING A MIX OF AQUANEAT, ESPLANADE 200 SC, MILESTONE, AND SPYDER OR OUST XP WITH AN ANTI- DRIFT ADDITIVE IN WATER FOR THE CONTROL OF WEEDS AND GRASS. BEGINNING ON OR ABOUT JULY 1ST, AREAS CLOSE TO STREAMS AND STANDING WATER WHICH WERE NOT SPRAYED ON THE FIRST APPLICATION, WILL BE SPOT TREATED WITH AQUANEAT WITH AN ANTI-DRIFT ADDITIVE IN WATER."

Jon

Number 90 posted:

We also had a contractor who used a special tractor equipped with an evil-looking tree saw that looked like a helicopter rotor.  He cut mesquite that was growing out of the ground outside the right of way, but encroaching over onto our side of the fence and fouling our pole line.

 

We had some of those too. They were on booms and could get way up into the trees. It actually butchered the trees more than cutting them. Made one heck of a mess too.

Don't get too close to this bad boy.

Didn't they use one of those lying saws in a James Bond movie?

Jan

KOOLjock1 posted:

I can't speak for all lines, but from the announcement I have to make every year around here:

"THE APPLICATOR WILL BE USING A MIX OF AQUANEAT, ESPLANADE 200 SC, MILESTONE, AND SPYDER OR OUST XP WITH AN ANTI- DRIFT ADDITIVE IN WATER FOR THE CONTROL OF WEEDS AND GRASS. BEGINNING ON OR ABOUT JULY 1ST, AREAS CLOSE TO STREAMS AND STANDING WATER WHICH WERE NOT SPRAYED ON THE FIRST APPLICATION, WILL BE SPOT TREATED WITH AQUANEAT WITH AN ANTI-DRIFT ADDITIVE IN WATER."

Jon

Aquaneat's prime ingredient is glysophate, which is the same ingredient Roundup uses, and  I suspect the railroads use spray with Glysophate in it. The other ones mentioned here are pre emergent types.

As far as runoff on crops, these days many crops like soybeans and the like are GMO, and they are made to be immune to glysophate, farmers then can use glysophate to control weeds while not harming their crops (whether that is safe is another story, not relevant here). 

Bill N posted:

I've seen a picture of a crew using steam from the loco boiler to kill vegetation on the ROW.  I don't suppose plants would like getting blasted with 200 degree plus water at 200 psi.

Sure you're not referring to a blowdown?

Water/steam at 200 psi is closer to about 400 degrees F.

Back in the BAD old days, the LIRR actually sprayed oil on their right of way by means of the "oil train"! This is actually documented in Steel Rails to the Sunrise by Ron Ziel. NOT very hospitable to the environment, to say the least. BTW, Monsanto recently had to pay out a HUGE court settlement for the alleged cancer causing ingredient in Roundup! The LIRR also got in trouble in 1976 with their use of a defolient chemical once used in Vietnam, and which apparently caused birth defects there.

The history of railroad ROW vegetation control has been historically  fraught with some unintended consequences!

Tinplate Art posted:

Back in the BAD old days, the LIRR actually sprayed oil on their right of way by means of the "oil train"! This is actually documented in Steel Rails to the Sunrise by Ron Ziel. NOT very hospitable to the environment, to say the least. BTW, Monsanto recently had to pay out a HUGE court settlement for the alleged cancer causing ingredient in Roundup! The LIRR also got in trouble in 1976 with their use of a defolient chemical once used in Vietnam, and which apparently caused birth defects there.

Agent Orange?

Are there not some snow melting MOW cars that a railroad can use to burn the weeds?

Fairmont actually made a flame machine that burned all the brush. Ran on Gasoline, back when gas was 35 cents a gallon.