Has anyone seen animals and plants hitching rides on or in freight cars?
Doors and hatches can be left open for a small creature or seeds to enter. Do they often get inside freight cars?
How often have old wood decks become covered with small plants?
Do birds make nests in covered hoppers?
Do birds land on sitting covered hoppers to eat the spilled grain?
Andrew
Andrew,
You’ll occasionally see a seedling that sprouted along the edge of the roof of a boxcar. I haven’t (yet) seen an animal hitching a ride, though anything is possible. I have seen the sad results of a dog that TRIED to hitch a ride.[xx(]
It depends on the time of the year and location.
I remember a picture of an older flat car that needed a lawn mower, but that is the extreme case. For that to happen, the car has to sit for a while, as loading/unloading can wipe things clean. It happens, but not to every car by a long shot. (It’s real easy if the last load was pallets of bagged seed.)
They can, but if the car is moving, it’s REALLY DIFFICULT. Most birds abandon the nest and look elsewhere.
Just try to stop them.[:P]
Yes to all of your questions that have yes-or-no answers, Andrew. And you could probably find plants inside the two Southern gondolas from that other thread–it doesn’t take too long, sometimes.
In the good news department, one of the commodities being carried on the UP-CSX perishable trains is nursery cuttings–a perfectly legal method of plant transport.
Well, I once met a hobo out in W. Palm Springs that had a dog with him. Does that count? [8D]
I’ve never seen birds actually “in” a boxcar, but in my younger days, my uncle and I would go out southwest of Hoisington and shoot doves who were feeding on the grain that had been spilled from the gondolas. Does that count?
Also, seems like every hobo I see has a dog with him.
Insects are animals too.
One would hope that freight car maintenance is frequent enough that insects will not hang around long enough to multiply. I know that some hoppers and refrigerators are fumigated for fungus and mold, so that would most likely kill the insects inside. Boxcars and tank cars might be a place for arthrodic creatures to dwell. I have seen swarms of earwigs running around the Corn Syrup transfer station for Kellogg’s in Battle Creek. Earwigs are so small they might be able to get onto the tank cars, but will they be able to get into them?
Andrew