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Even in the 1980s the weed spray made me nauseous and gave me a headache. I got to whenever I saw it on the line-up I'd lay off. But one day it had not been on the line-up and I was called at the away-from-home terminal (Laurel, MT) to run the weed spray train from there to Sheridan, WY. I decided to make a stand and I refused to take the call for that train. I was told to call the trainmaster. I told the train master that the last time I worked the weed sprayer I had a splitting headache for 3 days afterwards and I was not going to work it again. He told me to trade positions with the next engineer behind me and that he didn't want to see any run-around pay claim on his desk. So the engineer behind me agreed to take the weed sprayer and I got called several hours behind him for freight train #74. We passed the weed sprayer at Hardin, MT. There was a guy on top operating a large spray "gun" to hit noxious weed patches the spray arms could not reach. Due to wind he was white from head to boots covered with weed spray chemical. I don't know how he stood that and wonder how long he lived. It wasn't long after then that the RR changed to using Hi-Rail trucks to do the spraying. __._,_.___ Posted by: runextra@gmail.com __,_._,___ |