Steam Powered Railroad Rotary Snowplow

[Chief]

These pictures are also from Snoqualmie Falls.

This beast is a 1902 vintage steam powered rotary snowplow that was used for decades to keep the passes open during the winter months in the Washington Cascades. These machines have a steam engine inside that drives the massive cast iron rotary head to sling the snow clear of the tracks. It cuts a 13' wide swath.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/SNOWPLOW/October102007DL057.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/SNOWPLOW/October102007DL056.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/SNOWPLOW/October102007DL055.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/SNOWPLOW/October102007DL058.jpg

You can see that the rotary head on this thing is quite a chunk of metal. The steam engine inside the rig is only to drive the rotary head. You can see that there is a tender behind the plow; that's to feed coal and water to the engine. Propulsion was provided by another locomotive what pushed the rig from behind. You can see the massive doors that cut a swath throuth the snow on each side of the plow.

When the snow was fairly fresh, and not too packed, these machines could plow very effectively. But in avalanche country, snow slides often buried the tracks higher than the plow could move. So the railroad would bring in gangs of coolies to shovel the snow until the plow could continue.

The other hazard was that avalanches bring down all kinds of debris, and you can see clearly that a large stump or a boulder could easily get weddged into that rotary unit, and frequently did, necessitating those same coolies to come back and dig out the debris, and free up the plow. Backbreaking work in the worst possible conditions, but that is what it took to keep the railroad lifelines open to Seattle.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/SNOWPLOW/October102007DL059.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/SNOWPLOW/October102007DL060.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/SNOWPLOW/October102007DL061.jpg

Pretty impressive machine to say the least. I found a couple of pics of one in action...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/SNOWPLOW/southern_pacific_railroad_rotarty_s.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/SNOWPLOW/rotary-tc1.jpg

You can see that the logistics for these plows present some very daunting challenges for railroad operations. Those black clouds of smoke you see are from the tons of coal that this monster ate on every run. The crew had to keep the engines hot, because if the fires went out and the engines froze up in the mountains, they were done until spring when someone could go and thaw it back out.

So logistically the railroads were absolutely dependent upon steady supplies of fuels, just to keep the tracks clear, and with two steam engines pushing every steam snowplow, you can see that a lot of coal was constantly on the move up and down the line. Snoqualmie was such a stop, and was a convenient place for the railroad to stock coal and provide water for all of the steam engines that operated up and down the line.

Neat stuff!

;D

[Waterbuffalo]

Interesting! Wish I could have seen that.

What do they use now? Explosives to clear big sections and the use a plow like this but with diesel engines to do the same exact thing?

[Chief]

Here is a picture dated 1985, of a dielsel rotary snowplow at work in the Canadian Rockies.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/1985.jpg

Here's a better shot of the business end of a modern rotary...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v645/SeniorChieftain/plow.jpg

They have updated the design, and the plows are now self-propelled, but the technology remains pretty much the same. I guess this is a case of "If something works, stick with it". If there was a better, more efficient way to blow snow off the tracks, you can bet the railroad would have built it.

[Chief]

A note or two on technique. From what I have read, the plows ran their engines at full tilt, with the locomotives pushing from behind. If they hit a hard-packed area of snow, they would have to back up and ram ahead over and over again until finally breaking through.

I have read accounts of the winter railroad operations up around Stevens Pass, where the railroad was running three plows around the clock and burning 3000 tons of coal every 24 hours just to keep the tracks clear. Think about how hard it would be to get enough coal trains through the mountains, just to keep the plows running.

One of the worst avalanches in the Nation occured right up in that area when 2 passenger trains were swept down the mountain after being trapped by other snow slides that the plows just could not clear in time.

People today who think they have tough, dangerous jobs should read up on just what it took to keep the railroads running in this Country for a century or so. People are upset these days about the deaths on the highways?? The fatality rate on the railroads worldwide was astronomical at one time; and if a public conveyance today was that dangerous, the public would never stand for it.

[Waterbuffalo]

I know someone who's parents used to own a B and B right next to the snoqualmie thing. It ended up being sold in a divorce, but I might be able to get the new owners website addy for you if your interested. It has train stuff and cabooses.

Yeah, I have read up on some of the railroad stuff on the North side of Seattle, along with stevens pass and some other stuff. Now you wonder why BNSF loves Vancouver's Columbia Gorge entrance under the mountains.. Also UP has a train that runs on the I-84 side to Boise I think.

thanks for the new pictures and updates..

[tefen]

Those close up pictures of the plow look like something from a sci-fi movie. Awesome stuff.

[Chief]

Considering that we are talking about technology from the late 1800's, that is an interesting observation tefen...sometimes the more things change, the more they remain the same.

But you are right, that is one intimidating looking machine, isn't it. I'd love to hear what it sounded like under full throttle. That one picture of it in action, with the black smoke just churning out of it is impressive, and you just know it sounded pretty cool....

[Waterbuffalo]

Chief, thanks for posting this under the Pacific NW history forum.

Interesting feats. Wonder what other rail history do we have because all of our Ports now depend on this resource.

There has to be more history here in the Pacific NW since this area depended for a long time on Rail to move people and goods through out the Pacific Northwest until the mid 1940's when air travel started to pick up and rail travel started to fall I think.

[Chief]

Travel by rail has certainly fallen because of the the invention of the airplane and prefection of the commercial airliner. It's hard to compete when you can fly coast to coast several times in the time it would take you to cross the country just once on Amtrak.

Freight is another story. The trucking industry teamed up with the railroads years ago to create "Intermodal" shipping. Now we don't think anything about a container full of goods being delivered directly from a manufacturer overseas, directly to your place of business. Containerized shipping that fits neatly on ships, trains, and trucks has revolutinized cargo in this country and given heavy rail new life. I fall asleep at night listing to the trains whistling through East Vancouver and fading away up the gorge. I was raised around the railroad and I've always been a railroad junky, so look for more on this as time goes on.

The PNWH thread was an outstanding idea WB, thanks for that suggestion!

[Waterbuffalo]

Your welcome Chief.

I had a problem where I had hundreds of links searching and related to Pacific Northwest history that I wanted to put them some where and see if there was others like myself that have similar fanaticism with some part of our region.

There are probably several other thousand ideas, links or subjects that might not be political related but people might enjoy talking about and it won't clog up the one of "the Living Room" which are probably meant for casual discussion of a different sort.

Chief, have you tried googling "UP Vancouver Washington" or "BNSF Vancouver Washington" on Youtube? you'll find more train videos there as well.

[Chief]

yah...YouTube has an entire culture of people who do little else than take movies of trains moving through very scenic areas. My wife and I have long talked about taking the train all the way across Canada from BC to Nova Scotia. We have seen some of the videos people have taken at different times of year throught the Canadian Rockies, and it's difficult to decide what the best time of year to go is. Even wintertime offers some stunning scenery all the way across the Continent...it wold be quite a vacation...

[Waterbuffalo]

Not sure if Amtrak still goes to Vancouver BC, but it does to go to Bellingham and a short hop to Vancouver on Greyhound will get you near VIA Rail.

Do have fair warning, you both will need passports to get on the Amtrak train going to Vancouver, BC. "Some" conductors require to see them before they even allow you on the train, so they know you won't get stuck at the border without a passport.

Though I don't know if your going to need a passport to cross the border now.. Some thing tells me I just recently saw on the news that now you need one to cross into Canada and Mexico, though family is telling me that isn't true. So I am not not totally sure.

[Chief]

I would think it prudent to have a passport in your possession any time you step across that border these days. Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it...

[Waterbuffalo]

Just before Sept. 11th I flew through Vancouver BC (YVR) from Bellingham to Honolulu Hawaii..

First thing that happened on my way back was they did a drug and bomb sniff my plane, then they searched all the people coming off the plane and so much other weird stuff happened. Then I get on the plane and fly back, got set aside to talk to Canadian customs at the airport and I almost didn't get out of there.

Lucky it was easier to get across the border in 2000, than it is now. Did not have any problems, but I did come back bearing Christmas gifts for my extensive family.

But that experience taught me a lot about flying internationally. There is a lot more that happened than that, but once you get scared like i did, you won't repeat stupid mistakes on that whole trip. Like not having a passport.

Probably going to have to get one for the 2010 Olympics and seeing friend up there I have not seen in more than 3 years.

[Chief]

The it's a good idea to get your passport way ahead of time and beat the rush.

Since you brought up 2010, I'll be very curious to see what kind of package deals are offered for the Olympics. I think you would be money ahead to get a travel pack up and bac, with admission, lodging, and most meals included. The tours will have a much better handle on negotiating the different venues than you will on your own, and in fact will likely bus people right to the entrance of the venues. Something to consider. It's going to cost a bloody fortune to go no matter what, so I would consider the best priced tour, and plan out what events I wanted to see.

If we are still online here in 2010, we could have a live thread and let you blog from the ski-jumping event...

;D

[Waterbuffalo]

is that ski jump for local politicians?

I'm lucky because I have family that lives along the border and in the area, so there is going to be a HUGE family reunion probably during that time. Though not sure if I am going to go or not. Depends on a lot of things.

Shouldn't we be discussing trains or did I get on the Tangential Airplane?