In the 2/15 photo fun thread, TrainManTy posted pictures of a snowplow he had scratch built. I looked at it and thought, “I bet I can do that!” I’ve been hesitant to get into scratch building, and this looked like a project that I could handle. Imitation is flattery, right? [:D]
TrainManTy’s original construction photo.
Glue drying for the front plow. I made this using a few pieces of spare styrene from DPM kits and a flatcar and a caboose lying around. I had to shorten the caboose at the left side by removing a window and the roof overhang.
Primed and with the plow glued on, with some guiding blades attached to the plow.
Tomorrow I’m going to paint the plow and cab a safety yellow, as well as add hand rails. I was also thinking of taking some old track and cutting it into lengths to serve as a “counterweight” at the back of the flatcar.
Looking good! Your way ahead of me in scratchbuilding. Might want to consider large cement blocks for weight, there are a lot of them around used for retaining walls and many other things. They are made at the concrete plant with leftover cement that comes back from a delivery. Some of them have lift rings, some indentations in the ends for some sort of lift, others just blocks. I’d say they are about 2’x2’x4’.
Welcome! You’ve opened the door to a whole new world of model railroading.
The first leap of faith is cutting into a perfectly good model. Once you get over that you begin to look at kits and cars and locomotives not as whole models but as parts that you can use to make whatever you need.
Thank you both for the kind words! I already have an idea for how I can make some large cement blocks, so I’ll give that a shot soon. And Dave, I think my leap of faith was helped by the fact that I still have two more cabooses where that one came from. I’ll be posting more pictures as I get more work done in the next few days.
Thanks. [:)] The curve was tricky to get. I’m basing this off of TrainManTy’s photo (the top one with the red caboose). So far I haven’t seen any prototype photos of something quite like this.
Hmmm - if you wanted to, you could do even more radical surgery, bring the blade almost back to the cupola, and end up with a Russel type snowplow - here is one (NP 30) at the Jackson Street Roundhouse at the Minnesota Transportation Museum in the Twin Cities:
Bulges on the side is on a blade that could be swung out to help fling the snow further away.
The large blocks Cowman mentioned are known as “Mafia blocks” around here. [:)]
Nice work on the kitbashed plow, Wikious. When you’re freelancing some scrapbox stuff together like this, you usually have to go by something which “would work”. With that in mind, I’d not weight the rear deck with rail. A plow with a cabin would have an operator inside it (presumably to raise and lower flanger blades) and a stack of rail or Mafia blocks on the back of something meant to be repeatedly rammed into snowdrifts would be hazardous. Rail especially would tend to shift out of place and break loose.
The rear deck does look barren. I’d suggest you add handrails to the sides, made from diesel stanchions and wire, and a vertical air reservoir for the flanger-blade cylinders. This would make it look something like the FJ&G’s old flanger, but with a plow added.
I would also add a dummy headlight and a chimney for the inevitable stove.
It actually looks more like a home-made Jordan spreader. Most snow plows have much more angled bladed (to the horizontal). You also have to consider they would have to gut the front half of the caboose to install the bracing for the plow, there would be several large structural steel braces angling through the front half of the caboose to prevent the pressure on the plow from crushing the caboose body. So anything else you put in the caboose body would have to go in the portion from the cupola back. You could even put an angled brace going by the window on the inside so people can “see” the bracing.
The problem with making it a flanger is that the fishbelly underframe of the flatcar would interfere with the flanger blades or the raising of the flanger blades (why most flangers were made from boxcars or tenders, more clearance underneath). You might want to consider adding some short “wings” on the sides (folded in of course) that look like they are hinged to swing out to push the snow away from the tracks. As mentioned concrete blocks, stacks of rail, bins filled with riprap or concrete should be added to the deck to weigh it down (detail note, if you use rip rap, you can have a few tufts of grass growing out of it from when it sits 9 months out of the year).
I’m flattered to see someone liked my snowplow so much![:I]
Just to clarify, that photo of mine was taken before paint. Mine was completly freelanced, but I based it on so many photos I have seen of different railroads scratchbuilding their own plows.
I wasn’t worried about cutting up my matirials too much as they were old surplus trainset style stuff I had laying around.
I personally like your plow contour much better than mine, I couldn’t get mine to curve for some reason…[banghead]
If you end up painting it safety yellow, you might want to fade it and weather it. Plows are seldom clean, mine’s pretty much just going to sit on a weedy track in the yard most of the time. Here’s a photo of my finished version.
Looking good! Can’t wait to see the finished version![tup]
Depending on your objective, this may or may not matter. But sometimes we tend to look at other layouts or other models for inspiration (which is a very good thing), but if the objective is prototype-oriented realism, we must also remember to look to the prototype.
When I was actively reenacting the Civil War (Union, of course!), my company first sergeant reminded us that although it’s very easy and tempting to emulate other reenactors, the real font of authenticity was the real soldiers themselves. So we used photos of the real soldiers as guidelines for uniform and equipment wear, facial hair, etc.
Just a thought… But in the meantime, you’re making great progress toward establishing a very useful skill set that will serve you very well throughout your hobby career.
Your not the only one who decided to make a plow because of TrainmanTy:
I used balsa wood for the plow, held together with CA.
By original plan to use a piece of spare pipe wouldn’t work. (to get a curve in the plow)
The gondola that’s been added is supposed to be full of weights, and will have a cover. There is a light on it, but I need to find a holder for a 9V batterty. (already have a reed switch)
Actually, today I just found out that the local RR I’m loosely modeling actually does use a Jordan spreader. Good call, dehusman! I’m probably going to add some side flaps sometime soon after I look at some more prototype photos (hard to find any with good angles).
I also think it’s kind of a short plow, but I figured 7’ scale feet long would probably be sufficient for most of the snowfall around here.
I didn’t have as much time to work on this tonight as I had planned, so here’s a mockup of the side blades and their hydraulics. I’m going to cover the front windows with styrene so it looks more like pipes going inside than pipes stuck in a window. With the side plows, the car is 2" even across. Does anyone have an NMRA clearance gauge that would be willing to make sure that’s within limits?
MAX width is 12 ft or about 1 5/8 in. So you want to LESS than that. Cut a hole in a piece of cardboard 1 5/8 in wide, if the spreader passes through that then you are OK (as long as all your station platforms, loading docks, bridge knee braces, etc are all to standard.)
A diagonal view. I filled in the front windows using contour putty.
I haven’t had a real view from the front yet.
And a nice one of the back.
Frankly, I think it looks a little like a bulldozer [(-D]. Right now I’m working on concrete blocks to weigh down the back and making a box to hold those. I also have some handrails in the works.
