With today being the last weekday of my vacation, I decided to try… once again… to catch the Minnesota Prairie Line in action along the former M&StL between Norwood Young America and Redwood Falls, MN.
Naturally, I saw diddly squat as far as MPLI train activity is concerned (but I did snap-up a Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific red globe lantern in an antique shop in Gibbon, run by a very nice old guy who I think could’ve voted for Woodrow Wilson).
However, when I stopped in Monroe, MN where the MPLI has an engine shop and a small yard, I was stopped at the grade-crossing and was surprised to see (from my angle) what looked like a snowplow coming down the tracks with nothing behind it! Once it got closer the operator sounded the horn and I saw it was what I think was a ballast profiler with a rather large wedge plow on the front. He was heading east having left the engine house. Unfortunately he boogied outta there before I could get out to snap a photo.
It was not a Jordan spreader (I know what those look like). This was a much smaller, center-cab type affair.
The plow on this son-of-a-gun looked almost big enough to block the operator’s forward view (but obviously it didn’t). I’m surprised such a big plow could be mounted on that type of MOW vehicle. Would a ballast profiler have enough weight to it to blast-through a 3 or 4 ft. drift? I think the speed limit on the MPLI is 15 or 20 MPH, but I’m not sure if that applies to lighter weight MOW equipment.
Is this a fairly common thing - mounting wedge plows on ballast profilers?