CB&Q Weed Sprayer

Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad weed control train with NALX 115 on the front and CB&Q GP7 242 on the rear, at Naperville, Illinois on July 8, 1963, photograph by Chuck Zeiler. I'm guessing that the gentlemen pictured in the side door of NALX 115 extended and retracted the spray arms as needed. I'm also guessing that these gentlemen are no longer with us after breathing those chemicals all day. Note that the dome covers are open on the tank cars, likely to prevent negative pressure as the chemicals were used up. And the gentleman on the ground at Loomis Street was a crew man on the East End Way Freight, which was switching in Naperville as the weed train passed. The following is a first person narrative by Pete Hedgpeth:

 

Here's my WEED SPRAY EXPERIENCE.

 

SUMMER - 1958, I was a Brakeman on Wymore Division of the CB&Q, working the Lincoln Extra Board. I had made my first round trip, Lincoln to St. Joseph on June 3rd, returning and tieing up at 6:15am June 4th. This was the trip where I received my "Excellence in Flagging" Degree ( Summa Cum Laude ).

 

Tuesday June 5th - the phone rang about 5:30am. I was called for the Weed Spray Train at 7:00am. I don't recall whether the caller told me that it was the Weed Spray or just an "Extra East". Anyhow, I got to the roundhouse to get the engine, which was always the job of the Head Brakeman. As the "junior man" I was always the Head Brakeman. I read the bulletins, compared and registered my watch and "signed the book".

 

About that time the Conductor, whom I had not met before, came in the register room. I introduced myself to him thinking "Why is he here??” Usually you didn't see the Conductor until you had put the engine on the train and he brought the orders and/or messages up to the head end.

 

The Conductor and I walked outside and he pointed over to one of the departure tracks where I saw ( what I now know was ) the weed spray train. The train was made up with the spray car on the east ( front ) end, followed by several tank cars and the engine ( a GP7 ) on the rear, with a waycar behind it. As we walked over to the train the "Con" pointed to the Spray Car and said, "Your job is OVER THERE", and he handed me a copy of the orders and walked off toward the rear end of the train. That was the full extent of his instructions to me.

 

I walked over to the right side of the front of the spray car and climbed in. There I found three men. One was the Roadmaster, one was the operator ( an employee of the chemical company that had been employed by the Q to do the spraying ) and another "helper" from the chemical company. I looked around and said to the Roadmaster, "How do we control this thing?" He looked at me, WHACKED me on the arm and said, "With that!" ( meaning my arm ). NO RADIO, NO COMPUTER, just me and the OLD HAND SIGNALS. “OK” said I. This was going to be fun. And it was!

 

I don't remember how we found out when it was time to go, I guess the Roadmaster and the operator told me that they were ready. I think that there was a "pot" signal as a leaving signal and it was green, hence, it was time to go. I got into position on the right hand side of the car at the door, stuck my arm out and waved a come ahead signal. The hoghead "whistled off", got an OK from the "rear end" and away we went.

 

As we traveled along the Roadmaster would tell me when he wanted to slow down or speed up. Mostly he yelled at me that we were going too fast. He would turn the spray on and off as he observed the vegetation growth along the way. He was limited in the amount of chemical he could use and sometimes he would think we were going too slow and sometimes too fast, mostly too fast. The day consisted of a repetition of slow downs and speed ups, I don't think we ever had to stop and back up.

 

During our conversations the matter of why all the cars between the spray car and the engine came up. Well, many years ago, the "Chemical" used to spray was Poison. I knew that from my youthful experience on the RPL&N ( Rock Port Langdon & Northern ) where we sprayed our ROW with a pressurized tank mounted on a flat car. I also remembered that in those days, before the railroad would spray, signs reading "Poison Weed Killer Keep Cattle Away” would be posted along the right of way. Because of the poisonous nature of the chemical, there was an agreement between the railroads and the Engineer's Union that there would be 8 cars between the spray car and the engine. Of course, like most other things on the railroad, changing conditions didn't always, or ever, change the agreements, so even then, long after "Poison" was not the issue, the spacing continued.

 

Somewhere along the line we stopped to eat, but I don't know where it was. I don't think that we sprayed any sidings, elevator, or house tracks. It was a long day when we finally arrived at Falls City at 8:00pm, put our train on a house track and tied up at 8:05 pm, 14:05 hours on duty, 214 Miles, $37:21 was my pay.

 

The next morning at Falls City, we went on duty at 7:00am. Of course we had to switch our train all around to put it in the same order to go back west to Table Rock, thence over the line from Table Rock to Wymore. I didn't note the time we left since we were on "continuous time".

 

On the way back west to Table Rock and Wymore there was on and off discussion as to whether we were going to spray the yard at Wymore. It seemed to be "iffy" at best as to whether the spray job belonged to the Wymore switch engine or whether we were to do it. It was the general consensus that we really didn't want to do the yard, since if we did we would miss our opportunity to deadhead back to Lincoln on No. 90 due out of Wymore about 2:30pm. If that was the case we would have to wait and ride No. 94, ( Wymore local with all night work at Crete ) or wait until the next day.

 

As it turned out we arrived at Wymore at 2:15pm and were told that we weren't going to spray the yard. We tied up at Wymore at 2:15pm for 7:05 hours on duty which equals 100 miles. My pay $17.39.

 

We boarded No. 90, it was the Pioneer Zephyr at that time, at 2:30pm, and deadheaded to Lincoln, arriving at 4:30pm, 2 hours on duty, 32 miles, deadhead pay for me was $5.25. As I recall it was a very hot day and "riding the cushions" on the PZ was a very refreshing and a comfortable respite from standing on the front of that spray car.

 

Well, that's my Weed Spray Train story. I had several memorable and enjoyable experience in that last summer as a trainman, but I think that my "Weed Spray Experience" would top the list. I had a wonderful sense of being in control of the operation while we were moving.

 

Pete

Done