Back at the museum the wedge plow doesn’t look in any worse shape than the ones down town in the unemployment line. Course I couldn’t get inside (Didn’t really try) but I expect this old girl is pretty much gutted for parts and only the shell remains. Perhaps they come and go as parts are needed. At least one similar wedge plow, 401027, was on display at the museum when this link was put up….
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMFXAP_CPR_401027_Wedge_Type_Snow_Plow
Whenever the subject of plows comes up there is always someone who expounds in detail about those great rotary plows and how they relegated the poor old wedge to the dustbins of history. “Real railroads like the Union Pacific used modern rotary plows.” Well, truth is that those marvelous rotaries wouldn’t last 15 minutes clearing an avalanche in Rodgers Pass. Or anywhere else if that snow pack was filled with tree trunks and giant boulders. They had their place and the best videos I’ve ever seen were of rotary plows moving snow on the prairie and into the foothills. No fallen rocks there.
At the same time, the best pictures I’ve seen of wedge plows at work were taken in Ontario’s snow belt around Goderich, Exeter and London. A wedge plow knocked me right off my feet near Kapuskasing. No doubt about it. They can move plenty of snow.