Driving in Menasha last night I found this:
What is it?
Giant snowblower. Litarally blows the snow off the track. That’s what I think it is, anyway.
Not only does it blow the snow away, but the air being blown is heated. It is mainly used for switches, etc.
The only thing I can see a problem with is what happens to all of the melted water? It will just turn to ice unless there is a switch heater there…
Phil
It looks like vaccume of some sort, maybe for picking up stuff like sand and pulverized coal, flour from doors that come open during switching?
No, not a vacuum–no dirtbag, if you’ll pardon the expression.
It is in fact a snowblower, though it doesn’t look like it has a jet engine, such as is used on the ones I’ve had the misfortune to meet (I think I’ve mentioned that before).
Meltwater in large quantities is not a problem with these beasts–the force of the blowing usually drives the snow well away from the switches or whatever else it’s intended to clear out. The heat (from the jet engine) is supposed to dry things enough. However, it doesn’t always work that way, and some of the remaining moisture will freeze again, causing problems for the unsuspecting.
Last week on the Green Bay news, one of the reporters was out w/ a CN crew clearing switches. They had one of the jet blowers mounted on a pettibone loader.
Stack
Not enough detail to say for sure, but I’m not sure that one has a heater involved. It appears to use hydraulics to drive the blower rotor, which is probably how it moves, too.
What railroad was this on?Why not ask them?
This was on an industrial-ish spur of CN in Menasha, WI. I happened to drive by at 1:00 AM on the way home from work and saw it. If I see any crew around it during daylight hours I’ll ask 'em about it.
I think I missed you ‘encounter’ posts re: snowblowers Carl. Did you get cold/wet?
No; I was in my tower at the time. But enough ice would flash-freeze in the points to keep them open and derail cars, in spite of the fact that I had a good indication both on the board and on the ground.
No operator would turn that thing up if anyone were “downstream” from it–besides getting cold or wet, or snow-covered, you could be hit by chunks of ice or ballast.
The U P Has one of these things at short line yard in Des Monies it is used to clean the switches on the leads it is literalya jet engine on a flay car you had better be well away from it becauce it will throw the ballast all over the place Larry
…Never have seen one in reality, but I agree with Larry, it’s hydraulically driven {the blower}, and probably the vehicle too. {But I’d not be surprised if veh. was mechanically driven}. See no generator or alternator large enough to supply power in the amount it would take to {really melt ice and snow}, so I say it’s strictly a high velocity fan with an intake either on top or back of the fan cage. With the narrow wide edge of the blower down at the tracks, it probably has a rather high velocity blasting out to really blow unwanted snow, etc…out of the track structure. One other thing I’d bet it can do…Make noise…!
Q,
It was moved as of Saturday at noon when I swung back thru the area. No idea where. My ‘source’ at CN said they couldn’t tell where it was.
Carl,
That would suck. More of a headache than you already probably get!
Like that thing will blow snow [:D]
It’s looks like it could very easily get stuck in the snow ! [(-D]