I decided to make a HO scale plow for my enjoyment. When testing it, I came across a problem that I’m wondering if regular trains have: When going through the snow, snow packs around the lead truck and will not allow it to turn freely. Does this happen with the wedge plows often? Has this problem been handled some way?
I can see photos of the cars, but sometimes the best engineering is hidden under sheet metal ;-).
not normaly… when your dealing with something that weights serverl tons… snow is pushed out of the way with out to much problem… your trying to recreate the same thing with a “toy” that isnt even close to scale weight…let alone scale power… snow is more of an issue when it builds up on the brake rigging and brake shoes… now ice on the other hand… ice can and has derailed engins in the past…infact…a small pile of frozen sand from a leaking sander is enought to derail an engin if thier isnt a flagway carvend into it…
csx engineer
not seen a problem involving the trucks – as csx says, completely different relationship of weight to strength. As he says, ice can and does derail trains; he mentions the small pile from a leaking sander, but I’ve seen 3 GP9s and and RS11 on the ground after a highway department packed sand and ice into the flangeways of a grade crossing (weren’t all that hard to rerail, though, now that I remember…). The other thing which wedge plows can and do do though, is if the drift they hit isn’t symmetrical (deeper on one side than the other) and is deep enough (not talking a foot or two – try 10) on one side, it can sometimes force the plow off the track. Most annoying…
Remember, too, that the clearance between the plow and the rail on a real plow would translate into thousandths of an inch on a model. IIRC, some had flangeways cut into the bottom of the plow (the cutting edge could be raised as needed). Many wedge plows also had wings.
Thanks for the information! I appreciate it.
Strange thing… I remember reading one more reply to this thread that wasn’t written in normal paragraph style but had a lot of interesting information in it. One of the things it mentioned was that the front truck isn’t sprung like other trucks so the blade didn’t go up and down with the suspension…
The cars were also weighted to the max with concrete, rock or scrap steel. The weight of the snow also forces the blade down toward the rails though it is possible for the snow to get beneath the plow and into the trucks. Since it is felt that speed is beneficial to wedge plow operations this results in the plow lifting off the rail, becoming airborn and flying back into the cab of the pushing locomotive. This was common enough that some railroads required crews to operate from the second unit to reduce the chance of injuries.
Alan