RhB 0-6-6-0T No. 9214 is a rotary snowplow located at the Museum Railway Blonay Chamby in Blonay, Switzerland. It's current status is unknown. I have conflicting reports that is "display only", "undergoing restoration" or "operational" and am attempting to determine which is accurate. Nonetheless it is a very interesting locomotive/plow.

Image is Copyright (C) Diane Beck.
Note the location of the cylinders for the front and rear engines. Also of interest: there is a pair of cylinders behind the access doors above the locomotive's cylinders which power the rotary blade of the plow.

That's a "contraption" if I've ever seen one!

Are the two driver frames articulated?

Does either one (or both) pivot under the carbody?

Imagine a sound recording of this thing going full boogie?

Fascinating!

If you poke around YouTube, there's footage of a working G scale model of a similar locomotive/plow that was built by a European modeler. The fan blade on the model is driven by a secondary electric motor. The video shows the model plowing through three to four inches of packed snow like the proverbial hot knife through butter.

Sister 9213 is operational. Here's a youtube link to it in operation.

http://youtu.be/nvEYDUYwvek


Andrew Dean
Springfield, MO

Here is another video showing it running and plowing without assistance.

http://youtu.be/oGndpEPgEgw

Andrew Dean
Springfield, MO

One thought is 3 engines, and I assume 2 throttles, wheel slip must interesting!

1 or 2 engineers?

-Hudson

Probably one engineer, a pilot and one or two firemen. Steam consumption must be outrageous. If you want to be technically correct, I suppose that it's five engines (one engine driving each cylinder).

Three engines, six cylinders!

I imagine the plow could be throttle governed for semi-automatic operation. Takes a load, opens the the throttle. What an amazing machine.