Honey, I Finished The Internet

11 Replies to “Honey, I Finished The Internet”

1. Saw some footage of the steam rotary snowplow they clear the tracks with in California mountains.
   A real earth shaker.
   Course you know that its not snow, after the wisdom of the IPCC & Environment Canada we must now refer to the white stuff as inches of global warming.

2. It’s a guy thing. Guys love train snow plows like they love monster trucks and football.

3. Rotary plows/blowers have more or less been abandoned. Plows and Jordan Spreaders are faster and cheaper…..witness that CN “punch-plow”. Here in Ontario there are a few plows left from the steam era some 80-90+ years old….instead of a wig-wag…locomotive controls are now in the plow cab.
   Union Pacific keeps a couple around just in case for such as the Donner Pass….they are getting old and are not deployed sometimes for years. High maintainence and slow…lotsa fuel…most have locomotive engines of 3500 hp and up.
   Burlington Northern/Santa Fe has at least one as a last resort….
   Canadian Pacific once used rotaries in the Rogers Pass section but now rely on snow sheds, D8 dozers and big a$$ 4WD loaders…shared with the TransCanada….just as fast….and much faster and much more capable of dealing with avalanches.

4. One thing about my life on the left coast that I miss is winter sports.
   I look at my now obsolete 323GT rally car and remember when people cheered when I was sideways, on wet ice, pulled out of the drift 300 Meters down the road…
   Moving on in life, the car was as much of a hero as me, incredible balance, 2300 lb ,175 hp, and a suicidal turbocharger.
   RIP rice rocket. 1989 Mazda 323 GT.
   May the “cash for clunkers” creeps not claim you, and my you find a kid that will love you.
   And with some TLC you will ego- deflate daddy bought Chads driving daddy bought Mustangs, Camaro s, and Dodge Challengers.
   d (rambling)

5. Neat! Never even thought about snow on the tracks before.

6. I still remember and have pictures of an engine and plow went off the rails near our town north of Saskatoon in the early 80s in March. The consist also had a number of grain cars. The drift covering the cut was too high and getting soggy due to spring weather. They brought in a big crane and it took them days to get everything back on the tracks.

7. Man, what a rush driving one of those things!

8. awesome, great display of energy “transfer”!!!!

9. I will never complain about the winters in Louisi-Yana again.
   As fas as passion goes Dwright, I miss my Silver 70′ GTO, 455CI, 4 speed Saginaw, posi-trac, Quadrajet, 180 on the speed-o, tach and scopes on the hood, wing on the back, and one hell of a hole-shot. Beat many a Camaro, Mustang, Charger, Nova II’s, 440’s and SS’s. The only one gave me trouble was that damn Baracuda with a Hemi.
   ,

10. I ran through the video twice, trying to figure out how the spreader works but, everyting was moving too fast for me. Anyway, for speed, these things do beat the big old roraries. I wonder how they’d fare in long drifts about 6 feet deep.

11. “I wonder how they’d fare in long drifts about 6 feet deep.”
    Watch it again…..
    There are at least 2 scenes of such a situation in that video….one on flat country…t’other riping out a cut.
    However, for such they keep the speed down to 30mph, so they don’t jump the tracks…..push till they spin out then back off and take another bunt….it’s inertia as much a power and traction…..that why they have several engines doing the pushing…..even on rotarys….