• need crew duties for rotary snowplow

  • Discussion of steam locomotives from all manufacturers and railroads
Discussion of steam locomotives from all manufacturers and railroads

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  by hilowstunts
 
Hello Steam Forum,

I am involved with researching a historical story that revolves around the crew of a rotary snowplow. I have three computerized diagrams of an American Locomotive Co. plow cab interior (circa 1905) -- they should be attached below.

It appears the conductor and brakeman were up front in this cab, it would seem the engineer would be there as well.

What I am trying to determine are the specific crew duties undertaken with respect to each crewmember and to the controls displayed. Any help or clarification in this regard would be highly appreciated.

With much thanks,

Michael/Seattle
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  by Steffen
 
Sorry, I can't follow this because I don't know the american rotaries...
For us in Germany we used Henschel rotary snow plows.
Those had seldom trucks with a steam engine for travel on it's own power. Usually a huge freight locomotive pushed the rotaries into the snow. The rotary had a small boiler, and in the back cab a fireman maintained the boiler pressure well for the work.
In the front cab the steam engine was mounted.. it was a two cylinder high rpm engine, constructed like a steam motor. Also triple expansion of double expansion multiple cylinder engines could be ordered.
In the front cab the engineer controlled the rotation of the snow plow and the rotary side wings... and with signals with the whistle he signalized the pushing engine to go harder, pull back or stop, to go slower or faster... for emergency purposes there was a emergency brake valve attached.
Other rotaries had one truck with a drive gear, a little steam engine was able to move the rotary for shunting actions, here the engineer in the front cab was able to control even this engines with an extra control panel of gear lever, throttle lever and a small brake manual brake spindle. In the back cap still the fireman maintained only boiler water level and pressure.
Usually there was a light signal system betwen fireman and engineer, simply for giving him some point about how the rotary travels and what the further steam demand will be...