Steam & Excursion > And You Thought These Engines Did Not Come With Snow Plows!

While most steam locomotives had to have snow plows adapted to them after the arrived at their owners facilities, certain manufactures of geared motive power engines offered snow plows as factory installed options.

One railroad that took advantage of these factory snow plows was the Condon Kinzua & Southern railroad that operated out of Kinzua, Oregon.  They had these factory plows installed on both their Shays and Heisler locomotives as we see here.

The removal of the front pilot in the winter months exposed the plow blade that was mounted directly on to the lead truck of each of the geared engines.  While this did not eliminate the need for larger plows for deep accumulations of snow, they did work quite well for the daily smaller accumulations and was all that was needed to keep the line open on most winter days.

It's amazing what you can get from the locomotive factory if you check off the right boxes!

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/16 04:10 by LoggerHogger.

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Pretty darn cool, Martin!  Keep 'em coming!

Lee Hower - Sacramento

Although not a logging operation, virtually all the Western Maryland steamers were equipped with identical-looking plows.
But the speculation is that they were also designed to handle minor rock obstructions that sometimes occurred.

Its good to see ideas that were spread and adapted.

Maybe famous Shay, WM #6 ( now in service at Cass, WVa) is equipped with this style?
I believe she was the biggest Shay ever built !!!!!!!

W.

What is the lettering on the spot plate of the Heisler in the first photo? 

The spot plate on the Heisler in the first photo is partially broken around the center number and is inverted.  She is #102 but it would be years before that was repaired.

The first photo here is the broken inverted plate.  The second photo shows it  later when partially repaired.  The last photo shows how she looks today fully repaired.

Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/16 04:52 by LoggerHogger.

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Thanks for the photos, Martin.

I do have to throw out one point, though...given the Kinzua Pine Mills/Condon Kinzua & Southern did not itself order any of these locomotives, these cannot have been boxes they checked on any factory order forms.  The #102 was built for stock and was in the custody of Whitney Engineering from 1930 until sold to Kinzua in 1936; the Shay #1 was built for Portland Railway Light & Power Company out of Estacada, Oregon, and spent time leased to the Sierra Railroad before going to Kinzua in 1926; and the Shay #3 was another one initially sold to a dealer, and it worked for three other logging companies before going to Kinzua in 1943.

The #102 was photographed several times with a standard pilot in place and no sign of a plow blade behind it, and I've seen at least one photo of the #1 similarly equipped.  The plow blade stayed on the #102 after it was placed into storage when the diesel arrived as shown in your photo, but lost it in exchange for a normal pilot when removed from Kinzua, as seen in the attached John Henderson image.  The photographic evidence strongly suggests these plows were after market additions to the three locomotives (perhaps using parts ordered from the factories?) and were swapped out for the standard footboard pilots for winter operations, with the possible exception of the #3, as it has the plow blade installed in every photograph of it I've seen in Kinzua.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV 

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Jeff,

My point was that these plows were all offered by the factories as accessories, either when you bought the engine new or if you wanted them later.  The plows on the Shays came from Lima and The Heislers was supplied with the engine by Whitney when they sold the #102 to Kinzua in 1936.

The plows were removed in the summer and put back on in the winter as needed.  See the attached photo of #102 taken in the summer on 1949.  I have photos of the plows sitting in the yards by the shops during the summer.  My info on the Heisler comes from the purchase paperwork I have on this engine after it left Heisler and when it was sold by Heisler to Whitney in 1935 and then re-sold to Kinzua in 1936.

The Shay info comes straight from Nate Coleman, the railroads Superintendent.

Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/16 11:36 by LoggerHogger.

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Thanks for the additional information, Martin.  Makes a lot more sense now!

Jeff

I know the 102 eventually wound up being Mt. Rainier #91, its too bad that #1 and #3 didn't share the same fate.