Garden Railway Forum

A little bit of FeckHallBahn silliness. Hope you enjoy it!

Snowplough Acceptance Trial

https://youtu.be/KdC6eVHaw6k

Introducing Alderman A E Scraper 2
As seen in yesterday’s short video our homemade snowplough, 5305 Alderman A E Scraper, has had a rebuild. Well, ok, more of a replacement really but we’re calling it a rebuild for domestic accounting purposes and it DOES have the original buffer, coupling chain and number plate.
The new one went through acceptance trials yesterday and today; some modifications were required; notably reshaping the left side of the blade. At 25 tons the vehicle is way over the weight limit for both the MPD bridge (good thing we didn’t weigh it before it had been over) and the Tiefeshorn Branch beyond the shunt limit at Murthwaite Sehr Sud. Hence the T with a red through it on the cab side. AE would probably go down Vogelscheiße Incline ok but we don’t have anything powerful enough to bring it back up. Possibly a winch but we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.
On leaving the branch the crew decided to take advantage of AE’s brute strength (having seen it crush a boulder) and do a bit of lineside clearance. Hopefully this will please the bores who bang on and on about ‘weeds’.
Will it ever be used to clear snow? Who knows.

I'd marveled a bit while watching, about how extensive the rebuild had been! It looks like a very substantial piece of equipment. Would love to see it plow snow someday. A video of an operating G scale snowplow was one of the final pushes that got me started modeling for the garden. (I have a pilot-mounted plow but nothing strong enough to push it!)

It’s not really a rebuild, I’ve just called it that to keep peace with the domestic authorities; utter bargain on Ebay. It’s 100% scratch built and very well done. Wood, brass and foam board for the superstructure and a metal & wooden chassis with cast axleboxes, metal wheels and what looks like bronze bearings. I’ve modified it to suit my tight curves with a piece of Meccano to prevent buffer lock and reshaped the brass plough blade very slightly so that it will pass over my check rails. It weighs 2.75kg so yes, VERY substantial!!
L 270mm
W 120mm
H (from rail) 170mm

I must make a note of that definition of rebuild. It may come in very handy!