SNOW PLOW

Battling snow storms is always a major headache for any railroad, especially those located in the upper midwest. Luckily, J.H. Russell of Maine and J.W. Russell of Boston invented and built a piece of equipment to help clear mainlines all over North America.

There are many different versions of the Russell snowplow. Each one was built a little different depending on the needs of the particular railroad. The NP had a number of these pieces of maintenance equipment on their roster.

This snowplow number 24 was constructed in 1907 by Russell Car Company, this plow saw service throughout the NP system until the 1960s. Because the snowplow could not power itself, it was pushed by two to three locomotives. This type of plow was designed to handle small to moderate drifts and could move along at whatever speed was appropriate in those conditions, pushing snow off to the side of the tracks. Trouble started when it had to fight deep snow. If the wedge was forced to clear heavy, deep snow the locomotives would have to back up, get a full head of steam, and ram the plow into the snow as fast and as hard as possible. If the plow did not break through on the first try, they would back up and try again, only gaining a couple of feet with each attempt. Sometimes the impact of hitting the snow at such high speeds (50-60mph) would derail the snowplow. A special crew rode inside and every time it derailed, they would get out and help put it on the tracks again. With special re-railing frogs under the wheels, the locomotive would try to drag the snowplow back onto the tracks. A rotary plow could go much faster in deep snow because it could move ahead steadily at two-three mph and was not as susceptible to derailments. There is a flanger blade between the wheels of the snowplow, necessary because the front blades don’t touch the rails. This kept the blade from getting hung up on switches and places where tracks cross over. The flanger blade can be raised or lowered from inside and scraped the remaining thin layer of ice and snow from the tracks.

Russell Car & Snow Plow Company

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Posted 01 Dec 2007