Mother Nature unleashed her winter fury over the Canadian Family Day long weekend, and maintenance-of-way staff inside plows began flying down the railways on Tuesday morning (Feb.18) as a result of intense falling snow and high winds.
The Ontario Southland Railway was first to the gate, calling a plow out of Salford, Ontario. With former Canadian Pacific plow 401005 (built 1907, rebuilt 1927) facing south, the railroad was shut down the day before due to the Salford cut being blown right in just north of the shop and no way to turn the plow. The plan was to plow to Tillsonburg while an excavator company dugs out the Salford cut to reopen the railway.
After trying two sets of motive power with the plow, the third time was the charm, with railfan favorites FP9As being called for duty due to their excellent abilities keeping snow out of engine compartments, and off the vertical ladders (no steps or front porch to accumulate snow). After Nethercott Excavating spent four hours digging out the worst of the Salford cut, the F units were used to accelerate the job and power through the rest of the 10-foot-high drifted snow bank in a matter of seconds, their round, sleek EMD streamlined noses about as well-suited for the job as any locomotive could be.
The drift gone, the railway was now free to re-open and get trains fanning out in all directions to service customers. But first, the plow crew took the switch in Ingersoll and continue clearing snow westward to St. Thomas ahead of the freight trains as snow remained heavy in spots. When done, they turned the plow on the CAMI wye to face north to make sure this never happened again, as what an excavator does in hours a plow can do in seconds.
While equipment is one part of the battle, so are the people. To ensure continued snow fighting success in 2025 and beyond, OSR’s senior m/w staff have been training the next generation on how to operate plows on their territory during this year’s plow runs.
While OSR was clearing drifts, 40 miles north in Stratford, Ontario, CN’s Kitchener Division was assembling its own plow train. Earlier on Feb. 18, VIA 84 was cancelled, so no train had rolled on the western Guelph Subdivision in almost 12 hours. The winds howled and snow flew high, with area highways closed due to poor visibility. To save the day, in came CN 50948, a spreader built in 1973 by O.F. Jordan Company. This equipment had been brought to Stratford on Jan. 24 and was finally put to use on the Guelph Sub. In the morning, CN sent a Kitchener crew to Stratford to grab the plow and prepare to go west at noon with maintenance-of-way staff on board, including a compliment of younger staff being trained on spreader operations. After a few hours tinkering with mechanical and electrical issues on 50948, CN changed crews before departing to ensure enough time was on the rest clock.
(See https://www.railwayage.com/safety/transport-canada-updates-rail-employee-fatigue-rules/ for reasons why crew changes are more frequent.)
At 4 PM, the rested crew called the RTC to get out on the main line and begin spreading—the first CN operated spreader to push snow on the Guelph Subdivision in more than 25 years. As a result, VIA and CN freight service resume after finishing the spreading the next day. CN is prepared in case another blizzard hits before spring comes, with the people and equipment to make it happen.
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