I have always wondered this: how do railroads that don't have snowplows clear their lines of deep snow? Especially if the amount of snow piles up a considerable height above the railhead?

> I have always wondered this: how do
> railroads that don't have snowplows clear
> their lines of deep snow? Especially if the
> amount of snow piles up a considerable
> height above the railhead?

Pilot plows and frequent operation over a given line usually do the trick. When it gets really heavy and deep, either the wedge plows and flanger cars come out, or the railroad simply shuts down for while (branchlines of big roads do that sometimes-- in 1993, B&M stopped running Waterbury-Torrington, CT for EIGHT weeks due to heavy snow in cuts, ice, etc. Customer's stuff went in trucks for that 20 mile trip).

hpincus@mindspring.com

> I have always wondered this: how do
> railroads that don't have snowplows clear
> their lines of deep snow?

For the most part, we just push through it, but a lot depends on the type of snow - light and fluffy, or heavy and wet. Somewhere I have a picture of one of our end-cab switchers pushing through a snow drift almost as high as the headlight. The bigger problem are freeze-thaw cycles, which make the snow very dense and cause ice build up in crossings and areas with poor drainage. I recall one year taking the better part of four days to go five miles, fighting snow, ice, derailments, frozen switches, and an engine that quit loading. One winter the heavy wet stuff became too much so we rented a dozer and told the track supervisor to have at it.

We did buy some pilot plows, but everyone thought they were too much trouble to work around and too much trouble to install and remove every winter, so they sit by the shop (covered with snow at the moment).

Alan Maples
Everett Railroad

AMaples@aol.com

> I have always wondered this: how do
> railroads that don't have snowplows clear
> their lines of deep snow? Especially if the
> amount of snow piles up a considerable
> height above the railhead?

Snow plow shooting has been some of the most dramatic railroading I have ever done. In Canada on CN and CP, the mainlines stayed pretty cleared as Howard said, just by train frequency. The snow never gets a chance to build up.

However, on the seldom used branch lines, the lake-effect snows would come in, and blow into the cuts creating some great drifts, and a plow train, or Plow Extra would be called to clear the line. Some of these would see trains only twice a week, and in fact, most the ones we shot are now complete gone(lines) for that reason.

Wind is as much of the cuplprit for cause snow problems, moreso than the measured snowfall.

Link below will show some images on our video covers. These shots were chosen to try to show less snow being plowed so you can actually see some of the plow itself. They can be quite dramatic. Speaking of snow, I guess the east coast is getting its fill of it right now...

Greg Scholl


Snow Plow images and Videos

sales@gregschollvideo.com

...snow just below the top of the rail, a sunny day heats the rail up melting the snow. The water then runs down the rail and refreezes nicely locking your switches up. Maybe an hour or two per switch and you are out on the line plowing.

lamontdc@adelphia.net

Out here in Colorado, The UP used a couple of front end loaders to clear the snow off of the Moffat line after our big blizzard last March.
Roger Mitchell
Master Mechanic
Fort Collins Municipal Railway


n0mcr@netzero.net

> Out here in Colorado, The UP used a couple
> of front end loaders to clear the snow off
> of the Moffat line after our big blizzard
> last March.
> Roger Mitchell
> Master Mechanic
> Fort Collins Municipal Railway

In the 1930's in Duluth, MN, during the winter, the NOrthern Pacific had a switch engine, a cut of side dump cars and a Brown Hoist that cleared the yard tracks of snow. The hoist would fill the cars and they'd be taken up on the bridge over the bay and dumped. They'd then go back for another load. If we had a winter with a lot of snow, that job would work almost all winter.

j.nansen@worldnet.att.net