Thanks for your expertise Earl. Sounds like patting your head while rubbing your belly! Always great to get info from people who have actually done it. A very small group of people who have operated a steam rotary. It had to be brutal back in the day plowing over Cumbres. When you guys have done it, you dealt with that snow that thawed and froze over the winter compacting itself to solid ice. Hard going and I have enjoyed every hour of standing in the cold watching it many times.
There is a couple of lines out up here in South Dakota like the one that runs to a town called Watertown. It has an Ethanol plant and some other industry that they decide they have to service after letting the snow pile up all winter. These lines are horrible rotary eaters. The ATSF 199398 which is the blue and yellow one languishing away in Topeka was heavily damaged plowing up here in 1997 and has not operated again. The CB&Q rotary which has been stationed in Lincoln since 1915 and was the first US rotary converted from steam in 1949 came up in 2001 and suffered a main bearing failure which shredded the blade and destroyed the shroud housing. Must have been a shock to the guys operating it. It was set out and reported as scrapped but was actually just sitting in the weeds. It was sent to Relco in 2010 and completely rebuilt sporting the new colorful BNSF paint scheme. The ex NP rotary BNSF 972551 was built in 1925 and rebuilt to Electric in 1967. It came over from Minnesota in February of 2011 and was hauled home after littering farmer's fields with most of its blade. It also went to Relco and is in bright color after being rebuilt..
That hard compacted snow can be hard on equipment.
