Topic: Snow removal

[Francois]

I was just suggested this really beautiful short movie by the National Film Board of Canada.
It shows how the streets of Montreal were cleared after a big snow storm back in 1956.
This might be fun for those of us who live in warmer climes and have never seen anything like that.
Funny thing is, things haven't changed all that much when it comes to snow removal...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkiVcEnUOSg

[Nigel]

What a great old film, I love the plows with the screws on the front.

The only thing I didn’t understand was what was all that white stuff piled up? 

[Francois]

These are called a snow blower.
The design hasn't changed much over the years. They were invented right here.
The story goes that the first prototype threw snow something like 180 feet on the first try... and the inventor knew he had something in his hands.

The way they work is that the feed-screws are angled differently on the left and right to channel the snow to the center. The augers are activated by a differential like part that's on the same spindle as the centrifugal "fan" that's at the bottom of the chimney. Once the snow gets there, it's out of the way in the blink of an eye.

[John Robison]

Thanks for that link. I don’t understand french but got the idea of the film.
We hardly ever get much snow here in the south Puget Sound, and it usually melts quickly. Now that I’m retired and don’t need to go to work it doesn’t bother me if it snows, in fact actually miss not having a deep winter dump of snow.

[Francois]

You can turn on closed captioning with auto translate... It sorta works.

[astrobeck]

this is so cool!
We have a snow remover, but it only has one of the worm gear things. It will blow it about 30 feet.
It's attached to front end of our small tractor.

I really like the old movie. those cars must have been really difficult to push out of the snow when stuck.

[Pete_R]

The way they work is that the feed-screws are angled differently on the left and right to channel the snow to the center. The augers are activated by a differential like part that's on the same spindle as the centrifugal "fan" that's at the bottom of the chimney. Once the snow gets there, it's out of the way in the blink of an eye.

I think you've just resurrected the flower foul.

[02Pilot]

On a related theme, clearing snow from the rails. New film, old equipment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbLyXtzLX3I

[Bryan]

Great film Francoise!  Like John said we don't get enough snow in the Puget Sound lowlands to take snow removal seriously.  Unfortunately when we do get snow it shuts the whole region down, even just a few inches.  They just aren't prepared to deal with it.  Why invest a lot of resources in something that doesn't happen often enough.  My street is one of the last in my area to get plowed.  Days after a big storm my street goes untouched, I drive a block away and everything is cleared. 

The mountains around the Puget Sound are another story, they are very well equipped for snow removal.  We actually hold the record for annual snowfall, 95 feet at the Mt Baker ski area in Washington.  The ski area I usually go to has a unique way of dealing with the avalanche danger, they use a few M60 tanks. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZLfboCceGA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucwbRjx9_Qc

I've been stuck up there a few times waiting for them to clear avalanches from the highway.  Stevens Pass actually had the worst avalanche disaster in U.S. history, 96 people died when a train was struck in 1910. 

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/1910-stevens-pass-avalanche-still-deadliest-in-us-history/

I guess it's a good thing that the snow stays in the mountains but I don't mind seeing it in the lowlands every now and then.  I took this photo at Stevens Pass last year, they just shovel a path to the door and let the rest of the building get buried. 

 Snowed In by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

[Francois]

Letting buildings get buried like that is really bad for water damage when it starts to thaw.

Those old train snowblowers were really something. I believe they still have some in working order at a local railway museum...

[Indofunk]

Bryan, did you say 95 feet ?? 

[Bryan]

Bryan, did you say 95 feet ?? 

Yes, they average about 53 feet annually so not quite double.  I think they stayed open into June that year.  I remember that season, I didn’t go to Baker but did hit a few other ski areas that got record snow.  I remember riding the chair lift at Mt Hood in Oregon, they had to clear out snow under the chair lift.  Riding the chair lift in a trench and looking up at skiers going by was quite odd.  Usually you would be at least 25 feet above them. 

[John Robison]

Bryan, did you say 95 feet ?? 

Of this doesn’t mean the snow actually piles up that deep. Each successive snow fall compresses the snow underneath it.
No a skier or winter sports person but the missus and I have driven up to Paradise on Mt. Rainier, about 5000 ft up, on new year day. They keep the road plowed when possible and you are driving on compacted snow and ice. Didn’t even have chains or studs, just winter treads. It was an ordinary year so at the top snow was about 30 feet deep at the visitor center, which was open for folks to use as necessary.

[Francois]

I remember one year in a city about 45 minutes from where I live they had a massive storm that lasted a few days. Some houses that were in windy areas had snow up to the top of their roof...
I remember a military guy who was interviewed said he had just moved in a few weeks prior in order to get nicer weather than what he had in the great north. He thought all this was quite funny.

And another time near the Atlantic they also had a big storm where one of the citizens said he had been blowing the snow for a good 16 hours straight and the storm wasn't over.