Before building something, I wish to present it, for criticism. I need to be able to keep the ROW that we have cleared, open. There are places it grows like a jungle, quickly. Ideally, it would be best to do maintenance, etc on the ROW, but we are not there yet. I need a good solution, cheap, simple, light, and quick. I need to do this, to keep manpower on moving forward, or other projects. The basic idea of what I'm thinking is mounting a bar on a rail vehicle. Off this bar, mount chains, to drag on the ROW. This would remove what is there, and discourage weeds. I want it light enough, it can be removed at each end, and on the the other side. I don't want it to tear up any remaining good ties, or crossings. One person thought chain link fence. I think that might get caught up on something. Having individual chains, might avoid this. My other thoughts is a salt and vinegar solution applied to the ROW. We would need a tank car to apply it, which we don't have. Also, all locomotives, even #3 have made it to the roundhouse.
What sorts of weeds are you dealing with? I am asking because I am not so sure chains will do it, and may just snag on items that you try to pass. I would also be concerned about your bar hitting things that you didn't intend to hit.
The bar would be mounted high on the vehicle. The weeds, are grass, pompous grass, blackberry, lupin, williow trees, and whatever else that wants to push up.
You might ask this also in one of the more general prototype forums. What works on some of those larger railroads may be adaptable to yours.
The weeds and grass (including the pompous grass and probably the lupin) could be taken care via the "chain method" that you're describing (once you've worked the bugs out of the system)...Some short line railroads use a ballast regulator for the same sort of purpose (weed/vegetation control). As far as the blackberry bushes and willow trees, you have a couple of options...Manual removal and spraying and/or some combination of both methods based on the amount of overgrowth. The manual method can be used to get things into shape (i.e., cut things back far enough that only minor maintenance a couple of times a year is needed to maintain it) and is the only method for dealing with trees of any size. Removing the overgrowth by hand is a time consuming process (not to mention hot, dirty, and sometimes hazardous...Think posion oak) but if you've got the people, this can be the quickest way to get things cleared up especially if you're only dealing with short sections (less than a mile or two). Be prepared to do this work over several days/months... The spray method is usually what the bigger (Class 1s as well as others) railroads use and usually consists of spraying a variety of things (sometimes based on the season such as using "pre-emergent" in the spring, etc.). As far as spraying goes, there are a variety of options from the "do it yourself" appraoch to hiring a company to do it for you (which is what a lot of the Class 1s have been doing). If you plan to "do it yourself" in the state of California (for something on this scale), you'll need to become "licensed" by the state before you can buy and use the "commercial herbicides/chemicals".
