Snow Operations

Yeah, like Aji stated, Jordan Spreaders are uni-directional, for the most part. With wings that open only one way, and most railroads have rules, regarding towing them in a train. Most roads forbid towwing one backwards, as they have in the past, broken off the locking chains, that hold the blades against the body, then as a wing eased out, it removes everything along the right of way, until it ultimately derails. I operated the one on the NYS&W, on Sparta Mountain, as well as one on the Soo Line, in snow service. I also got "trapped" on a forced assignment, to a work train on Conrail, that was spreading ballast, after dropping it, the day before. Very dusty, and very boring.We had a control stand inside the Soo plow, that allowed the engineer to enjoy the derailments, along with the plow operators. That front center "V" shaped plow is moveable, on some plows, and tearing out crossings, and switches, is/was a very real danger, while operating in deep snow. Paul, from this board operated the Suzy Spreader as well, and might remember if the center plow was used, in ballast operations, below the top of the rail head. It was locked from going that low, in snow plow service, although the side wings, did go almost down to the ties. (the perfect way to remove rotted ties, with the ends sticking up......) Some roads have a "dedicated" Jordan Snow Plow (like the LVRR had) with a giant "V" shaped plow on the nose, and moveable side wings. They too are notorious for derailing, from overpacked snow on the ROW, and from being too light, while trying to remove heavy drifts, and impacted flangeways, on crossings. regards...

The SP Flangers are one way only. Most of them were built in 1938, rebuilt in the 50s twice, 70s with a steel cab and just recently were all upgraded. There is 2 plows under it, one throws left, one right. The actual blade on them is only about 2 inches tall, and removes the snow inbetween the railheads and along the flangeway so as to not cause freezeups or knock air hoses off. The blade is bolted to the moldboard with shear bolts so if it were to hit a crossing just the blade would knock off and not derail. The spreaders on the other hand are indeed solid mounted and as G-A said they can easily tear out a crossing. . .

For more info on Snow Service stuff see:
http://www.trainweb.org/rrsnowfighting/ I havent updated it in AWILE but it still has the info there..

And for Jordan Spreader ifno see:
http://www.trainweb.org/JordanSpreader/

Milwaukee Road had some real neat flangers made out of old tenders. They had a cab for the operators and a bay window like a caboose. The opposite end held the works and they were amazing. The flanger blades were hung from vertical uprights, with an air cylinder to lift them up. They were normally locked in an "up" position. When unlocked, and the air was released, the cylinder would retract and allow the blade to drop into operation. There were long metal levers with metal counterweights at the end, also inside the flanger. The flanger blades themselves were tapered, with the point of the "V" higher, above rail height. In theory, when the blade hit an obstruction, the taper and counterweights allowed it to ride up and over the blockage and right back down to plowing position. OMID has one, and I did try out that feature on farm crossings and it worked slick as could be, but I never tried to go over a switch that way for fear of what would happen if it somehow got snagged. I know there were several left when MILW shut down the west end, but as far as I know that is the only survivor. Too bad because they were a good flanger and easy to use.

Theres quite a few ex MILW flangers left. 2 preserved, the one you mentioned and CP still has some..

Glad to hear some others survived - where are the preserved ones?

Of course at that time they also had a rotary, complete with a B unit to provide power. Now that would have been something to preserve!

...2 of the MILW Rotarys survive. 1 Is up in Alaska ( ARR bought it but never used it ) and UP bought on, was powered by catenary at the time, rebuilt it to diesel electric, and retired it 2 years later! I will get the location of the flangers tonite..

Paul

What are the "Circles" on the 4089 windshield?


http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=111900

Believe they are rotary windshield wipers.

Yes, they are.
They were applied to all SP Snow sercive equipment ( Spreaders, Rotarys and Snow Service engines ). The spin at a high RPM and keep snow from building up on the windshield.

I have been surfing for rotary windshield wipers and have found very little information about them. How does it work? I would not need to ask the question if I could find a good mechanical print.....

The Japanese invented these for use on ships. They have a small motor in the center that spins the glass. Ill see if I can find anything on them when I have some time.

For anyone interested, BNSF is running a Rotary train tonite out of Denver..

ExEMDLOCOTester wrote:I have been surfing for rotary windshield wipers and have found very little information about them. How does it work? I would not need to ask the question if I could find a good mechanical print.....

Very belated, but the terms "Kent Clear View" are helpful. They spin rapidly so the water is flung off. You can see one here.

I wandered over here after the Beltway region's record-breaking winter.

I saw an Idaho Norland on a major road here; I've never seen one off an airport before. That spurred my curiosity re: rail ops in heavy snow & the special equipment for same.

Looking at RailPictures, it appears that while there are some self-contained snowblower units, many are pushed/attached to an existing prime mover.

I'm curious about powering the blowers. Perhaps reflecting the historical focus of the photographers, there seem to be multiple mentions of steam driven units. [Do these burn kerosene?] I assume some have their own Diesels, but I wondered about electric units. Given that the shanghaied prime mover is expending some fraction of its output; I think a blower could be powered via the "slug" power connections. Does anyone do that?

Most rotary snowplows (and that's the lingo) in the Diesel era require at least one auxiliary locomotive: It's the locomotive.

The Diesel about the plow generates power for the plow.

HTH.