Wanted: M of W equipment Photos

Tom, Karl posted the tie gang on a thread. Do a search for tie gang, it should pop up.
Good photo of a shear there.
If you intend, most of the equipment, was on flat cars, the silver with black lettering. Just light rail, spiked to the flat with chains and come a longs.

 

Absolutly had a lot of hoses, lot of power, those things really cut the ties quick.
They went the way of the wind, hard to do anything with all the tie pieces, railroads tried to grind them up, but really didn't work well (Fire Hazzard). Now and for several years, they use a TKO or Tie Knockout machine, takes them out whole. They are easier to dispose of. Down close to DeRidder, La is a huge machine that shreads the ties and separates the metal end pieces.
They tried to double burn (because of the Creosote) and sell for making electricity. Don't know how that turned out, but about 10 years ago, it was in the testing phase.

 

http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/tie-gang-at-mile-post-c89-6-may-1975.6563/

 

Perhaps not the best picture, but here is an ad for a Fairmont Tie Shear from Railway Track and Structures, July 1974. I have several issues of this publication, which has numerous ads for MOW equipment. Will look through them for other images.

 

Picked up a Tichy tank car at the Melbourne show today and was looking to make a MOW train. Got this off Condrens site, looks a little funny.

 

Tom I really don't know where to start, the Tichy kit looks nice, but the Steel Gangs and Tie gangs had these cars or similar. They used to fill the water tanks on the bunks each day. When we went to Birch Tree, the water froze up for about 5 days, the bunks got kinda grouchy, That was mid December, 1970 my lunch froze every day, did not have the seniority to set mine on the manifold of a machine. The ground froze also, so we went out and finished the spiking by hand, thats where the heater in the spike maul handle works. Incidently, we broke every maul handle on the gang.

 

Well, who gets the acorn. The one I picked up is the large dome. Now I will secretly go to school on ol' Tom.
HA HA, what a crafty guy I am.
Tom, is a good influence, he makes great models, I have been collecting these MOW machines for some time. I would like to do the whole train. Unfortuatly, I'm not very good at it.
When I first went out as roadmaster on the steel gang 1980, ol' DD Cantrell, required the roadmaster to ride the train from the time it was picked up until it was set at the new work site. The worst for me was the move from Clinton, Ok. to St. Louis both Steel Gang's spotted right by the Ringling Brothers Circus. What a mess, we laid both mains between Lindenwood to Union Station. The men got to chasing the circus girls, they left the bearded lady alone. All the rest was fair game. One day all the guys wanted to go play in St. Louis, so I allowed them to tie up, where the machines finished the day. Unfortunately, it cooled off that night and the rail (unspiked) contracted and pulled out from under the machines. Most of them was derailed onto the ground the next morning. Lost two to three hours re-railing everything the next day. Course they took me for hot tripe and cold beer that night. The beer was great, last time I eat any tripe.
We didn't tie up like that again, I can still hear Cantrell hollering.

 

http://www.fandckits.com/HOFreight/8180.html

This might be a close match for the Frisco car. The high walk way and handrail assembly will be quite the project. I have one of these F&C kits in my kit warehouse waiting for assembly.
John Sanders

 

Well the photo say's Fayetteville 12/63. I would venture to say Steel Bridge Gang, but that is a guess. A part water car would not last a big gang very long. Looks like the area is for storage or junk, a good guess would be pallet's in the bottom. May'be a couple of cables, crate's, oil cans, you know, nobody likes to clean up on the railroad.

 

Here's another flavor of water car. This was taken at Lenexa, Kansas during October 1973. The car is in the tie gang's consist, which is spotted on the house track and just across from the depot. Also in the consist (to the left) is the former Kansas City, which is still in her stainless steel fluting.

 

Reefer, ART131584, was in the middle of the tie gang's consist, and I could never determine what its purpose was. Perhaps its label, ICE SERVICE, was how it was being used, but regardless, its box car red livery stood out among the silver MOW cars.

 

Karl, don't know about this particular car, but as you know the Steel Gangs had Ice Cars. When I was assigned Rail Gang 1, we generally moved about a week ahead of gang 2, so their would be about a mile or two between gangs.
We were laying rail between Durrant, Tx and Hugo. It was mid-July and the watermelon harvest was in. The farmers had turned in the cows, as we worked by, the farmer told the guys they could have all the melons they wanted. Well that is all it took, as I walked through the gang, watermelons on every machine. I gave in, and just said "ok" get them. They must have loaded a couple hundred or more. As the machines went to the hole, they loaded the melons in the ice car. The story didn't end there, when Gang 2 showed up about a week later, to make things worse, my guy's told them, a melon truck turned over and they bought all the melons. Several of the gang 2 guys bought several melons for 50 cents each. Guess what happened when Gang 2, worked, passed, the melon field, picked out, it was not pretty.
Next day Cantrell showed up, as I walked with him, behind the gang, got ripped, we passed nothing but watermelon rinds.
What a day, Cantrell, was a professional at ripping.
To paint this a little better, the guy's just broke a whole melon open on the rail and eat the center out of it.
Half melons every where, looked like a melon-fest.

 

Karl, after thinking about it, I am pretty sure, at least while I was on the Steel Gang, we had only one Ice Car and the symbol was ART, although don't know what the ART means. Their may have been more, dont know. The inside was a galvanize looking metal and the walls was at least 6 inches thick. We had like three to four foot sections of ice in them, seems it was only about maybe half full. With baged ice available, it was more work to use the Ice in the car, so seems like, they quit using it some time in the 80's

 

ART is the reporting mark of American Refrigerator Transit. Having this "foreign" road car in the tie gang consist is a puzzle to me.