Re: 476 with wedge plow

Russo Loco Wrote:
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> Hi, Jerry -
>
> IIRC, rotaries work best when they are sent out
> while the snow is still relatively soft and fluffy
> -
> even during a storm while snow is still falling to
> get it off the tracks before it gets too deep -
> and
> they don't work nearly as well with crusted snow
> or if the snow has melted and then refrozen so
> there is a lot of ice.   Is that right?
>
> I have a movie of a C&TS rotary special - from the
> nineties, IIRC - and the going was real slow even
> though the snow wasn't very deep due to it being
> spring and the snow all crusted up.
>
> - Russ
Russ:

Most rotary runs on the D&RGW and RGS happened between January 1 and the end of March with a few going into APril. Every few years, there might be a need to do a rotary run in December and even a few in November. The latest a rotary was ever run on the D&RGW was June of 1920, when Rotary OO was used to open the Floresta branch from Crested Butte. They had all kinds of trouble with broken blades and it took over a week to open an 11 mile branch. The branch had been closed since before Christmas and the snow had packed into 20 feet deep ice.

After that, the D&RGW used a ditcher to open that branch in May or June.

Jerry Day