Wizards in Winter - Model Trains Edition.


Very creative video and some nice winter scenes. Jerome, that thing that looked like a catenary is actually an icicle breaker. On the Donner Pass route, huge icicles form at the portals of tunnels and snow sheds. The icicle breakers were bolted on and raised in winter to knock those icicles down before they damaged any of the other equipment. I can't find a good picture of them on-line but they were constructed in such a way that icicle was pushed forward and away for the unit although it wasn't unusual to see window damage to the lead units from flying ice. I don't know if those icicle breakers are still used. A lot of the snow sheds have been taken down and some of the worst tunnel portals have had water diversion systems and propane heaters added to keep the size of icicles down to a more manageable size.
 
All of the passenger trains had the ice breakers on thier roofs, atleast on the UP, the main threat was to the dome cars with all their raised glass panels in the dome. All of the UP's E units had them on the roof. I have seen pics of them on the power for the SP rotary plows as well. Those units had all kinds of special snow gear on them.
 
Josh, I have the feeling that was good video editing rather than a fast finger in the headlight button. :)
 
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