Hi, All:

Today, we moved former CNR snowplow #55400 (National Steel Car 1935) from CN's Walkley Yard in Ottawa, Ontario, to the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario in Smiths Falls. Total distance of the road move was roughly 60 miles, due to detours around some very low wires.

Load height was 16'8", width 11'0". The weight of the body is roughly 29 tons.

Some photos are at:

http://public.fotki.com/elliottd/sfrmeo ... cnr-55400/

We will add others as they come in from the many railfans and media types who followed the movement.

The car body moved on a railway bed extendable float owned by GC Hudson of Brockville, Ontario, and the trucks moved on a standard triaxle float owned by Campbell Trucking of Smiths Falls.

A huge 300 ton crane from Regional Crane of Ottawa was used for the lifting, because the planned 110 ton unit from Dulepka Crane broke down the day before the move and will be unavailable for some time. The 300 ton was the only other large crane available in the area today... this bill will hurt.

The move went very smoothly despite the nasty weather. It's good to have her home!

Steve Hunter
RMEO
Smiths Falls, Ontario

thanks for sharing.

Congratulations Steve on the successful move of your snowplow. Thanks for providing the story and photos associated with it. As someone who hopes to be moving a very large piece of railroad equipment by truck in the next year, I have a great deal of respect for what you have done.

Jim Barton

> other large crane available in the area today... this bill will hurt.

Don't ever rule out the role that a heavy duty tow truck can play in moving rail equipment. The modern tow trucks for moving big rigs are a marvel of technology and much cheaper to bring in than a crane. One was recently used to move my Porter. Granted, the locomotive was only 7 tons, but it was lifted like it was nothing at all. So, I would strongly suggest that anyone looking at a move make some calls to the local big rig towing companies. Tow trucks are not what they used to be.

For the Porter we used Battalini Brothers in south Jersey. They did an outstanding job. Highly recommended.

I understand an outfit called Staten Island towing does nice work as well.

J.R.

Yes, I've often felt these rigs would be perfect for moving lighter freight cars, with a highway bogie replacing the rear truck of the freight car and the tow truck attached to the front drawbar. Air hoses could be hung along the freight car to allow working brakes on the bogie.

Our present move was well beyond this possibility, and due to the low nose of the plow we weren't able to ramp- load and unload the car from the railway bed float- another option for moving lighter equipment. Raising CN's track to allow rolling the plow onto the float was definitely not an option , and the resulting load would have been far too tall.

Absolutely, if people are looking at moving rolling stock it's a very good idea to toss ideas out here and those with experience can give some excellent input. That's a great thing about RyPN!

Steve Hunter
RMEO

No. Ohio Rwy. Museum has also discovered the trick of using a tow truck to tow a rapid transit car over the highways, without the requirements for an Ohio Highway Permit.

Here are a couple of videos that one of our members, John Morin posted to YouTube of the move. Part 3, the unloading/ rerailing at RMEO, should be posted either tonight or tomorrow. When it appears, I'll add the link.

Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjYPpMW5eWo

Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRTEh5sBKbs

Steve Hunter
RMEO

Here is the third and final part of John Morin's video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEgyiQy7Nng

And an excellent video report has been posted by Dale Elliott of BrockNews:

http://www.brocknews.ca/index.php?optio ... Itemid=162

Enjoy!

Steve Hunter
RMEO

Steve -

I noticed in one of the videos, that the plow sat on arch bar trucks. Since the plow was not built until 1935, I would have thought that they would have furnished more modern trucks by that time. Are these the original trucks that were under the plow when built?

Les

Hi, Les:

Every CN plow I've ever seen had a short wheelbase archbar front truck with small wheels and wooden blocks instead of springs. Ours has a Simplex bolster, but some older models had solid timber bolsters.

There is very little space under the plow blade for a normal sized cast truck, leading to the small wheels and short wheelbase. The archbar truck is easy to customize, without having to design and build custom cast sideframes.

55400's front truck has cast iron wheel centers with applied tyres. It's such a cool little truck, we would love to have another to allow better display and interpretation!

I'm not yet sure whether this series from 1935 had a cast truck on the rear when built, but we have an older cast truck with plain journals in stock. It is waiting to go under the car to replace the modern Barber rolling bearing truck.

Steve