locked Re: Southern weed spraying trains in 1960s
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George Eichelberger
The January 23, 1969 Mow renumbering plan shows the following old and new road numbers for the “weed killer flat cars” in service at that time.
From photos, we can see that Sou 991497 was paired with Sou 991498, …497 being the lead car doing the spraying (an engine pushed the outfit) and …498 having a pump to bring the spray mix out of specially equipped tank cars and pass it to 991497. That appears to agree with the renumbering showing 991497 renumbered from OSM-4 (a modified car) and 991498 renumbered from 117534, a standard flat car. There is no documentation of what “OSM” refers to but it may be “oil spraying machine”. In the 50s and 60s, the Southern sprayed oil on bridges thinking it retarded rust. Other than maybe accumulating dirt that attracted more water, the railroad stopped using it. Shown only as “T-413” on captions from the SRHA Ben Roberts collection, the two attached photos are of a 1920s era weed burner. (The “T” prefix does not tell us much, that refers to a “tool” car that can be about anything.) Ike PS The January SRHA archives work session is this coming weekend. If the weather permits, Norfolk Southern office car OC-8 (Sou 5) will be set on its trucks from its highway mover (along Holtzsclaw Ave beside NS) and moved to the East Chattanooga shop on Wednesday. (It MAY be enroute on the Interstates from Madison, Ill via Nashville now.)  
On Jan 9, 2020, at 3:44 PM, Alexander Smart <agfsmart@...> wrote: Begin forwarded message:
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