Western Railroad Discussion > Northern Winter Omen?

BNSF has moved rotary 972555 to the Mandan Terminal-ready to blow.

Bismarck Bill

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Appreciate your update.  Will look forward to your images of the BNSF rotary snowplow unit in action across North Dakota.  Hope the trees don't get in your way-smile-!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/20 08:10 by cozephyr.

union pacific reved up one its rotaries in roseville ca yesterday making sure its ready for the winter.
a little surprised Therese nothing about It on here 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/20 08:47 by traindave.

The Washington Cascades are getting the first snow today, which seems a bit early in the year.

Get ready as they are talking a long rough winter this year.
I haven't heard anything out of the shop in Cheyenne.
Maybe with PSR they will just wait for the snow to thaw instead of spending a little extra money.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

NOAA shows this winter's forecast, very basically, as more winter in the north and less winter in the south, my words being very untechnical. I'm not saying good or bad since there's also sorts of ways to interpret good and bad. I'm still trying to figure it out for my neighborhood by comparing past winters with the current observation. It may be declared as 'La Nina' but there's variations in that depending on far north the warm water goes in the Pacific Ocean.

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/90day/

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.shtml

Regardless of the forecast it's good to be prepared for Winter, the Calender is a certainty.

Interesting to see the RR preps, Rotaries are big stuff. The rebuilds with the big cabs are interesting, also the strategy for their deployment.
t4p



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/20 09:43 by TCnR.

Was the 49 blizzard the end of George Ashby?

Bob Wilcox
Charlottesville, VA
My Flickr Shots

bmarti7 Wrote:
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> BNSF has moved rotary 972555 to the Mandan
> Terminal-ready to blow.
>
> Bismarck Bill

Without the B Unit, which powers the electric motors that turn the wheel, it doesn't quite look "ready to blow".

Getting a few flakes of snow falling now in the backyard. Possible 1-2 inches on the way.

Larry

Neat looking piece of equipment---can the geeps that push it be MUed to provide power for the rotary?
Brian Stevens

SCKP187 Wrote:
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> Neat looking piece of equipment---can the geeps
> that push it be MUed to provide power for the
> rotary?
> Brian Stevens

Nope. The DC power for the DC motors that drive the wheel, does NOT go through the MU receptacle. Much heavier cables are required, just like traction motor cables.

Was trying to snow on Raton Pass last night. Made the ground wet from the tunnel to Trinidad.

Jack, I think the BNSF GP28P units are plow power. I was trying to see if that's what it was attached to.  Have to check my DelGrosso book to make sure.

Yeah, the P designated units are wired for slug mother and plow power per DelGrossos 2011 locomotive review.
Units are MK rebuilds from GP 5-9-18s. Updated GP38 style carbodies and GP50 cabs with all the improvements:)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/20 13:15 by SD45X.

Per the 2019-2020 book they're now called GP28-2P and are wired to provide power to the rotary plows and slugs.

Here's what's next door-sorry I edited out of plow shot BB

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bobwilcox Wrote:
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> Was the 49 blizzard the end of George Ashby?

The 49 blizzard crippled the UP for an extended period of time and Mr. Ashby left shortly after that.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Got an alert from the county EMS this morning, with winter storm warnings for central and north central Nebrasks, 4 to 8 inches and winds of 30 mph starting tonight and continuing through Sunday night/Monday morning. Way, way too early for this. We had blizzard conditions one year a few back at Halloween which started a rough winter and I hope that's not the case this year. I'm thinking a 3 or 4 month condo rental in a more southerly direction, and I don't mean Kansas.