A newly restored 1913 steam rotary snowplough ("Dampfschneeschleuder") in Switzerland was recently tested and demonstrated on one of the Swiss heritage railways:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PXcM8ZL7Ks

Top-notch video work here.

More on the plough project (get your favorite translation service going):

www.dampfschleuder.ch

In the course of translation I see the claim that this is one of only three functional steam rotaries left, the other two being C&TS's ex-D&RGW "OY" and the White Pass & Yukon's example.

I notice the single tank engine had adhesion problems pushing the plow.

The Swiss Rhaetische Bahn still has a steam rotary, Xrot 9213, but their site says "The steam snow blower trips will not take place in winter 2021 due to extensive revision work." The RhB 9213 is self-propelled as an 0-6-6-0 with the cylinders facing each other, but is usually pushed by a Krokodil electric motor.

The DFB (Dampfbahn Furka-Bergstrecke) or Furka Steam Railway is a meter gauge partial rack railway museum line using a part of the former Furka Oberalp Bahn line that was replaced by the Furka Base Tunnel. The old line had to be shut down each Winter so bridges could be removed before snow slides took them out. With the Furka Base Tunnel, the new line can be operated year round. This is the route of the Glacier Express. The FOB is now part of the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn.

https://www.dfb.ch/index.php?id=986&L=3

Phil Mulligan

This rotary plow is included the British book Meyer Articulated Locomotives: The Definitive History by Donald Binns and Günter Koch, published in 1997 by Trackside Publication.

The powered trucks are of the Meyer concept and so the authors include it in their book and describe it as a 0-6+6-0 arrangement. (Although maybe it could be called a 0-6-0+0-6-0.) Meyer articulated locomotives often had cylinders facing each other. Some large Meyers were built with outward facing cylinders and some had them facing in the same direction.

Interestingly the four propulsion cylinders are right under the two cylinders spinning the rotary.

Phil Mulligan