Another Snowplow

WKDOR

WKDOR

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After this last winter I decided I needed a snowplow. Not a fandangling rotary but a simple wedge blade with lots of weight. And I'm not willing to pay over £100 for one mounted on a shorty Aristo 4-wheel gondola.

So I thought I'd buy just the Aristo replacement blade at about £25.00 and try to build it onto an old B'mann 4-wheel caboose.

After exhaustive searches I can't find one anywhere in Europe and they're not listed as expected by Aristo. A couple of US sources say they have them.

Yesterday I saw the Ragleth thread and was introduced to Swift Sixteen, thank you Chris Bird and GSC. Astonished to see they have a snowplow blade for 32mm!!

Looks very good with a curved roof and would probably fit nicely with an old LGB Postwagen

Has anybody seen one or more to the point felt it/weighed it? I wonder whether its man enough for real plowing and 45 mm track (its 125mm wide) and how it compares to the Aristo blade (that always looked a bit flimsy to me). I'm guessing the Swift Sixteen part is resin.

All intelligence will be gratefully received.

TIA

Mike
 
Hi Mike,
Thank you for asking about my plough. You're right, it is made from solid grey cast polyurethane resin and weighs 1.2Kg. It is one solid piece of kit that will push snow without any fear of breaking.

It is 150mm high and 126mm wide, so will punch a hole big enough for a 16mm loco and rolling stock. There is a cut out under it for clearance of couplings and safety chains if you have them fitted to the item you have the plough bolted to, incase the plough is a temporary fitment. The roof is curved to match the W&L Accucraft range of wagons as well as the vast majority of other rolling stock. It is 90mm wide on the rear directly behind the 126mm wide plough.

If you want to use this plough as a starting point for a larger project, the resin can be machined, cut, filed, sanded etc to suit your needs. As soon as I get 5 seconds to myself, I'm going to cut down one of my short coaches, put one of my bogies under the plough and make a purpose made plough box van.

This plough will also work for LGB on 45mm track.

I hope this helps you :thumbup:

Yours,
Rob Bushill
http://www.swiftsixteen.com < Link To www.swiftsixteen.com
 
Thanks Rob, very interesting. Has it been used in anger yet, like this last winter?

Can you give us any hints on how to mount it to an Accucraft UK or LGB van so that its removable, please? My only round roof candidate (LGB Postwagen) is a battery/control car. Should it be mounted as low as possible over railhead or does that need to be adjustable too?

Was the width designed for 45mm points motors? Mine are Aristo and I will measure them today and let you know the result.

Mike
 
Hello,

Unfortunately, I've not had the opportunity to use it on snow. At the end of the day, it's a wedge, so it should work.

It was designed to simply clear a channel for the passing of locos and stock, so I cannot tell you if it will miss your point motors. As for fitting, it's just a block of resin. I would simply remove the roof of a van and bolt it onto one end of the van with 3-4 M3 bolts. If you drill a 2.5mm hole, the bolt will cut its own thread into the resin, no problem. When you want your van back, just remove the roof, unbolt the plough, replace the roof and you're away. You will be left with 3-4 3mm holes in the end of your van, but if you drill them in inconspicious places, they will not be easy to see. As for the mounting height, I would have thought, the lower the better.

Hope this helps,

Rob.
http://www.swiftsixteen.com < Link To www.swiftsixteen.com
 
This sounds very interesting - I look forward to seeing pics of anyone who has mounted one on an LGB van or similar :)
 
Promised Update:

I make it 64mm from track centre to Aristo point switch, so a blade width of 125/126 is very tight indeed. Might just be OK on straight paths, but not curves.

Rob, if a bit of trimming of the blade is necessary, what would you suggest?

Can anyone with an Aristo blade please measure it for width and clearance above railhead?

Mike
 
Hi,

The resin can be cut very easily, you can almost think of it as MDF, just a little harder and more consistant with no laminations or grain. It can be cut with any wood working tools or machined with a milling machine or lathe etc.

Just think of it as easy to work plastic.

It's good stuff :)

Yours Rob.
 
OK, so we've just had the hottest Easter for 6 million years - does somebody know something that they're not telling us :thinking::thinking::thinking:
 
Hi,

I'm responding to the topic started that asked about the plough a few days ago.

:thumbup:

Rob.
 
That looks very nicely executed - very interesting and cost effective way of producing a decent plough... a bit of a way off before we can test it in action.
 
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