Jaws ( w83 )Question

freightguy wrote:The engineer I work with lost his grandfather to that wedge plow. He was out in a snowstorm with it and the plow got stuck in the raised position. He went out to try to lower it and the wedge plow fell crushing his legs.

I read somewhere that the operators of that equipment used to have to be really sharp with the physical characteristics of the railroad. They used to have to raise the plow in certain spots over crossings and switches. If the wedge caught it, the plow would derail and sometimes even catch fire. This was all in a couple of feet of snow!

i think you may be talking about the spreader. . . this particular wedge dosent raise/lower. . . only the spreaders the nose plow raised and lowered
jaws is fixed blade

Yes . . . . plows had to be raised at crossings.

I don't know if the LIRR had them, but some roads had "Raise Plow" signs posted before the crossings as a heads-up for the plow operators.

This was also done for street plows: "Raise plow" signs were placed before the railroad crossings, so the plows clearing the streets wouldn't hit the crossing on their way over them.

Dave Keller

yup. . here is an axample of a plow lift sign.

the spreaders had the ctual blade part bolted on so if you dont raise it well. . boom. SPs flangers had the actual blade part bolted on with shear bolts so if they hit somthign it would pop off and not derail but all spreaders were solid bolted on. wedge plows, russells and some jordan wedges ( jordan built wedge plows from russell patents leter on ) didnt have any blades that raised or lowered in the front . altho later jordan wedges had drop flangers mounted in the nose. russells standard flanger was mounted before the rear truck. jaws never recived a flanger of any kind though and stayed a standard wedge plow.

Thanx for the sample sign!

Dave Keller

Not to dispute Don but, I remember being told years ago that the car body was constructed from scratch in the LIRR's shops. Having been in Jaws many times, I would think that is the case as it is very crudely constructed.
As it is not apparent from photos, the space between the point of the plow and the car body is hollow and is accessable from a door inside the cabin. When Jaws was stored on a siding in Riverhead years ago, there was all sorts of heavy junk in there. We were told that the crews would add this weight to try and keep Jaws from derailing at crossings which it was prone to do.

i have to agree there. . that dont look much like a hack at all. i also have to say nay to the russell blade part. theres a ciouple things about it that say otherwise.