Pete
You bet I remember it! I used to go with my
grandfather (the section foreman), to post the signs.
Even then, some the farmers insisted on using the ROW
for pasture and the stock had to be physically
removed. One of the active ingredients was ARSENIC. It
was effective at killing weeds and other things! I
also remember the old Woolery weed burners. My uncle
was a roadway equipment operator and ran one every
summer, for a while. I rode with him a few times. It
rated a conductor "pilot". No conductor in his
right mind would bid it, so an extra conductor (a
senior promoted brakeman) would be "assigned".
It was a hot, nasty job. The noise from the pumps and
five burner heads was deafening. At the end of the
day, you looked like you had been in a coal mine and
smelled like a mixture of sweat and kerosene. You felt
like you were covered with a light coat of oil and
everything you ate, for a week, tasted "coal
oil". Old time railroading was sure fun!
John
--- Marshall Thayer <zephyr9903@e...>
wrote:
> >>> Too bad you guys didn't get to grow
up on a
> short line railroad like the HY&T and the
RPL&N. <<<
>
>
> Growing up on a small Burlington branch wasn't
bad,
> either - to the age of 4, I lived a block and a
half
> from the old B&NW (see Burlington Bulletin
#30 or
> "Rails to a County Seat" - thanks Dave
Lotz &
> Charles Frantzen) in Mediapolis, IA, then from 6
to
> 10 about the same distance from it in Washington.
> Somehow, it made a big, important railroad more
> friendly.
>
> From 10 to 21, I lived 2 blocks from the Q main
line
> in Mt. Pleasant, IA - during the last of steam -
and
> though it was much busier and more spectacular
then
> the B&NW, I missed the homey aspect of a
puttering
> daily mixed train!
>
> Marshall Thayer
>
>
> On the RPL&N we used "poison" weed
killer right up
> until the end. Anybody
> old enough to remember when the application of
> "poison weed killer" required
> the posting of signs along the right of way
> indicating danger to cattle and
> other live creatures including human beings?
I'll
> never forget the smell of
> that stuff. If I ever get another whiff of it
I'll
> recognize it instantly.
>
> It came in 50 gallon drums and we mixed it in a
tank
> mounted on one end of a
> flatcar. There was a spray "boom" across
one end
> and the tank was
> pressurized from trainline air. We backed up
> spraying behind the engine
> rather than in front of it.
>
> The stuff worked pretty good..usually. I have
among
> my grandfather's
> correspondence a letter from the president of
> whoever the manufacturer of the
> "killer" was a letter to my GF inquiring
when he was
> going to pay for the
> most recent shipment. Someone in his accounting
> department had notified him
> that the RPL&N hadn't paid for their last
shipment.
>
> The letter said something along the lines that
"I
> knew there was something
> wrong when old Pete Hedgpeth doesn't pay his
bills".
> My GF wrote back and
> said that the most recent shipment produced
"all the
> results we wanted...if
> we had wanted hay"...In other words..it
didn't work.
>
>
> We had a row not unlike the HY&T which was
sod
> ballast, but the weeds were
> kept under control and we even had a weed mower
> purchased from the Q, pulled
> by our Fairmont Motor car. It was not the
motorized
> version that we saw in
> later days, put was actually powered by a gear
> arrangement off the
> wheels...consequently the machine had to be
moving
> forward in order to
> activate the sickle blades.
>
> Our one big trestle was completely rebuilt in
1943
> using a Burlington
> Carpenter. My GF apparently had hopes of keeping
> the line going even at that
> late date, but gave it up on Armistice Day 1945.
>
> I'll bet John Mitchell remembers "poison weed
> killer"...how about it John.
>
> Pete
>
>
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