I was looking at the Athearn Rotary plow on line and would like to know if any one has added power to this and what problems they had?
I think it looks funny to have to have an engine behind the oil tender.
Thanks Chris
Years ago I powered one. I used a 1.5 volt motor, a battery and an on/off switch. It worked well. Now, if you are using DCC you can run the blade at a more prototypical speed.
I put an old motor in one with a NCE decoder and it was almost trivial.
"I was looking at the Athearn Rotary plow on line and would like to know if any one has added power to this and what problems they had?
I think it looks funny to have to have an engine behind the oil tender."
But that's how they ran them.
I'm sure you could mount it on an Athearn chassis but prototypically speaking I don't think there were any Leslie type rotaries that were self-propelled.
I know UP had rotaries that had a diesel inside for the auger but I'm not sure if it produced power for traction motors in the trucks.
Eric
Most snowplows weren't self powered and some didn't evn have power to turn the wheel, getting their power from the loco. Having a tender indicates a boiler on the plow. As a result, having a loco behind the plow is actually quite normal. Bucking plows often had several locos when the snows got anywhere near heavy
-- Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?
| Most snowplows weren't self powered and some didn't evn have power to turn | the wheel, getting their power from the loco. Having a tender indicates a | boiler on the plow. As a result, having a loco behind the plow is actually | quite normal. | Bucking plows often had several locos when the snows got anywhere near heavy
A little late jumping in on this. The new Athearn version has a direct drive motor on the blade. No more rubber bands. There is an electronic board supplying a constant voltage so the rotation appears plausible.
Alaska piled on the locomotives. In steam days 4 or more were not unusual. This plow was converted to electricity in the '60's. It was coupled/MU'd to an eff B which supplied the electricity. The B had it's traction motors disconnected for snow season. However many diesels were necessary were coupled up and off they went. The plow survived in use long enough to get the blue and yellow in the '80's. Now ARR uses bulldozers and spreaders to clear snow. They still use the artillery piece for avalanches.
CTucker NY
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