The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad demonstrates how the Rio Grande Narrow Gauge cleared snow from their tracks during the winter months. In early 2020 BC (Before COVID) the Cumbres and Toltec ran Rotary OY on a photographer's special from Chama, New Mexico, to the 10,000 foot summit of Cumbres Pass in Colorado. Two K-36 Mikado steam locomotives powered the rotary up the 4% grade in an all-steam extravaganza!
These scenes were taken from our program "Steam and Snow: Rotary OY on Cumbres Pass." It is available on DVD, Hi-Definition Blu-ray, and 4K Digital Download by logging onto 7ideaproductions.com.
www.7ideaproductions.com/prod...
In the spring of 1949 I watched a rotary snow plough clear a road alongside the loco shed at Finse in Norway.There was at least two locos, possibly three, pushing. The winter snow had almost turned into ice and was about ten to twelve feet high. As a mater of interest the snowfall here was so high that in winter the main entrance of the hotel next to the station was moved to the first floor. The plough set up was backed up about 75 yards and then rushed at the blockage with the rotor spinning on full power until everything stalled. This was repeated for about two hours. Each hit progressed no more than two feet. This carried on all morning till they had broken into the shed.
Steam-powered rotary snowplow! How cool is that?!?!?
Snow cool!
This is cool!!!! I hope these machines don’t get moth balled!
It’s whatever
SO COOL DUDE WOW!!
FIRE
wow, I'm not a train buff, but I really admire that dedication and effort to preserve these machines for future generations Thank you guys.
Thanks for watching!
If you vote for leftists, then you will not see these machines preserved. They will be viewed as racist old things, and melted down to be turned into statues that celebratetransgenders.
@@CooManTunes I'm probably as far left on the political spectrum as a human can be, here I am still saying these machines are awesome and have to be preserved It's got nothing to do with your political views to preserve history either good or bad. I'm certain even in a hundred years there will be plenty of petrol cars around, just to look at not to drive with (maybe if you're rich and can afford the necessary liquid hydrocarbon mixtures :D )
The coordination between the engines is amazing! I especially love hearing the wheel slips and how they would compensate.
As an Aussie, that might just be the coolest steam powered machine I've seen!
The power and mechanics of Steam engines has always fascinated me.
Always grateful to see old technology in action. Our commerce depended on it.
I grew up in Minnesota in the 1940s-50s, my dad was a brakeman on the Soo Line Railroad. The winter of 1947-48 was one of the memories that has stuck with me. I can remember digging out from our house through a drift that was at least 10' high and the railroad from Minneapolis to Glenwood was cleared with a Russell snow plow but from Glenwood north it was so deep they had to call out rotary #17, also a Leslie. The yards at Glenwood had to be cleared by the rotary because of the drifting and seeing that as a 8 year old to me was something magnificent. Seeing that machine throw the snow off of the yard tracks was very similar to what you have shown here. Thank you.
I love the almost heartbeat pumping of the exhaust and steam.
Brings back great memories . I worked with the 2 men who resurrected that historic property. Earl Bell, inventor of the argon ion laser, and Gene Watson, founder of Coherent Radiation and QuantaRay. I rode that track many times in the 70s, when it was just being started. So glad to see it's still running today.
The covers over the coal supply are indeed a very worthwhile modification. Frozen coal is very hard to move into a firebox properly. In coal fired power plants, men used to have to “bar” coal with ice in it to make it feed properly. That was a job that made workmen appreciate mealtime!
That was awesome! My late father would have enjoyed that very much. He was an sailor as chief steward. When the time came for traveling home, he did not use plane as everyone else, but train. As he said it, that is the proper way to travel.
With all that power and force the engineers that designed that wonderful machine did a great job that it don't throw it self off the tracks!
Excellent production. I felt as if I was watching this operation live. The scenery is just as dramatic as the snow removal operation. I rode on the C&T during a visit to Santa Fe. It was a memorable experience.
Thank you!
L) lb I
@@7ideaproductions I used to watch this snow plow on TV when I was 5! This brought back some great memories. Thank you!
I am robot hear my beeps
.. yeeeeaaahhhh... i'm gonna need those accurate representations of coal powered locomotives by the end of the year. Thaaaannnnks.
18:11 what a gorgeous beat❤️😍 music to my ears with my headphone👌🚂
She seems to be a living, breathing entity working with all her strength!! “I think I can, I think I can…(toot!) yes, I can!!! It’s awesome and a privilege to see this moment of history!! Thank you for freezing your tootsies for us couch Railroaders! 🚂🚂🚂
I really like that comment Winifred that really makes me laugh...I love trains too and I guess as the saying goes you can't beat old iron. As old as this rotary plow is it was well taken care of and restored and works perfectly. I don't know what railroads use these days but I bet it can't beat this plow.
@@lornperkins4270 Thanks!! Yup, like me, old iron is good iron!! Of course, unless the word is a verb and, as do I, you look like you need “iron-ing”! 👍🏼🚂😁
@@winifrednorwood5428 🤣
I've been on the track when the snow was as high as the passenger car windows. It looked like it had been cleaned out with a rotary then. This was the mid 90's.
I don't think it was waiting for the photo line to assemble, it was likely waiting to build up more steam to get up that 4% grade lol. Good that this train is being preserved as living history of the early railroad years.
I was raised in Ogden Utah and used to watch the trains being assembled from the overpass to west Ogden, and I have to say I miss that and the occasional steam locomotives coming through. The lonely sound of the whistles and diesel horns at night. Wonderful memories!
Thank you all for this, this was just amazing to see, I can see now why our forefathers were able to build this country so rapidly, and become the great nation we did. It's because of inventions like this and the people who operate them.
Wow this is awesome! As a Canadian I didn't know there was that much snow down there.
It isn't what most people think of when you say New Mexico but that's high country up in the San Juan's along the Colorado border.
What a unit! glad to see these old girls still running.
Oh! This is so beautiful and depressing! My 2nd ex-wife and I rode the Durango to Silverton narrow gauge R/R one beautiful summer's day in 1989. The depressing part is that I have never ridden this narrow gauge line... much less in times so beautiful as this in the winter with freshly fallen snow. But, I suppose you have to keep stuff like that outta your mind all the time when you go to create beautiful scenic train videos like this one. That is what makes you a professional, in my opinion. Gracias por tu video. RT sends... envía, Puebla, México...
This was like watching a nature documentary of some majestic creature.
Absolutely beautiful and amazing! So nice to see her running again. Hat's off the the people that rebuild it. It's one time in life to see this history repeated.
Bill Peter use to sponser these trips when he lived in Chama. He was the one that developed and had made S gauge brass narrow gauge Steam engines and plastic rolling stock that Caboose Hobbies use to sell in Denver. I got to photo graph two of his sponsored trips. It might have been cold but Carol and I had had great fun.observing the snow plow working. One year it took to days to reach the pass. The other year only took one day. Watching the plow going around Windy Point and pulling into the station at the top of the pass was the best part for me.
Beautiful performance of a bygone era! Keeping history alive!
Someday this may not be history anymore, it could be the future.
Amazing technology that has lasted thru the decades. Well made & maintained machines at their finest.... A piece of our history. In my home state of West Virginia we have Cass Scenic Railroad a former logging railroad of Shay Steam Locomotive that was all wheel drive, even the wheels for the tender.... Very impressive pieces of equipment. A blast from the past!
The Cass Scenic is on my bucket list!
My respect and thanks for bringing history back to life. Excellent video! Thank you, Wally
I've seen old black and white pictures of the OY clearing track, where the snow was as deep as it was tall. So, this was very enjoyable to watch, to also hear the Ole' steamers labor and the low hum of the rotary spinning was awesome. Very well done. Thank you for seeing the value here, taking the time and effort to film this. Although, I bet it's safe to say, the video doesn't give it full justice. Compared to being there and seeing it live, that is. But once again, thank you for sharing this with us...it was OUTSTANDING!
Single handedly restarting the industrial revolution I see. The dedication of few these people to keep going what took legions to achieve is impressive.
Damn, that's a real job! Tip of the hat to the hard working crew! 🎩
Truly want to thank all the those who filmed and operating the trains. I always wanted to see a rotary snow train in action. Though I could not be there in person. I was Very pleased with what I got to see on KZhead 😌. From Ohio. Thank you. Matt.
You are more than welcome. Glad you enjoyed the program!
Excellent! My wife and I rod the C&TS in August 1998 and then drove over to the Durango & Silverton trip. Both rides were fantastic. We did see the OY rotary parked on a siding and out of use. Glad to see it restored and doing what it loves to do. Beautiful film production.
I could watch this all day! Excellent video.
6:56 oh i love the sound when the wheels slip the track... doekedoekedoeeeek
The Rotary OY is a beauty!
I enjoy watching antique machines at work. Very beautiful scenery as well.
One of the best videos and super crew. They nail that wheel slip each and every time.
In 1961 my mother and I went on a short trip to Paris by train, nothing special, but it was a steam-locomotive! Never seen one before. Quite an experience! But dirty!-
these old livinf fire breathing dragons are truy impressive! Beautiful footage, well done . As an industrial photographer my hats off to the camera men! Nothing beats the sound of steam whistles in the high mountains!!
WOW! Very impressive. The engineering just astonishes me. Great job covering this marvel guys.
I had absolutely no problem watching this train plowing snow !!! Thanks 😊
when I was working in that area 20 years ago,, they were still delivering the mail.
I had the adventure of a lifetime, as a kid, in 1962. I rode the Vista Dome North Coast Limited from Chicago to WA. Went past a derailed train in the mountains. It was a staggering sight to see. Good thing it derailed where it did. A mile or so further on was a bridge over a valley far below! It had happened just a few days before we passed it.
I had a big adventure in 1965 riding trains from Sallisaw, Oklahoma to Portland, Oregon. Riding through the Rocky Mountains in the Sky Dome was so exciting! Exciting enough I became a mountaineer later in life. 😂
Great shooting, and fantastic train! I bet it's fairly safe to say you won't see that anywhere else in the world.
there is an nother called Dampfschneeschleuder SBB Xrot 100
@@mainzelmichi3463 There are three in Switzerland. The SBB Xrot 100 is a Standard Gauge Rotary Snow Plow, stationed in Brugg in the Swiss Midlands. It's very unlikely to see it in Action tho, as that would require sufficient Snow on a Standard Gauge Branch Line, which all are in the Swiss Midlands. The Standard Gauge Rail Lines high up in the Alps are way too busy to allow a Steam Snow Blowing Demonstration; they are the main Routes between Southern and Central/Northern Europe. The other two are on Narrow Gauge Railways; the RHB Xrot 9213 at the Bernina Railwayin Ospizio Bernina and the DFB Xrot R 12 at the Dampfbahn Furka-Bergstrecke at Realp. The latter is a Steam Heritage Railway (and thus one of only two un-electrified Rail Lines in Switzerland) and they use Steam Locomotives for pushing too. The Xrot 9213 at Ospizio Bernina usually is pushed by a 100+ Year old Electric Locomotive. Little Edit: The Bernina Railway still is a commercial Rail Line, so there is other Traffic that has to pass as well, albeit not much because it is mostly used for Tourist Purposes and thus much busier in Summer than it is in Winter. Anyway, they have to prepare the Tracks prior to these Snow Blowing Demonstrations in order to make them reliable; you can't afford to have your Steam Snow Plow stuck somewhere holding up Traffic. The Dampfbahn Furka-Bergstrecke is closed in Winter, so they can take as long as they want because there is no other Traffic to be held up anyway. This allows them to demostrate how hard of a Job Snow Blowing actually was in the Age of Steam.
The Union Pacific has a bigger rotary that is shown on KZhead, but that one runs on oil, not coal. Either way, the pictures are spectacular.
@@Genius_at_Work & @mainzel michi...here is the link to the narrow-gauge Dampfbahn Furka-Bergstrecke,, which also uses rack & pinions to climb the Furka Pass, where they used the reconditioned Steam-Engine & Rotary in the Spring of 2021.... kzhead.info/sun/isybddxxloqOomg/bejne.html&pp=gAQBiAQB
Absolutely Incredible footage and narration. Probably some of the best I’ve seen in my RR career! Peaceful and Relaxing! Thanks for Sharing! Wow!
As a Power Engineer myself this is really fascinating, I wish one day I get to learn how to operate a steam locomotive myself just for curiosity and history's sake.
Great video. Thanks. Been lucky to have visited the Cumbres and Toltec a few times from downunder and hopefully can again when Covid eases. Until then videos like this brings back some great memories. Thanks again.
My altogether favorite little railroad in the whole world.
thanks for sharing this awesome production!
I learn something new every day on KZhead and this video really informed me. I had no idea of the hard work these trains and their crew have to do to keep the tracks clear. What a monster this train is, totally fascinating. Thanks for posting it. I grew up in London in the 1940s and 1950s, and remember the big steam trains. They used to frighten me to death. I don’t think I would want to get too close to this train, but really enjoyed it from a distance! The scenery was impressive too.
The UP (once SP) over Donner Pass still uses a 100-year-old rotary. It was modified to use 6 traction motors attached to the wheel shaft in place of the steam engine for power and a diesel with the traction motors disconnected is used to power it. It is necessary to have at least one diesel loco provide motive power but this arrangement has a control stand in the rotary cab so the engineer is in the rotary and sees where he is going and does not have to rely on signals. The Colorado Midland RR used a rotary with 6 consolidation locomotives pushing to clear the 2.5% grade over Hagerman Pass. That would have been a real show with the snow almost as deep as the wheel.
Me too! Saves my days.
This is awesome! This would be a great video to show in schools as part of American history class. Most students have no knowledge of Steam Engines
Great idea!
So great. Thank you
That’s just so neat and so old Didn’t have a clue but love it Would love to ride on it during winter and summer
Awesome scenery and terrific video quality! Thoroughly enjoyed this.
What awesome video of the operation wow. Thanks from a old timer CN Railway worker.
My grandparents treated all of us grandkids to a trip on this train when I was probably 9 years old. I bought a fluorescent yellow hat to wear on the way up into colorado, we got back into Chama and I took my green hat off to wash my soot covered face off. LOL. A result of hanging my head out the window the whole entire ride. Nowadays, you better prepare to take out a loan to get a ride on that thing, well worth it! It's been well over a year since I've been up to Antonito through the pass, because I grow my own now in New Mexico.
Fantastic Photography and narration! And of course our beloved Cumbres & Toltec! Thank you for the treat to see the Rotary in action. What a sight! VERY well done, thank you!
What a wonderful sight and sound, some things should Never change, i can think of worse jobs than feeding the firebox on a cold winters day!
What a perfect moment in time
Lovely scenes. Thanks you for producing and uploading the video.
Back when things were so well made you never needed to buy the newest model
That is very true. I have a 1940 Farmall tractor that still fires right up. All I do is lub, gas, and oil.
This was absolutely fascinating ! And as it’s been said a rather rare event ... Thanks for posting !
They’re barely opening those throttles. The wheels keep slipping from all the torque. That’s why they have multiple engines. Those engineers are nice n warm in that snow. What a beautiful scene.
Beautiful, simply fabulous!
I don't know why but this gave me some flashbacks to the old History Channel before it went to shit. Awesome quality and a great commentator that actually adds to the video. Definitely subscribing!
Impressive video and a demonstration of Brute Power by the three locomotives pushing the large snow blower clearing Tracks. Blower is an old design but seems to work very well.
This Never Gets Old, thank you for the wonderful video!
Simply amazing!! Hats off to the OY!! Thanks so much.
Yes it took a lot of work to put this event together. We feel very fortunate to have been among those who were able to witness it.
Thanks for posting this.
I've never seen a steampowered snowplow before, cool. Also it sounds like the locomotives are drumming a whirlwind as the wheels slip. 🚂❄🥁🎼🎶 Greetings from: SWE 😊🇸🇪
A random pick and so worth it. Ty ! Watching fr my armchair 🇨🇦
I have watched MANY videos of the C & T. This is either the BEST or one of the best I have ever seen. The high resolution film quality, professional quality voice and narration combined with selective filming locations make this superb!
Thank you for your kind words. It was great to be able to film this event.
I second that. Absolutely incredible!
I would love to see the engineered drawings for that plow! The first time we went on this RR was back in Jul of '01 and when we reached the stop for lunch, it was snowing! If you are a railfan you must visit Chama and take the train to CO. Cheers, Doc
There are drawings available for a or couple of rotaries. This is a standard gauge machine, just a little on the small side. The trucks under it are standard gauge axles with the wheels spaced for 3-foot gauge.
The RR always had to plow the right of way a month or so before opening day so the tracks could be maintained by the right of way crew before opening day. As I remember Pentrex was there video taping one of the trips we participated in.
Poetry in motion. Hope these great machines are working for a long time more. My Dad was in the Army stationed in Denver in the early 20s . He may have seen these babies work when they were brand new.
Without internet, human beings focused a lot more on the important things
I absolutely love this video. I have watched many videos about rotary steam snow plows over the years, but most of them are over a decade old on youtube and only are like 240p or 480p at best. This videos crisp 4k@60 😘👌
What a great video. You not only show the steam engines, and the rotary snow blower, but also, the beautiful scenery, in the area.
I loved the snowman touch. Smile 😜😁
Excellent video! Thank you for putting in on.
Thank-you, this is very breathtaking. I love the old trains and I love seeing the caboose. It is so cute. Very interesting video, never knew that trains could push snow out of the way to free the track. :)
Thank you for watching! I am glad you enjoyed the program.
That was absolutely awesome. Very fun to watch. Narrative was great too. Thank you for sharing. It felt as if I was there even though I was extra comfy wrapped in blankets on the couch.
Big fans of the C&TS. Looking forward to another trip. Last time we traveled from Antonito halfway and back so we could have two different engines. We got to experience a delay due to a fire box incident. Wonderful trip. Photos differently up and down due to lighting. We next plan to go from Chama to get the whole enchilada. I know the C&TS has been in numerous movies but I think is best seen in Willie Nelson's TV movie "where the hell's that gold?" Loved seeing the OY do it's thing. But I'm sure glad I didn't have to stand out in the snow for it. Thanks for being there!
Wonderful! Thanks for the ride.🚂🚃😊
Fantastic video!!! Beautiful video and sound!! Thank you for the post!
My brother and I rode the C&T in June of 1996. 5 hours or so going and an hour's bus ride back. It was great.
I bet there's no stopping that thing. Steam power is an absolute juggernaut.
It's amazing watching this old times technology at work. Very good video. Thank you!
I love the Rotary snowplow OY, I have all the dvds with the Rotary OY, my favorite one was the 1991 and the 1993
Can’t wait to get a ride in, for the season coming up! A few inside cab shots would be sweet too.
And then at 29 : 30 ish , you've guessed ! both white. Thanks again , Colin UK
Phenomenal video of a historic past brought back to life in todays world. Kudos to all involved, your efforts are greatly appreciated. 👍👍👍👍
Thank you! We were a very fortunate group who got to attend this.
@@7ideaproductions Agreed, a huge portion of getting a great video or photograph is being in the right spot at the right time. Sometimes it's blind luck and other times it's great planning and knowing the right people. Again, fantastic video...
@@7ideaproductions I love watching these beasts happily chewing their way through a deep snow
It is great to see that someone has kept these engines in great shape and still doing the job. Gorgeous scenery, I felt like I was riding with you, love the old engines, I love trains from my past . Great memories ty
I was very fortunate to be a part of this. The Cumbres and Toltec is an amazing railroad in an amazing location. A true time machine!
This is far the best video on the OY, I have seen. Great photography and sound. Thanks for standing in the cold weather to capture this awesome video of the OY and #487 & #484, my favorite 🤩.
Thank you!
Spectacular! Thank you for sharing.
Beautiful and fun, loved every second of it.
Wow thank you for sharing these epic machines. AWESOME
Absolutely beautifully presented video. It must have been amazing to have viewed this spectacular experience live whilst taking the video footage. Your work is excellent.