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If anyone tells you they know everything about rotary snow plows or even snow, don't believe it. I certainly don't. And I still have a number of issues to correct before I can call my plow project finished.

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This is the first year that I have actually needed a rotary snow plow. It's also the first year that the railroad was actually closed for an extended period of time. But so far this season, last I checked, our snowfall total has exceed 71 inches. I wouldn't call this a record, but it's got to be close.

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Here's an unmanned snowplow about to hit a drift. Not the best idea, but someone has to work the camera.

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Maybe I should find a better place to stand.

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This is not the soft new fallen stuff either. It is a well ripened heavy wet frozen and refrozen variety with the consistancy of cement.

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The plow was NOT designed to battle this stuff. It weighs a ton and is difficult to move even with a shovel.

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It does a nice job. The canyon walls and floor are perfectly square. Except of course where my shoes have dragged along the canyon wall.

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Today is a nice day. Partly sunny and about 50 degrees (F). I wonder where the locomotive and plow are.

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At the junction with the main line, which was plowed earlier. No. The locomotive and plow are NOT capable of plowing unattended. They will both stall in this heavy wet stuff.

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Plowing this stuff requires backing out and retrying many times. The new fallen powdery stuff will be no problem for either.

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That there chunk of snow easily weighs 40 pounds (sticks and all). Time to back up and hit it again. Once the last round of modifications and additions are completed it should be capable of plowing continuously without stalling.

Bill.

Now watch a video made a week later after another storm...