A thousand years ago when we had things called passenger trains, the C.P.R. west of Calgary had ice breakers on top of their locos and some cars to snap of icicles on the tunnels in the Rockies, did any U.S. railways ever use such equipment on their trains through the mountains? enquiring minds you know.
The Southern Pacific equipped a number of their engines with ice breakers to snap icicles from tunnel portals and the ends of snow sheds… They ran them over ther Sierra Nevada, Siskyou and Cascade lines.
here is a pic of modern UP ice scraper http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=34647&nseq=0
Wow, they must have some tall tunnels, the CPR breakers seemed to be at least half the size on the UP loco, the reason they were used in Canada was to break ice for the dome coaches, I don’t know if CPR still uses them.
The B&O had ice breaker cars to prevent damage to automobiles on auto-rack cars. Google “B&O ice breaker” for more info and pictures.
NYC Tunnel Ice Breaker ( Hopper Car equipped with an ice breaker.
http://www.barrysbest.net/Weathertopia/Snow1.html#NYCicebreaker
The ARR ALCO RS1 had a ice breaker at the long end to break icicles out of the roof of the Whittier Tunnels. [Found the following link- just scroll down to the photo of #1000.]
http://www.alaskarails.org/historical/Strong/index5.html
Clinchfield RR was another line that used a car mounted ice Breakers on some of their trains: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=366593
Also on occasion at memphs, there were occasional visits from Sou Rwy (CNO&TP) units that had ice breakers mounted on their cabs ( 19+60/1970 era(?)
I think they were on GP-30s(?)
Just to clarify with CPR, for quite a few years the only ice breakers were those mounted on the 1400 series FP7 and FP9s that were standard power for “The Canadian”. They of course hauled the train across Canada, not just west of Calgary.
As far as I know, the boxcars modified with icebreakers on top were created much later to protect automobiles when the open autoracks appeared. They may have been used only west of Calgary. Following the enlargement of the tunnels to handle double-stack containers by about 1990 the ice breaker frames were enlarged with a taller and more complex shape. They have also been used in Ontario in modern times for the tunnels around Lake Superior. (A couple of the older cars were retained until the old track through the Connaught Tunnel was enlarged a few years later.)
John