Snowplows a plenty

One of the thngs on my "to do" list has been to build some CN prototype snow plows.  CN had a wide range of snowplows, many unique to the railway and others from common designs used elsewhere.  Walthers brought out a Russell snow plow years ago that was good for some of the plows CN operated.  However the majority of plows were built by ECC, CC&F and in house by CN and were quite unique.  

CN 55392 as it currently sits.  It was a late 1990's kitbash that has sat for years because I just wasn't quite happy with it.  I may just bite the bullet and finish it now.  

I started kitbashing an ECC/CC&F plow years ago from a Walthers Jordan plow kit and got it to the point of being ready to paint.  But there were enough differences between it and the prototype to cause me to wonder if there was a better way.  

With the recent influx of 3D printed models of unique prototypes the doors have been thrown wide open to model equipment that would otherwise never be done commercially.  As seen in some of my other posts on woodchip cars, gondolas and boxcars, 3D printing has opened a new frontier in scale models.  If you can draw it in 3d, you can print and build it.  

Recently Bedarail released several CN prototype snowplows including the unique double ended branch line plow along with several variations of the more common ECC/NSC single ended plow prototype.  I picked up a couple of the single ended plows as well as one of the double ended plows.  These have been on my "to do" list for years, especially the double ended plow as I always thought they were a cool prototype.  I only saw one on the deadline in Transcona in 1988 and it has always been on my mind as something that had to be modelled.  

I started with the double ended plow and settled on 55699 as the prototype focus as I had good photos of it.  The joint between the sides and plow faces were puttied and sanded to get a smooth joint.  I added details based on the photos as well as some educated guesses on roof details.  The model was painted with TLT CN red orange #11 and Vallejo Air black with a bit of grey added to warm and lighten the colour.  

Decals are a mix of Black Cat Decals and Highball Graphics plow decals.  I used squares of 0.02" styrene with Microscale plywood texture decals to cover the windows.  I model July so plows are stored and I wanted to represent this with the plywood commonly put on the window openings to protect them from vandals.  

The couplers were trimmed to fit the coupler pockets and mounted in place with pins after the paint was completed.  I weathered the couplers with Vallejo Game Effects dry rust which is my favourite way to represent unpainted cast iron and steel.  The long air hoses were made with 0.032" solder that was painted to represent the hoses.  One end was crimped and painted silver to represent the glad hands.  The nice thing about solder is that it is flexible and easy to drape like a prototype hose. 

I built one of the single end plows to represent CN 55362 as it was in late 1983 after it was rebuilt.  The kit comes with many details but I added a horn, sinclair antenna and an extension on the smokejack.  The rear handrail on the roof was soldered together for extra durability as anything that sticks out will be beaten up, so the stronger the better.  

I flattened one end of the phosphor bronze wire for the middle stantion and rear railing and wrapped them around the main handrail and soldered them.  This also helps to represent the mounting hardware on the prototype.  

I used the same paint and decals as the double ended plow.  The front coupler was epoxied in place as the plow overhang prevents you from drilling a hole as was done with the  double ended plow.  I weathered the couplers and wheels with Vallejo Game Effects dry rust which is my favourite way to represent unpainted cast iron and steel.  

The long air hoses were made with 0.032" solder that was painted to represent the hoses.  One end was crimped and painted silver to represent the glad hands.  The nice thing about solder is that it is flexible and easy to drape like a prototype hose. 

I used clear plastic from a package for the windows, trimmed to fit the window openings.  The windows were applied once the matt finish was applied.  I still need to find some appropriate windshield wipers to apply on the cupola.  















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