BN Rotary Snow Plows

[BN9244]

Greetings,

For the heck of it, I decided to put together a list of the remaining BN rotary snow plows. From what I've gathered, it appears this is what remains of them. I've listed the number and their base. Does this look correct? Did I miss any?

BN 972551 (Dilworth, MN)
BN 972552 (Glendive, MT)
BN 972554 (Glendive, MT)
BN 972555 (Havre? Whitefish?)
BN 972558 (Lincoln, NE)
BN 972559 (Alliance, NE)
BN 972561 (Washington?)

Also, does anyone know if BN 972560 still exists? It was one of BN's more unique plows in that it had its own EMD 567 engine for power. I can't find any recent photos of it on the internet, and from what I know it was last used back in the winter of 1996/1997. It seems to have fallen off the radar after that.

While we're on the subject, what is the official status of the one and only Santa Fe rotary, 199361? It looks like its still parked down in Topeka. Is it still operational?


Thanks for any input!

 

[SDP45]

972561 is at Wenatchee, WA, and has been since last summer. Here is a photo of it 2 days ago on the 18th.

 

[Conductor Rees]

199361 is still parked in Topeka and is operational according to a friend in the shops but that was years ago but is retired. It can be seen from the road at the north of the shop yard.

 

[BN9244]

Dan, Rees, thanks for the responses, much appreciated.

972561 is at Wenatchee, WA, and has been since last summer. Here is a photo of it 2 days ago on the 18th.

Wow, those sure look sharp! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Track Tester]

972577 was last I knew in Westwood CA.

 

[8419]

The only video I have found (short search and a friend's vid):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=KCqEBdjaXpM

 

[Tacoma Tom]

That's pretty cool! I have never researched the rotaries and thought there was only one or two out there. I didn't realize there was so many. Also surprising that there is old F unit boosters on the BNSF. I have been rail fanning my whole life and never seen a rotary in action. Maybe one day.

 

[Bill Anderson]

Saturday (3/3/12) I found this piece of snow fighting equipment in Wenatchee while my son and I were in town for the Special Olympics annual Winter Games. It is obviously not a rotary snowplow, perhaps a Jordan spreader?

It appears to be parked in the same place where the OP photographed the rotary plow last year: a stub track track behind the BNSF employees' parking lot next to the office

 

[RailfanRails]

Saturday (3/3/12) I found this piece of snow fighting equipment in Wenatchee while my son and I were in town for the Special Olympics annual Winter Games. It is obviously not a rotary snowplow, perhaps a Jordan spreader?

It appears to be parked in the same place where the OP photographed the rotary plow last year: a stub track track behind the BNSF employees' parking lot next to the office

Interesting, I've never seen a dozer painted BN green. They are all painted mineral red in Sioux City, IA.

 

[NM_RailNut]

Saturday (3/3/12) I found this piece of snow fighting equipment in Wenatchee while my son and I were in town for the Special Olympics annual Winter Games. It is obviously not a rotary snowplow, perhaps a Jordan spreader?

It appears to be parked in the same place where the OP photographed the rotary plow last year: a stub track track behind the BNSF employees' parking lot next to the office

That's one of the ex-GN snow dozers; they're similar in concept to Jordan spreaders, except that they are designed and used exclusively for snowfighting and aren't meant to be used for ditching or ballast spreading (at least not very well, anyway).

 

[Bill Anderson]

I dug out my well-worn copy of the 1976-77 BN Annual (Motive Power Services), which has an article on snow removal equipment. Most of the article is devoted to rotary plows, but two pages discuss the snow dozer.

According to the article, the snow dozer was developed by the GN in 1926, combining the best features of wedge plows, flangers, and spreaders. In service, the dozers were usually pulled behind a locomotive and used to clear snow depths up to 18 inches.

Fifty of the GN dozers made it to the BN roster in 1970. Unlike the rotaries, which were painted mineral red, the dozers were painted Cascade green. Some, like 972502, had white safety stripes on the front.

 

[leonz]

rotary snow plows/referred to as giant snow clearers Europe

Hello Mr. Anderson,

As I am interested in MOW equipment as well I thought I would share this video with you showing an MOW crow in Sweden/Norway?, and a short video describing snow clearing on the RHB Railway in Switzerland.

They are very interesting I think.


I cannot upload the films about the Beilhack Snow clearers in Norway and Switzerland for some reason, but I would be glad to e-mail them to if you would like to send me your e-mail to lzaharis@lightlink.com


leonz

 

[Rader Sidetrack]

I cannot upload the films about the Beilhack Snow clearers in Norway and Switzerland for some reason ....

I'm pretty sure that the forum software doesn't allow direct uploading of video, but it does allow you to link in your post videos that have been uploaded to YouTube. Once you have it working at YouTube, its easy to post a link here.

 

[RentonRailFan]

Saturday (3/3/12) I found this piece of snow fighting equipment in Wenatchee while my son and I were in town for the Special Olympics annual Winter Games. It is obviously not a rotary snowplow, perhaps a Jordan spreader?

It appears to be parked in the same place where the OP photographed the rotary plow last year: a stub track track behind the BNSF employees' parking lot next to the office

Nice shot, I saw that plow last weekend after a ski trip at Mission Ridge. I didn't have a good shot of it. Hopefully I get to see it in action next time I make it out there again. Would have been nice to see that rotary too.

 

[leonz]

Beilhack Snow Clearers

I have the URLs for the two snow clearers I mentioned earlier; hopefully I will become more computer literate to do this eventually.

The first one is of two Norwegian railway MOW crews and a typical day I apologise in advance as it is not in english.
I think this model is the SB1200 which is one size smaller than the SB1600 that Conrail bought
(one of two Bielhack snow clearers purchased) that can clear 22,000 tons per hour.


The second one is from Switzerland on the RHB railway with the small
Beilhack snow clearer SB900 is the model number I think.



www.nrk.no/nett-tv/klpp/482192



www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtV1XzgUmPI


Hopefully I typed everything in right.

Enjoy.



The YOUTUBE link works now my apologies for the delay



The norway tv link goes to the main site and not directly to the video
of the snow clearer but I can always attach it to an e-mail as I have it on my desk top.

 

[northcornice]

The YouTube link is broken: There is a comma where a period should be and an extra .com. After repairing that the error is: The URL contained a malformed video ID. Check the ID after v= in the URL, and test to see if the link works for you.