More Snowblower Action

Keith Lane

Keith Lane

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Feb 25, 2005
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Conyers, Georgia
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Keith Lane
From the railroad. I was up at the locomotive shops in Lincoln, NE yesterday and got a chance to look over this plow and pusher set. I'd hate to be in the way of this thing if it was coming my way.
 

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That is one BIG snow blower. I love trains. Used to love to ride the Chicago and Northwestern commuter every Saturday from Cary, IL into the city with my dad. This is back in the late 50's early 60's. Every summer we used to go out to Poughkeepsie, NY on the train and one year we went out to LA on the Santa Fe Super Chief.

A couple of years ago my wife and I fly up to Chicago and took the Southwest Chief out to LA as a nostalgia trip for me and truly enjoyed it. I hope to take the ride from Toronto to Vancouver some day.
 
If you're still in Lincoln and want to meet up for dinner sometime, let me know.
 
jesse said:
If you're still in Lincoln and want to meet up for dinner sometime, let me know.
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I would have looked you up this trip, but I was told Tuesday at 10AM to go to Alliance, NE to catch up to a locomotive that had been involved in a fatality automobile collision in Arkansas last week to test the sound pressure level of the horns. If you know where Alliance is, it's waaay out in western Nebraska on the back side of beyond. I made arrangements to fly to DEN and drive up because the loco was only going to be in Alliance 2 hours on Wednesday morning. I tore outta here and went home to pack. As I was heading out to ATL to fly, the railroad called and re-directed me to Lincoln, as I could have the engine for as long as I needed it down there. I had to change my plans to fly to Kansas City, and drive to Lincoln (arriving at 0130 local). I was at the railroad shop at 8AM and done by 10AM, driving back to Kansas City by to fly home. We have a lab/branch office in Omaha, and I'll probably be going there before too long. I'll be sure to make some plans to get together.
Thanks for the offer.
 
Thanks for posting. A little education for me as I have never seen anything like that.
 
I think I saw a video or two of the rotary plows in action before. How fast would you typically move with that kind of setup, say with snow half as tall as the plow?
 
Keith Lane said:
From the railroad. I was up at the locomotive shops in Lincoln, NE yesterday and got a chance to look over this plow and pusher set. I'd hate to be in the way of this thing if it was coming my way.
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That must be pretty loud, I'll bet you could hear it in plenty of time to get out of the way, but if you were dumb enough to move to the discharge side you'd probably get buried quickly. Which brings up a question: Are you allowed to run that thing anywhere but open fields? I'd think anyone with property abutting the tracks would be mighty displeased to find their garage/parking lot/ doghouse buried under a pile of snow from the train's snowblower.
 
gkainz said:
I think I saw a video or two of the rotary plows in action before. How fast would you typically move with that kind of setup, say with snow half as tall as the plow?
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The smarter people (old railroaders from out mid-west) here at work say typically 2-3 mph for the deep stuff is normal. but usually with much forward and reversing to get it all cleared from the cave ins.

gismo said:
That must be pretty loud, I'll bet you could hear it in plenty of time to get out of the way, but if you were dumb enough to move to the discharge side you'd probably get buried quickly. Which brings up a question: Are you allowed to run that thing anywhere but open fields? I'd think anyone with property abutting the tracks would be mighty displeased to find their garage/parking lot/ doghouse buried under a pile of snow from the train's snowblower.
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I was thinking if I was up to my butt in snow and was really stuck. But you can bet I'd find a way to move 5 feet one direction or the other to avoid the short, red ride out that chute.
The discharge can be directed to either side of the track, so I'd hope you could avoid, in most cases any unfortunate instances such as you foresee. But truthfully, I don't have an answer about blowing snow onto other people's property. The railroad's right of way is usually pretty wide.
I had a friend who spent his "formative" years as an Air Force brat in Rapid City, S.D., living on Ellsworth. Sometimes, kids built tunnels in the snow, and the rotary plows had killed a kid when the tunnel had crossed a street. His neighbor kid put plastic milk jugs of red tinted water or paint in the snow before the guy cleared his street, and nearly sent the operator to the psycho ward when all the discharge snow suddenly turned red. Apparently the kid's Dad, a captain was really called on the carpet for that stunt. The USAF had NO sense of humor about it. Nor would I have, I guess.
 
Wow! That is some snow blower. It'll even outperform my neighbor's contraption.

HR
(Well, he must be somebody's neighbor)
 

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Lawreston said:
Wow! That is some snow blower. It'll even outperform my neighbor's contraption.

HR
(Well, he must be somebody's neighbor)
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I know him! He is a trumpet player from Siberia!

Here is a picture of him in concert!

129077769489455959.jpg
 
gkainz said:
I think I saw a video or two of the rotary plows in action before. How fast would you typically move with that kind of setup, say with snow half as tall as the plow?
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There's a smaller one on pikes peak that digs a trench deeper than it is high. There's probably a lot of back and forward activity going on to do so.

Go to the railroad museum in Golden sometime and stand right in front of the rotary blower they have. It's creepy enough standing there when you know it's not going to eat you.
 

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I bet that consumes a horsepower or two. Cool.
 
NC Pilot said:
I bet that consumes a horsepower or two. Cool.
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There is a whole slew of 'plowing' videos on youtube. Pretty impressive if they stick 4 engines behind one of those V-plows.
 
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