Suleski Transportation Snow Plow construction project continues.

Phase 3 (To read from the beginning click here)

Two Plows out at work

Well I thought I’d be updating you on the building progress of the rail plows, but a storm moving up the east coast came closer to us than the weather guessers thought. It’s now snowing and for the first time there will be two Plow Extra Crews called in to clear the right-of-way for Suleski Transportation.

Here the chief of power has assigned ST 28 a GP-38-2 and ST 21 a custom U-36 to the Plow Extras. Since the snow is light and dry we will start with one engine each.

We hope that we can keep up with snow fall and not let it get too deep that we will need additional power.

Here you can see the reflective graphics used on ST 28

Ever since ST 21 & 22 were painted the management switched to lettering our motive power with reflective graphics when they are repainted in ST schemes.

Here the Plow Extras wait on the ready tracks outside the Engine Maintenance Facility for their crews. Maintenance staff have already checked that everything is in order and ready to go.
 

It’s great to see SP-2 ready to work along side SP-1

Here are two photos that show the plows at work clearing the line. They are taken from a distance because you don’t want to be close to the snow plumes. I apologize for the quality, but I’m sure the photographer was shaking from the cold, while it was warm inside the plow.
 

 
 

It’s a bit funny that after all the painting and graphics planned by the marketing department, you can’t see any of it when the plow is really working.

Well after Plowing all night and half the next day we have a break in the weather so we can get to work on the Single-throw Plows that will be used for clearing the double track mainline area.

Here the first unit is heading into the paint shops.  I know it looks like it is in color already, but that is just the pre-primed material we worked with.

While they are painting the plow I’ll take you over to the metal shop where they make the wings, and blades for the plow. Here crews are welding the slides onto the wings that will help throw the snow further away from the tracks. For the single throw plows the wings are two different sizes. The larger one goes on the side the snow gets thrown to.

They do all kinds of welding in the metal shop from arc welding to mig welding. They also do plasma cutting.

Oh the insurance company wants me to remind you to be careful not to look into the welding light it can hurt your eyes.

Here is the plow after coming out of the paint shop.

Now crews have brought in a large wing and are lifting it into place with the help of the overhead crane.

Here are some photos with the wings in place. This unit will cut a wide swath through the snow.

They still need to install the adjustable metal blade that will drop to the track level and lift up as needed. Along with the rear coupler which is currently backordered.

Installation of graphics comes next: (my favorite part)

The plow is officially entered on the roster as ST SP-7

We will post more photos as these projects progress.

Continue to Phase 4


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