Is it me or has the Railroads gotn’ realy lazy and not cutting down their weeds this year? I have never seen it so bad this year. Allan.
Yeah I think you might be right every RR. I go by ican barely see the rails the weeds are so bad. Maybe the railroads should put out trains with weed killing stuff and kill all of the weeds because. I think this is a safety concern with all of this dammed weeds around the tracks.
I’ve noticed one particular type of weed that seems to be growing a bumper crop this year, at least around my haunts in Wisconsin. Don’t know whether it’s resistant to spray or the railroads just haven’t sprayed 'em, but they’re all over. Shortlines, old abandoned industrial spurs, mainlines, they’re all over!
Speaking of overgrown tracks, check out this shot I got on Friday of “Miss Katy”… I had someone ask me if there were rails underneath that engine!
Didn’t you know? The railroads are going for the Garden Scale layout theme.[:D]
LOL!
Allan.
Good shot!
Allan.
weed controll costs money…and is a major waste of capital in the long run… why weed spray a stub track or a hardly ever used siding? its pointless… but then agin…some fo you people think that the railroads are only around for your entertainment… its a wonder why so many railroaders cant stand foamers…
csx engineer
I can think of a few reasons, there have been a bunch of fires lately on the west coast set off by locomotives as they roll by. If they weeds had been taken care of, that wouldn’t have been a problem.
Brad
Wow Mark,are there really rails under there ?! It really almost doesn’t
look like there are.
That is a very good picture !!
I was thinking that one of the reasons the railroads haven’t done as
much weed spraying;is that they are afraid of having too many
homeless ‘trolls’ around. (around bridges,etc.) [:-,] [:-,]
You forgot something bubba’s…The weed spray contractors have been SEVERELY restricted by your local enviro extremist buddies that have created an insane permit process that is cumbersome and expensive (and really doesn’t work). The weed control now is limited to crop accelerants (like Roundup in diluted form) that make the weeds grow too fast and burn out for lack of water. you easterners and northern cheesepickers have gotten too much water to make the programs effective on the Class 1’s and the shortlines are in worse shape because of the added regulatory expense and paperwork. Bring back Atratol!
Mudchicken
(Loyal Order of The Black Thumb)
You don’t need chemicals to remove weeds. Look at what CP has. They have some kind of wierd contraption that steam burns the heck out of them with water only.
It’s called Cold Steam (limited use) and also Scarifiers that are banned in the lower 48.
What is a Scarifier ? It sounds fun ![}:)]
It has to do with something you don’t say in a crowded room![:D]
Who farted?[:O]
Well, I do know that the NS line through here has almost no weeds and NS is chopping down a lot of Trees by the tracks around here!! I think that the UP main line at Mount Vernon IL is also very clean with almost no weeds on it. Most of the tracks around here including the CSX line at Princeton are very clean with maybe just a few weeds in a few spots. The only line I can think of with a lot of weeds is the CSX line that comes from Evansville and goes West towards St. Louis, it’s not used hardly any so it’s got a lot of weeds all over it.
http://www.stb.dot.gov/decisions/readingroom.nsf/51d7c65c6f78e79385256541007f0580/23696798fb027720852570620069aa49?OpenDocument Hint: CSX just sold the track and leased the R/W to a shortline today to Paducah and Louisville Subsidiary Evansville Western Ry.[:0]
Our weed control program was a dismal failure this year. We had the spray truck (a hy-rail from the weed-control contractor) go up and down every track in our bowl (pulling out all of the cars so they could do the entire length of the tracks) this spring. Four months later we’re taking tracks out of service because the weeds are too tall to permit safe navigation while coupling the tracks. Just yesterday I had to go down and yank one offending weed (more like a shrub!) because it was obstructing the view of a switch light. Darn thing had a root about an inch in diameter–had to twist instead of pull!
The Railroads are just darn lucky that someone doesn’t file a complaint like in most city’s do. People will complain! Especialy around grade crossings. If someone doesn’t like what they see they “will” complain especialy older woman.
Allan.
Well, we were thinking about tying a chainsaw to the guardrail but noooooooooooooo…