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SNOW PLOWING ON PIKES PEAK
 

Video of Plow in 12 foot drift-April 24, 2007
and pictures of 2007 spring plowing.
5MB download! Very slow with dial-up!

Want to see if there is still snow on the summit? Check the Summit Cam .

Snow plowing involves usually using our Snowplow #22, custom-built here in our Manitou Shops in 1973-1974. If there is a small amount (one to two feet), we can then use our flat car (which dates over 100 years) pushed by one of our GE diesel-electric locomotives. Our snow crew leaves early in the morning to get the tracks cleared. We have been keeping the tracks clear through Windy Cut all winter long (for about 8 years now), but now that we are running passengers year-round, we will keep the entire line open as well. The history of plowing snow (all our various equipment, etc.) on Pikes Peak is found here. In a normal spring, our snow plow will go out seven days a week until early June, although some years we have kept it running daily until the first of July!

Here's the plow at the depot before departing.
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Here are two photos from April 24th, 2007

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Below is a shot of Windy Cut in 2005.

Here the plow is cleaning up chunks that Russ H. (section foreman) and the rest of the section crew sawed and shoveled down (see below for pictures on how this is done).
 

Here's the line approaching Windy Point-(photo from 2003.) You can see a slight indentation where we had been plowing previously. Obviously, the recent heavy snows have filled up the cut. The line winds up to the left and then through Windy Cut. We estimate the snow depth is 10 feet right below the Cut.

Here the plow is about 3 culverts below Windy Point (2003).

We were hitting very heavy, compact snow about 100 yards below Windy Cut. Here the crew is checking on the hardness as the plow is making VERY slow progress. The plow crew must be extremely careful that the cutting head stays on the track, otherwise, the plow can derail.

Here is the progress from the first day of plowing in 2003. Compare these two pictures of the same area.

(We had some problems on day two with very heavy snow as we got up to Windy Cut and had to break out some explosives to crack the heavy snow so the plow could chew it up and spit it out it. This put us a bit behind schedule, but on Wednesday April 9th, we broke through...)

Here the crew is widening Windy Cut so trains can pass through. This is done (when the snow is very hard) using a chain saw to cut out blocks. The blocks are shoveled out onto the tracks and the plow comes through and pulverizes and blows it off the tracks.

The pictures below are from a few years ago when the snow was not nearly as deep.
Go to the Snow Plows page for historical pictures of this fascinating aspect of operations.

In this photo, the plow is getting ready to enter Windy Cut, about 11,000 feet.

Here the plow is in the middle of Windy Cut. The snow is not very deep, only about six feet. Windy Cut can fill in overnight from a small squall as well as a major storm. Even blowing snow can fill in Windy Cut in about an hour! (This is the reason that some days in the early part of the season the train cannot make it all the way to the summit.)

Now the plow is at the 13,00 foot level in an area named Slides Cut. The snow is about eight feet deep on the high side.

A train makes it's way through Windy Cut. In addition to the normal plowing, the section crew must hand cut the banks back another 3 feet on both sides to enable the Swiss railcars to pass through the narrow snow banks. The larger, 216 passenger units are articulated (joined by a bellows in the middle of the cars) and the middle section swivels out farther in the curved sections of track, necessitating the hand cutting.

OLD DAYS

Steam engine pushing the flat car (flat car still in use) in the 1930's.
Note that this was taken at the same place the picture two above was: Slide's Cut.

Crew raising flat car point (point is now hydraulic).
Snow plowing 1930's method: ram flat car into banks of snow loosened by dynamite;
back down; shovel off flat car; repeat as needed (Heavy snow year? Line not open to top until late June..)

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