I vote that Petes dissertation become an article with appropriate photos
in a BRHS publication.
Of course I have my own story of what happens when the weed sprayer isn't
operated on some tracks. It had to be '76 or so . Both myself and my partner
had received our letter to make ourselves available for the Condrs. Exam. We
drew a work train down the mainline (between Aurora and Galesburg). Our
Condr.,Lew Peshia told us he'd handle any switching or ground work and the two
of us were to stay in the waycar and study the consolidate code and book of
rules for the test. Needless to say we weren't going to let Lewis do the
ground pounding.
Anyway, we had to tuck cars into the house and back track track at
Leland. The tracks had not been sprayed or mowed in many years. I was
astounded that knee high grass,weeds, would literally become glue like
as you shoved cars into them with handbrakes set. The cars no sooner entered
the grasslands than the wheels started sliding along rather than turning. One
would think that moisture would cause the wheels to spin freely but the exact
opposite happened. They locked up and slid.
Leo Phillipp