Today's Train of Thought demosntrates the efforts many railroads undertake in the wintertime to keep their lines open. Burlington Northern-Santa Fe has a fleet of rotary snowplows inherited from predecessors Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, Great Northern and Northern Pacific that it utilizes to keep clear its lines in the midwest, Cascades and Rockies each winter. The rotary plows work by having spinning blades housed in a plow ahead of the power source and locomotives chew through snowbanks and snowdrifts that have accumulated on the right-of-way before ejecting the snow through a chute housed atop the blade assembly. Sometimes more than one pass is required to clear the tracks.
Here, railpictures.net contributor Sam J. Botts caught BNSF rotary snowplow #972559 putting on a fine show as it was finishing up clearing the tracks at Tamora, NE on January 11, 2010. The plow was built in 1915 by Alco-Brooks and extensively rebuilt in 1966 by Northern Pacific. On this day, the rotary is being powered by a converted F9B and shoved by a BNSF ES44AC GEVO and a leased CEFX (CIT Group Capital Leasing) C40-8W.
Here, railpictures.net contributor Sam J. Botts caught BNSF rotary snowplow #972559 putting on a fine show as it was finishing up clearing the tracks at Tamora, NE on January 11, 2010. The plow was built in 1915 by Alco-Brooks and extensively rebuilt in 1966 by Northern Pacific. On this day, the rotary is being powered by a converted F9B and shoved by a BNSF ES44AC GEVO and a leased CEFX (CIT Group Capital Leasing) C40-8W.
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