Hello,
As the winter/train season is almost upon us, I have been pondering the subject of snowfighting equipment. Given what is available, what would be an ideal fleet, and what kind of consists would make sense? I am posting this here because some of the equipment available that I like are fictional representations, namely Lionel's small rotary plow locos and jet snow blowers (which I understand are used for thawing switches and such), and assuming they would do their jobs just fine in the real world. I am also disregarding the era in which a certain piece of equipment might have operated.
I am imagining one train consisting of a rotary plow loco (I considered MTH's plow, but the blade looks too far away from the rails), ice breaker hopper, MTH engineer's car, and the jet snow blower at the rear facing backward to thaw frozen switch points once the plow has cleared them. I'm also thinking a second set with a single loco (for simplicity) sandwiched between a Russell plow and a Jordan spreader. Would it make sense to include another engineer's car in this consist, or would the forces of the plow hitting heavy drifts be too much for such a car to withstand if the consist happened to be traveling in the direction that would put the car ahead of the loco? Most of the videos I've seen only have one plow and one or more locomotives, but I have also read that it's a good idea to have a plow at both ends so that the train doesn't get trapped (at least, in theory) by new snow if it has to back out.
What recommendations does anyone have?
Thanks,
Aaron
