All in a Day's Work

Portraying the various types of work and special challenges that occur along the rails of the Alaska Railroad

AIADW

Spraying weeds 1977: Up until the mid-80's, the ARR sprayed herbicides to control weeds along the track and roadbed. This photo shows Herb Rice taking the buckets out from under the nozzles after passing over a stream. The buckets were used to ensure that no weed killer dripped into waterways. As far as good job assignments go, being assigned to the "weed spraying truck" was a pretty good one. After all, where else could a track guy see the entire railroad on nice days (could not spray in rain/wind), at about 10' above the rail while traveling at about 10mph?