New Brass Project.

If you are doing a fall scene, you could have the yard crew prepping it for winter and test running it occasionally.

Or... Once a year our club has a "strange trains" run, which features fictional items such as the Hogwart's Express, Thomas the Tank Engine (and friends), oddball real-world equipment such as an old Kemtron Thomas-Flyer railcar outfitted as a logging ambulance, and, yes, some snow-fighting rolling stock as well.

Last year we had both a flanger and a spreader running around, and this year I hope to add the rotary as well. (Woe betide any gandy dancers who fail to clear the right-of-way!)

Other than that, the plow falls into the "mobile scenery" category.

~Pete

What's the function of the blade behind the front truck?

Good eye. There are two: one on each side.

They are independant "flanger" blades that could be lowered down to scrape off the remaining snow and ice that was packed between the rails where the rotary blades couldn't reach. The flanger blades were naturally (and hopefully) raised back up again whenever the plow reached a switch, a derail, or a grade crossing. Those had to be shoveled out by hand.

Some flangers -and snowplows- had little semaphore signals on their roofs to tell the engineer of the locomotive pushing the plow whether the flanger blades were up or down, and the engineers of both the plow and the pusher engine usually communicated such things as "stop-and- go", "back up", and "your flanger blades are still down, stupid!" via whistle signals back in the days before cab-to-cab radios became common.

I *love* train trivia stuff like this...

~Pete

Good eye. There are two: one on each side.

-------------------------------------------------------- I look closely. There's much I don't know.

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They are independant "flanger" blades that could be lowered down to scrape off the remaining snow and ice that was packed between the rails where the rotary blades couldn't reach. The flanger blades were naturally (and hopefully) raised back up again whenever the plow reached a switch, a derail, or a grade crossing. Those had to be shoveled out by hand.

Some flangers -and snowplows- had little semaphore signals on their roofs to tell the engineer of the locomotive pushing the plow whether the flanger blades were up or down, and the engineers of both the plow and the pusher engine usually communicated such things as "stop-and- go", "back up", and "your flanger blades are still down, stupid!" via whistle signals back in the days before cab-to-cab radios became common.

I *love* train trivia stuff like this...

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Cool! I was thinking something along those lines but wasn't sure clearing between the rails would be needed. I did know that switches needed shoveling.

That reminds me - anybody know about the sort of code the crews used on the signal air line?

Good question.

I've got a 1943 edition of the Southern Pacific "Rules and Regulations" (#50322), and it says nothing about the subject.

~Pete