The work train at Woody Creek, employing a ditcher with fill cars on either side.

The D. & R.G. ditcher crew on a work train at Woody Creek, 1917. "Another common type of work train was intended to dig and maintain trackside drainage ditches. The earliest ditching trains used a car with a swinging framework, adjusted by hand, which positioned a toothed, open-ended bucket alongside the track to excavate the ditch as the car was pushed along. This method had many obvious faults. One solution was the steam ditcher, a small steam...