UP 900000 Miscellaneous Snow Plows

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This page was last updated on December 3, 2017.

Snow Loader / Snow Melter

UP Snow Loader / Snow Melter

1959 Number	Previous Number	Description	Builder	Date Built	Date To 900000 Series	Date Retired	Notes
UP 900077	UP 077	Snow Loader	Barber-Greene Co.	Oct 1949	Mar 1959	May 1968	1
UP 900078	UP 078	Snow Melter	UPRR	Oct 1949	Mar 1959	May 1968	2

UP 900077 (as UP 077) was designed and built by Barber-Greene Company of Aurora, Illinois, which produced asphalt paving machines for highway construction. The company also produced specialized trenchers and loaders for construction materials.

As early as the mid 1920s, Barber-Greene produced snow loaders for highways and roads, used by street departments to remove snow from city streets, transferring the snow by single conveyor belt to waiting dump trucks. The single belt design was changed to two-belt design and adapted as a snow loader for the railroads, including Union Pacific and New Haven. Three similar machines were also furnished to the New Haven (NY,NH&H) railroad, which kept three 2-8-2 steam locomotives in service solely for snow loader/melter service, until the all of the machines were retired in 1958.

(Read about a similar Barber-Greene "Windrow Loader" at Archive.org.)

(Photo of a Barber-Greene street snow loader in service on Ottawa city streets in 1945.)

(Photo of a Barger-Greene street snow loader in Chicago in 1945.)

General Notes:

UP 900077 and 900078 were assigned to North Platte until their retirement in 1968.
(Photo of UP 077 / 078)
UP 900077 and 900078 were used to clear yard tracks by using a mechanical loading mechanism which lifted the snow and placed it on to a conveyer belt, which then loaded the snow into a tender-like tank car (no. 900078) where the snow was melted to reduce its volume; the melter was equipped with steam coils that used steam piped from a steam locomotive.

Notes:

UP 900077 was built in October 1949 by Barber-Greene Company of Aurora, Illinois as UP 077; renumbered to UP 900077 in 1959; retired in May 1968
UP 900078 was built as UP 078 in October 1949 from flatcar 57131 for service with Snow Loader 077; renumbered to UP 900078 in 1959; retired in May 1968 (UP flat car 57131 was an F-50-11 class steel underframe car built by Pullman in July 1941; retired in September 1949, "Dismantled account underframe required for use in construction of snow melter"; UP equipment record sheet r1-0933)

Roadway Locomotive / Snow Melter

UP 4-6-6-4 -- 1 locomotive

1961 UP Number	Date To Roadway Number	First Number	1952 UP Number	Builder	Builder Number	Date Built	Date Vacated
UP 900079	Nov 1961	UP 3977	UP 3710 (2nd)	Schenectady	70160	Jun 1943	Nov 1961

Description:

Cabside Class: 4664-5
Drive Wheel Diameter: 69 inches
Cylinders: 21&21x32 inches
Maximum Tractive Effort: 97,350 pounds
Weight on Drivers: 406,200 pounds
Weight in Working Order (Engine Only): 634,500 pounds
Weight in Working Order (Engine and Tender): 1,071,000 pounds
Fuel: Oil (converted from coal-burner in 1945)

UP 900079 was built as UP 3977 in 1943; converted from coal-burner to oil-burner in 1945, and assigned to service on the Northwestern District (OWRR&N); renumbered to UP 3710 (2nd) in 1952; removed from service in October 1959 and used in snow melting service in the switching yard in North Platte, Nebraska; renumbered to UP 900079 "Roadway Locomotive" in November 1961; retired in May 1968 and donated to City of North Platte, Nebraska; displayed as UP 3977 in Cody Park.

The following comes from Jack Wheelihan, posted to Trainorders.com on December 1, 2015:

When I was in North Platte, Neb during late 1963, getting ready to put the EMD GP35/DD35 Demonstrator set together, I remember seeing the Challenger in the roundhouse. They had shop steam piped into it, and when I inquired as to what the purpose of the steam pipe with all the holes in, attached to the bottom of the pilot was for, the Foreman explained "the plan". It was supposed to be for snow removal at all the turnouts throughout the yard. However, the downside was, unless the MoW "operator" was VERY careful with the steam supply to that pipe under the pilot, not only was the snow removed, but also all the ballast, tieplates, and some spikes! We did get some snow while I was still there, but didn't get to see the Challenger "in action".

The folks at the North Platte Roundhouse told me that it did indeed move under its own power, when I was there in late 1963. They had shop steam piped into it so that it would be ready at a moments notice, i.e. boiler with nice hot water and steam pressure, so that lighting the oil fire took only a few minutes. She would then be quickly ready for "work" by the time a crew showed up, as the roundhouse forces/Hostler had her ready to go, quickly.

UP Jull-type Snow Plows

1918 Number	As-Built Number	Builder	Date Built	Builder Number	Date Retired	Notes
UP 03004	UP 065	Southwark	Jul 1889	Jull 1	Mar 1949	sold for scrap
	UP 066	Rogers	Feb 1890	Jull 2 (Rogers 4256)	(1899)	to Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf; to C&S 0200 in 1899

General Notes:

UP 065 and 066 had wooden construction and steel underframes
These two snow plows were first and second of eleven "Jull Centrifugal Snow Excavator" snow plows built.
The Jull plows had a large spiral screw placed diagonally across the front of the plow to clear the snow. The design did not work as well in deep or heavy snow as the Leslie design.

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