Downeast Scenic Gets 1952 Maine Central Snowplow

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Tue Dec 05, 2023 11:05 am

https://www.bangordailynews.com/2023/12 ... oam40zk0w/

Quote:

Downeast Scenic Railroad is hoping to move a 42-ton plow car this week from Northern Maine Junction in Hermon to Washington Junction in the town of Hancock, from where the group operates seasonal scenic excursion trains through Ellsworth. The plow car, used for decades to remove snow along rail lines in eastern coastal Maine, is being donated to the nonprofit railroad by CSX, which last year acquired Pan Am Railways.

If Downeast Scenic Railroad did not want the plow car, it likely would be shipped off and demolished for scrap, according to Tom Testa, the nonprofit railroad’s president. He said the plow car is in decent shape, though it needs to be painted and restored. The group, which does not run trains in the winter, plans to use the rail plow only as a display piece at Washington Junction.

More detail at the link.

Joshua K. Blay · **Posted:** Tue Dec 05, 2023 11:15 am

Nice! Thank you, CSX! There's been some nice plow saves over the past few years and I'm sure some losses.

New York Central
2013, (recent donation?) at Hocking Valley IN
2020, to Delaware Ulster, NY.

DL&W
2018 to a historical society in PA
Didn't the D-L pick up one in the past few years?

Makes me wonder if anyone's building new plows, what the railroads have kept on the roster, and what will happen when the northeast/mid-atlantic has a decent snow again.

Joshua

Richard Glueck · **Posted:** Tue Dec 05, 2023 1:30 pm

A very nice save by Downeast Scenic! The move should be fascinating, but this is a wonderful piece for preservation.

There are two stored at Northern Maine Junction, both in fair condition. There are three stored in Waterville yard, pretty much in the same state of repair. Interesting question posed in another response as to how tracks will be cleared when another blocking snowstorm hits New England. Are plow equipped Diesel engines sufficient to really clear the rails?

LVRR2095 · **Posted:** Tue Dec 05, 2023 2:07 pm

Richard Glueck wrote:

A very nice save by Downeast Scenic! The move should be fascinating, but this is a wonderful piece for preservation.

There are two stored at Northern Maine Junction, both in fair condition. There are three stored in Waterville yard, pretty much in the same state of repair. Interesting question posed in another response as to how tracks will be cleared when another blocking snowstorm hits New England. Are plow equipped Diesel engines sufficient to really clear the rails?

I can’t speak to these plows. But when I was running on Conrail’s River Line up along the Hudson river, we used Jordon Spreaders that were pushed by a locomotive. There were MU controls in the cab of the spreader and that is where the engineer sat. And as the spreader had no motor of its own..it was COLD up there!

Keith

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2876

Joshua K. Blay wrote:

Nice! Thank you, CSX! There's been some nice plow saves over the past few years and I'm sure some losses.

New York Central
2013, (recent donation?) at Hocking Valley IN
2020, to Delaware Ulster, NY.

DL&W
2018 to a historical society in PA
Didn't the D-L pick up one in the past few years?

Makes me wonder if anyone's building new plows, what the railroads have kept on the roster, and what will happen when the northeast/mid-atlantic has a decent snow again.

Joshua

I posted this one to Flimsies a few days back, from CSX to D&GV: https://pocahontastimes.com/snow-plow-for-the-rail/

JimBoylan · **Posted:** Tue Dec 05, 2023 8:05 pm

Richard Glueck wrote:

Interesting question posed in another response as to how tracks will be cleared when another blocking snowstorm hits New England.

As the Roving Resumes move between Commuter Train Agencies, Amtrak, and Class I Railroads, I expect that they will all uniformly shut down for bad weather.