Welcome to Vintage Railroad Postcards!

Thank you for stopping by! This is the blog for the Russell P. Panecki Collection of vintage railroad-related postcards. The entire collection consists of nearly one thousand so far with images dating from circa 1904 to the 1950s. To leave a comment, ask a question, to contribute or correct historical information, a comment box is located to the left for your convenience.

Each page, including this homepage, has an index located in the lower portion of the page. In addition to the index, posts were updated with historical information, new postcards added from storage files, while some posts were completely rewritten or edited for corrections. Three articles have been added and are worth reading. They include how vintage postcards were made, the history of Pennsylvania Station, and the history of Grand Central Terminal.

My apologies, but the postcards in my collection and on this blog are not available for sale, copying, or for contribution to projects. Please keep in mind that I reserve all rights to the images and content of this blog.

Monday, October 12, 2015

Stopping to Work on the Snow Plow

This is a view from an unknown railroad in an unknown location, but it does look like some work is being done on this early and interesting rotary snow plow. Because it is being worked on outside of a snow shed and under steam, and not in a yard, it's probably a repair or removal of debris.



5 comments:

David Emery said...

Wow, that's an early Rotary plow, and it looks like a passenger car was grafted onto the back of it.

Chris James said...

That's the original 1888 body on the CM's "tiny" (9-foot rotor) Leslie # 08 (later designated at Rotary A). Later it was rebuilt without the cupola and fewer windows. Can't say on the location, though it looks similar to the terrain climbing toward Hagerman Tunnel above Leadville. No guarantee, though.

Judging from the text on the bottom, this might be a Jackson photo as it's similar to the text and numbering on an image of the plow above Leadville. (Silver Rails: The Railroads of Leadville, Colorado, p. 174).

http://www.silverrailsleadville.com

chris james

Russ said...

That's great information, Chris...Thanks for clearing up the mystery of this rotary snow plow's home road and location!

Russ

Chris James said...

Um, no…it would appear I was dead wrong. Adrian. J. Hunthausent on the CM forum feels this is probably a Great Northern or Norther Pacific Rotary, nowhere near the CM or Leadville.

-- Group, that is most definitely NOT the Midland plow. All of the early Leslie plows had more or less the same body, but this one has been modified in a way the Midland's never was; the body of this plow has been raised nearly to the same level as the cupola, but the long row of windows has been left in place. The side door is also in a different place than on the Midland's plow.

Andrew DSodge adds..

-- When I saw the photograph I noticed two things: the plow and the structure between it and the hillside. While I agree that the plow looks like the early version of the Leslie used on the Midland, I do not recognize that structure as being anything on the line. None of the sheds on the High Line that I have ever seen photographs of have a sloped roof. All the sheds photographed on the west side are the same rectangular design used on the east side.

When the Midland rebuilt its plow in 1891, the cupola and all of those windows were eliminated.

The Midland's Leslie plow was the 10th one built. The first nine were bought by the UP, OR&N, SP, and NP. All four of those roads traversed territory with hillsides like the one in the photo.

Russ Panecki said...

Thanks for the update, Chris. I appreciate your input and interest!

Russ