"Those cars are what were called outfit cars. They were older passenger cars converted to living quarters for work gangs that had to work in various locations. In this case, outfit cars for the construction crew." -- Jimmy Blouch 2012

D. & R. G. ditcher at Woody Creek.

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...