Bryan wrote:No Quite correct.
However it was common practice to use 2 locos both coupled Tender - Tender.
This did not get rid of the risk of the Plough train getting stuck it just made it easier to get itself out.
The problem was that when the ploughs went through the snow was forced up and out. However once the plough had passed the snow settled back down to the cleared width and also intruded into the cleared width.
This was remedied to some extent in the BR builds of snowploughs by adding fold out wings on to the plough slopes increasing the cleared width. These are only of the order of about 9 inch per side but it eased the situation.
Many thanks Bryan. An interesting subject.
I always found the well-known BTF production "Snowdrift At Bleath Gill" quite educational on snow problems and how they were tackled, and that a stuck goods train might still have to be abandoned for several days.
I was watching a dvd a few months ago about the G.W.& G.C joint line and an old railwayman appeared during the dvd relating a story of a platoon of soldiers somewhere north of Princes Risborough (maybe the Ashendon Junction area?) digging out a cutting full of snow and dumping the snow into open wagons to be taken to Birmingham.
The train left the snow filled cutting with a TRAIN FULL OF SNOW and arrived in Birmingham as a train of empties wagons!.
Last edited by Mickey on Tue Oct 15, 2013 7:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
Bryan, just spotted that pic of the Darlington pair with two WDs. Thanks for posting that one. Would that pairing have gone everywhere that their RA allowed or would it be likely that they were for main routes only? Also which ploughs are they likely to have been? Would 15/16 have been same/similar to 18/20?
At the time of the photo, the only timber ploughs left in use were 18 and 20.
It is also known that around that time, that formation was ploughing the Whitby branch along the Esk Valley and plough 18 was derailed after hitting something.
This required a visit back to the wood butchers who shored up the dislodged timber framework on the Right hand side and sent it back out into traffic.
I found the leaning timberwork when I removed the RHS for restoration.
The top of the framework was leading the bottom by about 50mm.
The LHS seems OK
