railroad row...

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hoppercar
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railroad row...

Post by hoppercar »

with spring garden work right around the corner, was talking with a friend about gardens, and I had forgotten....years ago in are community, many people had gardens, planted near the railroad tracks, it was kind of a gentleman's agreement, that one row of crops was left for the railroad caboose crew to pick, and in turn in the winter time they would throw off lumps of coal along the tracks , that kids would collect in burlap sacks, and drag home for burning in house stoves......what good times!.....does anyone else remember Doing that ?
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FLSTEAM
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Re: railroad row...

Post by FLSTEAM »

Nope, that was before my time...………..

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Andy R
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Re: railroad row...

Post by Andy R »

I can't verify the garden, but the coal story:
During the depression, my late father and his brothers would climb the hoppers on standing Big Four trains and knock off coal; that is until the railroad dicks (police) chased them away. When the railroad dicks left and the train pulled away they collected the coal that allowed dinner to be cooked, the house to be warmed, etc. Occasionally a friendly fireman would pitch a shovelfull of coal at the kids along the track … he knew what they needed. Everybody burned coal. Coal ash everywhere really made white sheets hanging on the line grey. My Grandmother once told me that they had never seen blue sky until they moved from Ohio to Arizona in 1944.
Glenn Brooks
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Re: railroad row...

Post by Glenn Brooks »

I’ve heard the story about planting crops along the ROW, and leaving a row for the train crews. I think I read that was also common in England. Maybe others can comment!
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Bill Shields
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Re: railroad row...

Post by Bill Shields »

you do NOT want a live steam railroad track running between rows of our corn...unless you have MANY rows clear (at least in my corn field).

turning a combine or tractor around takes more than a row...and one 'oops' by the combine driver can destroy 100's of hours of track laying..remember that a combine steers from the back like a fork truck...

as for picking up stuff along the track...Jim Stuart and I used to go to New Jersey and pick up green coke along the tracks outside of the refinery.
we cleared it with the 'security guard' who liked the looks of the Tich we brought along, but was honest in saying 'what is along the tracks is not our responsibility - it belongs to the railroad'.

Jim having a Conrail employee ID card certainly helped....
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
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