UP 900000 Miscellaneous Snow Plows
Index For This Page
This page was last updated on December 3, 2017.
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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.
- Jull UPRy (D&LG) 066 was part of snowplow trials in narrow gauge service in Altman Pass in 1890; returned to standard gauge after the trials and used on standard gauge Union Pacific Denver & Gulf; received a new six-wheel front truck in 1912 as it was too heavy even on standard gauge; renumbered to Colorado & Southern 99210 in 1912; scrapped in 1929.
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