I have two questions about the pictured unit.

1. Was it superheated? I notice that both steam supply lines come from the smoke box and not from the dome.

2. Did these use a governor on the throttle, like a traction engine, or was it manually controled?

It has a throttle and a Johnson bar like a normal steam locomotive.

If I were to plan a trip to IRM to measure and photograph 075, is there someone who I could contact to gain access to the interior for photos? Thanks.

The steam department curator is who you would go through, he doesn't have an email but you can call the museum and ask for the steam shop.

Be warned, I've been inside of it. It's dark, needs a thorough cleanup, and reeks of dead animals. You may not want to go any further than the wheelhouse without some form of air filter.

The right side engine has a fly/ball type governor attached to it .I would think to prevent overspeeding. If I remember there are some parts of a SA or S feed waterheater left but the cold water pump was missing. Yes it is superheated .

Always thought these were the coolest rotarys built. Sister 076 in Oregon is in great shape.

I have the operating manual for these plows at home. Several interior photos, and everything is labeled.

So is 076 in Hodge park, Hermiston, OR in better condition than 075? Looking at all the photos I can find, it appears so. Does 076 belong to the city of Hermiston or is there a RR museum/group caring for it? In the Google Earth photos, it looks like there are several other pieces of equipment on adjacent tracks.

Nova55, I would love to see those interior shots from your OM.

Somewhere along the line Cass Scenic got a pair of replacement engines for one of the Lima rotaries. I don't know if they ever used them for anything.

I would imagine she is in much better shape, as it was used until the 70's. (76' I think was the last). I think the depot museum owns it.

I will add the manual to my scan pile, but it will be about 2 weeks or so until I am even home to do it. Ill post here when I do.

Perhaps those engines were from the 5th Lima-Hamilton plow that was cancelled? I don't know how far along it was when it was cancelled, but it was assigned a construction number, c/n 9391.


Thank you, I really appreciate it. Thanks to everyone for all the replies and comments.

Both Rotaries at Hermiston look to be in great shape. The museum has a bunch of MOW equipment, including a UP Harriman diner that is in great shape and would be restorable as a regular passenger car. It appears to be a private museum, probably with not-for-profit status. The museum members consist of about 3 guys in their 70s and 80s. This museum has some major survival issues in the near future. Being a desert climate, preservation has it easy in Hermiston, comparatively.

I had always thought that some sort of combination of local museum efforts was warranted in Eastern Oregon and Washington. There is a floundering museum (as far as I can tell) at Pasco, the Hermiston museum, and a great depot museum with caboose at Dayton. There is museum-worthy equipment scattered around the area in Walla Walla, Pasco (the NP 10-wheeler there) Pendleton, Hepner, Lewiston, and Craigmont.

An operable Museum could be established on tracks in the area, including Waitsburg-Dayton, WA (Near the Walla Walla tourist attractions, but not on track owned by Watco), the old Army supply depot in Hermiston, as part of the tourist RR in Elgin, or on the mile or so of track dormant in Union OR.

There may be no need to spread resources too thin, though, as there are already fine groups in the area. Perhaps the existing group with the greatest scope and expansion vision, that could acquire more rolling stock and do something with it, is the group in Spokane area.
http://inlandnwrailmuseum.com/
It would be good if any surviving NP equipment in this region could go up to the group in Toppenish.
http://www.nprymuseum.org/

Thanks, I had not noticed the other plow, looks like UP 900083. I think it is diesel-electric, originally built as steam powered by ALCo in 1910. Converted to catenary electric by Milwaukee Road and finally diesel-electric by UP in 1982, retired in 1988, according to Andrew Toppan's Motive Power Review.

Do you happen to know who the contact person might be for the Hermiston group? Both plows are listed as owned by the City of Hermiston, OR.

I found an e-mail address for the Hermiston Parks and Recreation Department, guess I should start there.

I believe that since they are unpowered (cannot move themselves) they would only fall under local state rules. So no 1472 and Form 4.

This may help you know more about the Maxwell Siding Railroad Museum-
http://www.eastoregonian.com/eo/local-news/20150523/history-on-the-rails
http://www.ble-t.org/pr/news/headline.asp?id=28864
The museum is adjacent to a city park, but the town is kinda tired of the hodge podge look of a railroad museum, and apparently it is just two old guys now ready to unload the project, which is what I heard when I visited them in May or so this year.

Interesting to hear that the one plow had a pantograph on the Milwaukee Road. That would be an interesting photo. If it were self-propelled at all, it would need to be on Frank Hick's list.

A self-propelled rotary would be pretty useless, except for getting to the snow. it would not have enough power to move itself and plow snow at the same time.

The Hermiston plow is exMILW, but does not have a diesel engine; it was cabled to the first pusher unit behind it to operate the wheel. AFAIK, it never plowed a single snowflake for UP.

The 900076 was in service and kept ready to plow into the late 1980s/early 1990s.

The 900075 was allowed to freeze up at Green River, WY sometime in the late '70s. Useable parts were stripped and it was quickly and quietly donated, along with most or all of it's support train, to a museum in the Kansas City area. The support cars were scrapped by that museum. The 900075 and some other UP equipment the KC museum had ended up at IRM.

Later, diesel electric plow 900081, which was assigned to Green River to replace the 900076 when it was moved to Hinkle, OR in the 80s also froze up and had a lot of damage. That was the last rotary plow at Green River; those plows had been assigned there in the first place to keep the Atlantic City branch open for iron ore trains. When the ore mines closed and the branch was torn out, Green River ended up with a double-track wedge plow. At least freezing wouldn't hurt that one.

900081 is in the MoT in St. Louis. It was built by Omaha Shop on an exC&O 2-8-8-2 tender frame, and had the same engine and electricals as a GP35.