Any RR ever mount a mower on a rr car to mow the grass along the tracks?
You’ve never seen a railroad brush cutter mounted on a ballast regulator have you? (Kershaw and Klutts cutters come to mind)
If it grows near the tracks, it needs to die - not get a manicure every few weeks.
I understand that CP not only have brushcutters like MC mentioned, but also a scaffold looking thing with cutters so limbs above the track can be cut back so doublestacks can pass. I will see if I can locate a picture.
Unfortunately but true, the closest I ever got to look over a wreck was at Carmangay, AB in the early 70’s, caused by a mower gang leaving a switch to a siding open when they quit working for the day. There were fatalities if I remember correctly.
AgentKid
Tie cranes have been fitted with “Bush Hog” / rotary brush cutter type attachments at the end of their articulating arms, esp. to reach up to the higher limbs of trees and on steeper slopes and rock walls, etc. Effective, but they leave a trail of splintered branches behind.
Probably mower decks could be attached too, but I don’t recall having seen that actually done.
- Paul North.
Never heard it said quite that way–but he’s so right!
Last week I reported on another thread that the weeds around my plant (there’s irony for you!) had been sprayed. It took a while, but they’re looking mighty unhealthy now. So I guess it’s working, after all.
We have a hi-rail Gradall with a brushcutter attachment. Unfortunately, as noted, it tends to shred rather than cut, which leaves a pretty ragged looking result. Except where it’s possible we’d affect a well, our ROW gets sprayed, even in the Adirondacks.
Funny - and generally true - but with the exception of where loose soils such as clay, sand, and the like need to have a ground cover and some roots to tie it together to prevent erosion, washing, slumping, etc.
Typical places are the sides of high cuts to keep it from washing into the ditch or onto the tracks, the sides of high fills to keep them from eroding, and the inverts (bottoms) of ditches that carry more than minimal “sheet runoff” flows at low velocities. The latter is a balancing act between keeping the bottom and sides of the ditch from eroding and clogging the ditch - and keeping the ditch from getting clogged up by the vegetation. Anymore, rip-rap (large rocks) and/ or large pipes are a better solution for the larger flows and faster velocities.
It’s more a matter of working with the local geology and soils at the locations where these kinds of situations occur. In a rocky terrain with not a lot of moisture such as out West - go ahead and cut it all. Here in the east that can also be done in the prevalent rock cuts and ditches - but there are places (esp. in the coastal alluvial soils along the NE Corridor) where even small embankments love to wash down into the ditches. There, a good turf or brush cover such as crown vetch can be everybody’s friend. But it should be something that self-limits its growth so that it doesn’t need to “get a manicure every few weeks”, and otherwise survives and thrives without much attention, because with contemporary track time and M-O-W budgetary constraints, that just ain’t gonna happen anymore.
- Paul North.
When I worked for the Minnesota Valley we cut weeds with a machine that had two sickle bar mowers mounted to it, one on each side of the tracks. It was self propelled and ran on flanged wheels. I believe it was a factory built job, but don’t recall what company made it. When I worked for the DM&E there was a similar machine parked on an unused siding in Plainview MN at the end of a branch line. it didn’t look like it had been used for many years and I don’t believe the DM&E ever used it. They were not very efficient machines.
An account of a long-defunct logging railroad near me included the story of a mower they used (pre-chemical weed killer) to keep the weeds down along the ROW. IIRC, it was a “flail” mower, but was reportedly better at raising dust than cutting the weeds.
F’r instance - On-Track Brush Cutter - OTBC-120C at:
http://www.rcequip.com/gpage3.html
Note the 2 attachment heads that are available at the bottom of the page - 1 is a twin-blade mower, the other is a rotary drum grinder. Would make short - and fun ! - work of the “back 40”, eh ?
- Paul North.
And a few more:
“The picture on the right is a Kershaw on track brush cutter being loaded on a truck trailer.” - http://gbrower.com/images/WC2072.jpg
from http://gbrower.com/equipment.htm
and a Nordco (formerly Nordberg) BC-60 “Trailblazer” on-track Brush Cutter:
http://www.nordco.com/New-Machines/Right-of-way-Clearing/BC60-Trailblazer.aspx
- PDN.
Due to concerns over the ever-threatened salmon fishery and its requisite streams on Vanc. Island, when the E&NR wanted to use a herbicide to clean up their perpetually decrepit ROW, there was a great deal of opposition to it in the press. Eventually, they opted to use steam. I have no idea how it was applied, but it worked…that summer.
-Crandell
Not a lawn mower but how about a snowblower on one end and a plow/flanger on the other end
Northern Pacific had a machine that shot fire out of the sides.
Now that is a beast.
Coborn - that whole flame thing works good until you set the woods on fire…
Nice, efficient use of motive power. And–you are out using one end and discover that you need to use the other end? [:)] Is this what is used in Nova Scotia?
Johnny
I’ve never seen it but I have thought about modelling it. Bob Boudreau took the picture. Maybe he will chime in and say where he saw it. Around here the themselves trains do a good enough job. In a few places they call out a plow or Jordan Spreader.
This is a large Kershaw off road/hi-rail brush cutter that NS has.
This was taken in New Albany, In. a couple of years ago.
The ubiquitus and universal MOW machine: the Jordan Spreader! No, didn’t cut brush, but removed everything in its path with wings spreading up to 20 or more feet to either side. Was there a railroad that didn’t have one?
Being the E&N I would assume they would have used the CPR type technology.
They got hold of a CN steam generator car and hooked it up to several large tank cars full of water behind it, and a flat car in front of the S/G car with pumps, hoses, and nozzles, and places for men to stand. They push the whole thing flat car first, and the men spray scalding hot water at the offending plants.
It was used on the main line up in the mountains and reports were it worked good. I think the problem was it was just too jury rigged, and it wasn’t reliable. I don’t think it was ever faulted environmentally or for effectiveness.
I’ve seen pictures of it, but like I mentioned in my post earlier about the other cutter, the pictures I’ve seem may have been in my Mother’s CPR staff magazine. There was a terrible brouhaha on another forum I used to read when someone quoted only a few words from that magazine, so even if I found the pictures again I would not scan and post them here.
As to the mention of scythe type side mowers, that is old school technology. The one seen on the DM&E that looked like it hadn’t been used in decades might have needed a steam power supply[:D]
AgentKid