This morning I browsed through the W. W. Grainger catalog looking at what might be readily available for outfitting the rotary tank car for fire suppression service. This is what I have found:
For probably around $1000 in parts we could equip the car with a healthy gasoline driven fire pump, sprinklers, sprayers, and perhaps a couple of 100' 1-1/2" attack lines and fire nozzles. That should handle most predictable occurrences.
As had been pointed out, hauling the car in a regular train would reduce the passenger capacity. But I think that would be an acceptable trade-off during times of high fire danger, which might last all this year.
Now, as to operation, the sprinklers and sprayers could be in continual operation in heavily forested or areas with heavy grass growth, like the west side of Cumbres. Here you would have the engine(s) working hard and more likely to throw out sparks.
This doesn't preclude the desirability of having a trailing speeder with a limited amount of water on board. If a small fire did get started that the speeder crew didn't think they could handle, they could radio to the train which could then stop and back up to the point where the attack lines could be used.
What do you think? Is this something we might want to undertake? Depending on the plumbing that is already on the car, I don't think it would be too hard to install, and might be able to be accomplished in a weekend.