That is to bad....we spent a lot of time installing and maintaining the pilot flangers back in the early days of the D&S. They were used by the engine crews as needed on the regular winter train. I will admit that they were maintenance intensive as just about every day that they were used, the blades usually had to be changed prior to going out again the next morning. We had plenty of extra blades on hand for this purpose. The engineer really had to pay attention so as to raise and lower the pilot flanger and the drag flanger when approaching switches, road crossings and cattle guards........all part of "knowing the road".
MD Ramsey