What is the most snow in inches and consistency that could possibly derail/break my plow? I have an Aristo craft snow plow and a Aristo craft Erie Lacawanna SD45. I dont feel like breaking anything this winter.:mwacko: Whats the most snow anybody plowed with this plow?
There used to be a couple of videos on youtube. If still there, those might give some ideas. I knew someone who did it on his railroad. It was heavy, wet snow and he had troubles with an amount roughly the height of an SD45 cab roof. If the snow is powdery, I'm sure results will be different.
I've never head of anyone actually breaking one on any of the largescale forums, they are very rugged. Snow conditions and the speed you might be running at are the most important factors however. if all else fails, build a rotary plow
Unless you use a Ram/back up/ram method, you shouldn't have any problems......you're loco will lose traction long before you reach the breaking point of the plow. As a general rule, if the snow is more than half the height of the plow, it's time to get out the rotary.......maybe a little more if it's powdery, less if it's wet.
I just went to youtube, searched for "g scale snow plow" and up came a nice sized assortment of possibilities.
I've got the same plow, pushed by a pair of Aristo GP40's. Out back, while set up on patio, I was able to plow through about 3" snow without too many problems. Had a minor derail, due, I think, to packed snow in a switch frog. Was able to make it through about 2" snow out front. Harder time, as surface of snow had crusted over, making it somewhat harder to break through. Had an even more interesting time, using the K27 and snow plow to Clear the track out front!! A few short videos of my attempts can be found on YouTube, under user name 5771Fan. Such as this one: [video=youtube;xhY_PQO89fE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhY_PQO89fE&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/video] Even with patio brick in plow, for weight, I still had occasional details. Truck mounted coupler on rear probably was not helping!! Body mount and maybe things might have worked a bit better.
I wonder if you'd used more units and been able to push at a slow steady rate, if things would have gone without needing to back up and make a new run at it?
lol "Backup, Push, Backup, Push". Thats what I was doing last winter. I just didnt know if I was slowly breaking or ruining them. I am new to G-scale and have been used to delicate HO trains so I am still thinking of all model trains as delicate. lol. I just wish the plows were made of full metal for more added weight.
I doubt it. I was doing much the same, even with both GP40's pushing. In this case, it was day old snow. In that it had time to form a frozen crust on the surface. Which made it somewhat difficult to plow through. Lighter, fluffier snow is no problem. Unless it starts falling back onto the track, in which case, it is packed down to railhead, isolating my power! At some point, I'd like to get all 3 numbers of the USAT GP30 to use as plow power. Or wire my GP40's together so they don't stall as much when running in snow. I also agree that that Aristo plow could be made heavier. Maybe with a way to easily body mount a KD coupler, to help avoid some of the derailment issues I was running into.
Problem is, if the snow doesn't want to budge or if it does, there's still a strong possibility of the trucks burning out. It's those blasted plastic spur gears.
That was good Kenny, but I love this one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF2Z...wIADL4KVxj3RiB5w&index=131&feature=plpp_video
They actually thought it was possible to shove through that much? You can't wedge a drift like that up hill. Good grief! That's strictly rotary work. In the past, many companies would have had a Cat assigned to initially breaking down that kind of condition. I wonder what condition the engines were in afterward? Traction motors packed with snow and ice?
I wonder if they coulda pulled back out. I am stuck between what to get next. Either a GP40 or C44-9W. I would like to have the GP40 to negotiate spurs going to businesses because I will be using 6 foot radius curves in spurs but would love the awesomeness of a big Dash 9. It really helps to have the track elevated so snow has a place to go. Last year I made a canyon by adding more snow with a shovel. I have to get pictures of it up. It looked so cool. I stayed out there till midnight because I knew in the morning it would get destroyed and melted. That was in its "temporary" location where I just set it up for the winter because of the snow. I have a larger setup this time but it isnt elevated so it will be brutal this year with only one SD45. Unless I make some money and me any my brother go halves on a locomotive of some kind. Oh I have a Tunnel made out of the 2x4s I used to slightly elevate the track last year and wondering if I should take it down. Its only 2 feet long.
The newer GP40's are animals. They are well built and solid running. The only GP40's that had truck issues that I was ever aware of, was the Rock Island units. The newer ones starting with the BN Custom Run had ventilated trucks to prevent overheating. One of the guys at my local Aristocraft Distributor has over 16 of the GP40's and they hold up very well.
a dash-9 with all 3 weights in place will pull your leg off ! once i had 4 dash-9 connected together. it was almost not possible to hold them. i assume a single dash-9 would be good for up to 60 cars or even more.
