Steam & Excursion > Got Snow? Here's How The Northern Pacific Handled It!

As I prepare to get on my snow boots to fire up my plow to take care of the snow that fell on my property last night, I could not help but think of how railroads handled the white stuff back in the days of steam.

Here we see Northern Pacific's ultimate snow fighting machine in the form of Rotary #10 on the turntable at Lester, Washington in February 1949. My old friend Al Farrow had drawn helper duty up on the pass that month and he brought along his trusty camera to capture the sight of steam railroading in the cold snowbound environment of Stampede Pass.

As soon as the big rotary is turned on the turntable she will be hooked back on to her helper engine and they will venture back out into the cold to clear the snow from the rails over the pass.

Which reminds me, I have to get back out there too and start plowing.


Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/13 05:18 by LoggerHogger.

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Thanks for posting this. The intense cold and the wind as seen by the blowing smoke almost make me shiver now.
Bob

Wouldn't it be cool to build a steam plow for home use? A live steam scale one to plow the side walk, drive way?

And this rotary is now on display in Snoqualmie, WA. Corner of Snoqualmie Pkwy and Railroad Ave (SR202).

How many RPM does the typical rotary turn? Was there a "backhead" similar to a locomotive backhead?

CPRR, I heard a rumor that Martin's plow is a miniature version of a RR rotary plow.

Well say $3000 boiler-$2000 eng 2-4000 for welding,frame, and a gas powered snow blower so $10-15000 wwweeeeeeee

What do you mean miniture Jim? Size matters!

Martin

CPRR Wrote:
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> Wouldn't it be cool to build a steam plow for home
> use? A live steam scale one to plow the side walk,
> drive way?

You clearly haven't thought this thru.

Running steam in the winter on a regular basis is ... well, WORK!

Nevertheless, you might start by thinking along the lines of something like this, with a rotary attachment on the front.

-John Stein aka Larry Doyle

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LoggerHogger Wrote:
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> What do you mean miniture Jim? Size matters!
>
> Martin


Martin, you're sounding like an anachronistic male Chauvenist pig!

(Anachronistic - Yes. TO's spellchecker just considered it an error!)

Tominde Wrote:
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> How many RPM does the typical rotary turn?

Couldn't tell ya for sure, but I'd guess somewhere in the low hundreds.

> Was there a "backhead" similar to a locomotive backhead?

Yes. All rotary snowplow boilers were identical in design to locomotive boilers.

Corollary question: "How did the fireman, standing on the deck separated from the engineer/plow operator, know what he needed to do.

Answer: Exactly the same way any fireman on any deckless (or camelback) engine knew what to do.

EXPERIENCE!

-John Stein aka Larry Doyle

Looks like the Bull there had a throttle operator and a steering operator. All things considered, it looks like I would have preferred being the throttle operator!