typesix wrote:The snowplow is a Type 3. The PCCs don't do well in heavy snow as the T tried to do last winter in keeping the line open. Too much snow got into the electrical gear and disabled the cars, therefore the new policy of busing for heavy snow and using non-rail snow clearing equipment. I also would like to see if a PCC could push one of the lead sleds.
I would like to comment about the Type 3 snowplow at Mattapan. Today that car is probably no longer in good running condition, if it can operate at all. Even more to the point, there are probably no crews left on the "T" who know how to run that car.
Back when the Type 3 streetcar snowplows were in good working order and there were crews who knew how to operate them, these plows did an excellent job of clearing away all but the heaviest and wettest snow, especially on private right-of-way routes like the Mattapan-Ashmont High-Speed Line.
The Type 3s were very heavy and, with four sizeable traction motors mounted in trucks with 33" diameter wheels (much taller than the 26" diameter wheels of the PCCs and far less prone to being bogged down by deep snow), quite powerful. They were equipped with wing plows as well as under-floor scraper blades which broke up compacted snow on street-running stretches of track. The wing plows were deployed at stations where they were used to clear snow off the platforms. Out on open track they could be extended quite far beyond the sides of the car to push already-plowed snow even farther away from the center line of the track.
I once had the privilege of riding a Type 3 snow plow with an experienced crew, which consisted of a motorman and two assistants stationed in the middle of the car. It was quite an experience to watch these men at work. The two assistants at the center of the car operated the wing plows on both sides. The motorman would call out to them to retract the wing plows whenever the car passed by obstacles close to the track. An air compressor mounted on the floor near the middle of the car constantly pounded away as it supplied air to the pneumatically-operated mechanisms controlling the wing plows. It was an experience to watch these marvels of ingenious early-twentieth-century mechanical craftsmanship at work
It took skillful cooperation amongst all three crew members to operate the Type 3 snowplows efficiently. Even though it might be bitterly cold and windy outside, inside the Type 3s it was toasty warm from the the heat given off by the resistance grids in the traction motor circuits. On passenger streetcars these resistance grids were always mounted beneath the floor, but on the Type 3s, with so much underfloor space taken up by the plow mechanisms, the traction motor grids had to be placed inside the car.
For years the Boston Elevated Railway (which converted the Type 3 streetcars into snow plows in the first place and designed the plow mechanisms), later the MTA, and finallly the MBTA, all used them effectively and well. These plows saw plenty of duty on the Riverside Line, the Arborway and Watertown lines, as well as on Commonwealth Avenue and Beacon Street.
The PCCs were never expected to have to push their way through heavy snow, and it was rare that snow got so deep or heavy that service had to be interrupted or replaced by buses.
Using PCCs to push rail-mounted "sleds" (plows mounted on a heavily-weighted-down sled-like mechanism) wouldn't hold a candle to what the Type 3s could do.
It is a sad commentary on how far things have declined since the days when the transit system's management didn't hesitate to train and deploy skilled snow plow crews who really knew how to operate the Type 3s. Usually these men were old-timers with the most experience and seniority, and were paid good overtime wages for their work. These crews were on call and in stand-by mode whenever a major snowstorm threatened.
The T needs modern-day counterparts of the Type 3s and people who know how to operate them.
