NKP Snowplows

[rstaller]

I am looking for any and all information on the snowplows used on the NKP.  Any help will be greatly appreciated.                   

                                                                                      Thank You

                                                                                      Randy Staller

[JoeKoh]

check with the Mad River & Nickel Plate museum in Bellevue Ohio.They have a link to their website in the museum section of this website.You also might want to try the Ft Wayne society at 765.org Good luck.

stay safe

Joe

[rstaller]

I'm checking those links now. Many Thanks.  R. Staller

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Have you looked at John A. Rehor's mid-1960's book, "The Nickel Plate Road" ? I don't recall there being much about snow plows in it, though I could be wrong. I'll try to take a look again sometime soon to confirm or correct that impression.

- Paul North.

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

OK, I looked through most of Rehor's book, and I was right - there's not much. There's nothing in the index for "snowplow" or "plow", and the equipment rosters in the back are only of engines - many pages, passenger cars, and cabooses. I skimmed most of the text for the 1920 to 1965 eras, and nothing caught my eye as pertaining to snowplows.

However - at the top 1/3 of page 276 is a photo of borrowed Burlington F3's on a test run at West [Fort] Wayne on June 17, 1948. On the right side is NKP X50026, a Russell/ wedge-type plow with the front half of its left side in the photo. But nothing is even said in the caption about it.

Also, at the bottom of page 337 is a small photo of W&LE Ten-Wheeler 633 with a large wedge plow on the front from Nov. 1913, but I figure that's not quite what you're looking for.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your research at the other resources that have been suggested.

- Paul North.

[MJChittick]

Here is a link to the Mad River & Nickel Plate Museum web site:

http://www.madrivermuseum.org/

I was there seven year's ago and I thought I remembered seeing a large wedge type snowplow on display.  And I was right; here is a link to the picture on the web site:

http://www.madrivermuseum.org/gallery/pages/page_13.html

I haven't found any specific info on it; but, I would guess it would have been very useful along the Buffalo and Cleveland Divisions when the "lake effect" snows from Lake Erie came pouring in.

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Interesting - even though it's apparently not listed in the "Equipment" tabulation on that website . . .  

But what is listed and with a photo is a Lehigh & Hudson River RR ore car.  What's that doing there, so far away from home rails ?   Also, I question whetehr L&HR ever actually owned any ore cars ?  It's possible, but that would be news to me.  Let's see what someone with more knowledge of that road has to say about it - like henry6, for example. 

- Paul North. 

[nkp2503]

The Mad River Museum's snowplow is NYC 3X665 built in Ridgeway, PA in 1943.

John Fryar

[nkp2503]

The L&H River ore car was, strangely enough, found in an abandoned stone quarry in Forest, OH. It was donated to Mad River by the Standard Slag Company of Youngstown, OH. 

The current equipment list on the Mad River website does not list every piece of equipment they own. A complete list is forthcoming.

John Fryar

[phbrown]

The L&HR could reasonably have owned ore cars.  There's good iron ore in northern NJ.  My father and brother and I once (mid-1970's) explored the remains of a large plant in Franklin, NJ, just by where the L&HR (which was still there) met the NYS&W (by then long abandoned).  Our best guess as to what it was was something to do with iron mining.

But that's not to say that the L&HR did own ore cars. I have no direct evidence on that one way or the other.

[nkp2503]

"During the Nickel Plate years there were usually four regular snow plows on the roster, These were used throughout the system, but it was normal to find them stored serviceable at Conneaut, Buffalo, Fort Wayne, and Frankfurt. Stored at these locations they could be near all problem areas and were also centrally located to move wherever needed. These plows were basically the same as the more publicized versions of the western roads. The Nickel Plate was in many ways far ahead of its midwestern counterparts and its ownership of snowplows was yet another example." **

During the 1930's, Mikados were fitted with snow pilots as were later the 700's and some 2-8-0's. The pilots could handle about a foot of snow and were kept on many locomotives until the end of steam.

80 snow plows were acquired from 1888-1923 at between 1 and 2 per year. No more were purchased until 1958 when 1 was purchased each year through 1962.

http://nkphts.org/nkp_snowplow.jpg

Reference ** Nickel Plate Road Magazine, Winter 1966; Nickel Plate MofW Acquisition list:

http://nkphts.org/rosters/acquisitions/nkp/mow.html

John Fryar

 

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

 Just 'activated' those 2 links above for you . . .

  http://nkphts.org/nkp_snowplow.jpg  

  http://nkphts.org/rosters/acquisitions/nkp/mow.html 

 

[rstaller]

Everyone;  Thanks for all the help.  For the people that e-mailed me direct, I tried to reply to the e-mail address that was posted in your letters, but MSN wouldn't accept it as an address.  Anyone trying to contact me, go to  [e-mail]  and I'll try to reply directly.  Again all, thanks for the responses.                                                       

                                                          Randy Staller