The Athearn rotary snowplow has got me wondering about a few things. First, I'm guessing it is powered by a diesel engine due to lack of tender. My next question is whether or not the prototype runs under it's own power. Was this rotary plow pushed by another locomotive?
I was looking at one of these today and last week (the Athearn blue box version). I've also had the privelage of seeing one in person at the Duluth, MN train museum. They had on display color television footage of these puppies in action. They throw serious amount of snow! From what I gathered, they have their own internal engine to operate the large circular plow blades. The plow does not move on its own power. It is pushed by locomotive(s). Some of the video footage shown had the plow removing snow drifts that were taller than the locomotives themselves. 14+ feet high. The result was a snow "canyon" after the plow made quick work of those drifts. The video also showed trains being derailed by snow, believe it or not. I'm going back to that museum in a few weeks and this time I plan on shooting my own footage in that museum. Jas
Has anyone ever powered one of these units? I've toyed with the idea of making one into a track "blower" to blow dust and debris from the track. Thoughts? Ideas? I know, I'm probably up in the night, right? Mark in Utah
I HAVE one of these, (well 2 actually) and I have powered one, added my own tender, and my own motor to propell the blades, HOWEVER I did NOT power the wheels as it in real life was pushed by a locomotive or a few of them actually. I'll get a link to my topic on it... if it hasn't been deleted, or moved! EDIT: it wasn't deleted or moved! Heres the link to it! My Athearn Rotary Snow Plow topic Go have a look an read! Its I think, 3 pages long!!!!! HTH [ 04. January 2003, 04:59: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]
Thanks to everyone for their help in this topic. I remember this snowplow model from when I was very young and always wondered how it was configured. Looking forward to fixing it up.
Too bad I didn't think of getting pictures of mine at the last train show I did, that was its first train show. I have about a month tied up in it to make it to what it is now.... BUT they sure are a fun kit! I'm just not much for the rubber band blade drive, being once they dry rot, the blades will no longer spin as its being pushed! So I added a motor to it just to power the blades, and also head light above the cab, and tail light on the vanderbuilt oil tender I coupled it too, and made them directional lighting so the front one burns when being pushed forwards, and the tail light is off, and then when moved around or pulled backwards, the tail light comes on and the head light is off.... A different piece to the collection and is conversational at shows being its a fully working rotary snow plow! [ 05. January 2003, 06:22: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]
Good information. Thanks for the link. Do you get much air blown by the blower? I'm guessing that it'd only be able to blow aay the occasional feather. More determined dust probably would stay put. Am I mistaken? That does look like a real asset to a layout! Mark in Utah
Mark, I will say the one I done will blow snow for real! I had detailed the inside of the blades with plastic flaps that would actuall throw whatever was on the tracks or whatnot that could go through the blade openings in the front. I have a bad habbit, I smoke, and while I was testing this, I had ashes to fall from the wind comming off the blades an my cigarette ashes had fell towards the blades and they were making enough vacume to suck the ashes into the blades and the ashes went right through the openings in the blades an came out the shoot and all over the place, a slight error that was in my favor! Altho I had to clean up the ashes it blew everywhere, but yes with a motor and plastic pieces fitted on the backside of the blades will actually through dust! Or anything that can get through the openings in the blades! Not to mention designing it right (I used a F-7 frame, made by Cox) thats installed backwards, so the rear of the loco frame is actually the front of my snowblower (Making the frame actually run in reverse, but forwards for the snow blower) But being the rear of the loco was flat I needed this to mount the blower housing too. Being made like that and giving .025, to .030 clearances over the rail head creates a vacume in the front that sucks up dust and whips it away from the tracks. I had noticed this when I ran it on the layout, being I made it work like a real one, the motor inside only powers the blades, but needs to be pushed by a loco or a few loco's to propell the machine so... I gave it thought of machining a hole in the lower part of the blower housing to get down close between the rails an suck up dust, and blow it away from my mainline! BUT I haven't done this yet, as I'm not sure if it will work or not! BUT I just may when I get a chance.... But yes they will create a vacume with a motor being the blades will spin faster with a motor rather then the rubber band drive Athearn uses..... [ 09. January 2003, 04:07: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]
Cool! I'll have to file this back into my "when I go nuts some day" project to do. If done right it could be a good track dusting tool, but it'd also be a good "blow the ballast away" tool if you're not too careful! Mark in Utah
Mark, Its something actually. It really would blow the ballast away if you didn't glue it down! And to me and myself, I myself glye the ballast down I mean it make a mess otherwise so... But Yes it doews an will do a good job at blowing dust away froim the right of way so. But as you said for those who don't glue their ballast down, it would forsure blow the ballast away as well....
I haven't done anything with an Athearn unit but did power a MDC roundhouse rotary. I used a small 1.5 volt motor that I powered with a "N" battery so that the blades turned at a constant speed no matter what the speed of the engines pushing the plow. I used a small switch so that the blades could be turned on and off. Hope this helps.
I didn't think of using an "on site" power source for the blades to spin.... However, I can't or couldn't control the speed that way, with the motor running from track power an the loco pushing slow, makes the blades spin slowly too. However the idea of putting in a microswitch to shut the power off to the blades sounds like a good idea tho. I like that for opperation of wanting the blades only to run one dirrection, plus be able to move it around without the blades spinning for the fact of "not in use" the blades wouldn't spin in the yards saying if I have power to the track its setting on the locos an all will work, and the lights to the cabeese and all too but with the switch on off on the snow plow, the blades wouldn't spin! I'll have to figure out where to put a switch in mine!
I just had another thought on this. If you want to run it from track power then the same 1.5 V motor that I used could possibly be powered by a constant lighting circuit. I would still use the small switch to turn the unit on and off.
John, if you have the old steam rotary, you could mount the slide switch in the roof. File the switch button round so it can fit in a hole you drill in the bottom of the smoke stack, glue the stack on leaving a slight gap so the stack can move to operate the switch for "on & off", and its hidden. Putty over the screw heads and paint. Another method was used to turn lights on and off in a caboose. The switch was mounted inside vertically. A hole was drilled through the button, and through the roof. One of those round head "Bug" pins (to mount Bugs and Butterflies) was fit down through the roof, bent 90 degrees so it could stick through the switch button. By pulling up it turned the lights off. Pushed down it turned the lights on. No one ever noticed it since it was mounted close to the cupola and looked like some sort of antenna. It would also work as well to be mounted horizontally just under the roof over-hang on one of the vestibules.
Watash, I hadn't thought of that. But yes I could sever the stack on my rotary and make the stack fit over the switch bug knob and so that it would slide slightly to turn it on an off..... I never thought of that. Good thinkin ole buddy!
