"MA&N Plow Extra" Utica-Lyons Falls, NY Branch 

Thanks for your kind words! Jon K still works for the MA&N. Check out my FB group, "Railroading Rambler," for more Mohawk Valley/Adirondack railroading features.

Subbed on the first vid! Keep up the great work...

Wait ALCO desnt exists?

Yup and it's all gone now. There was track all over the St Lawrence Valley and most of it is gone. Used to be 2 lines coming into Ogdensburgs port. Just a single line from Canton now and it hardly gets used. Sad to see.

@@Bret4207 I can verify that. I'm from Ogdensburg. I had the pleasure of riding with the crews of the Penn Central back in the early 70's. Ogdensburg to Dekalb Jct. Never been on the other RR, (the old Rutland), but yes, at least those tracks are still there, with limited use. (operated by Vermont Railroad now)

I think that's just for controlling the snow pushed off to the side.

You're just a sissy and whiner. Lot's of the best things in life are hard, also this guy was just filming quietly and out of the way. Stop trying to put people down just to feel better about yourself you little man.

Shut up Nancy boy and stop projecting about "Foamers" you fake wannabe.

yeah & I live in West Nebraska & snows don't get this deep where I is usually

I spend a lot of time in western Nebraska and thankful of that too.

yeah? cool

Thanks for your comment!

James Shanks was that before or after the RS-3s were rebuilt with EMD engines

Thanks!

This Alco predates me by about a decade yet it looks and sounds better. Great to see an old Alco even still running, but being in such good condition... that's impressive.

Glad you liked the video, I had fun making it. The oilcars will be back, however, as the MA&N will again be storing them between Boonville-Lyons Falls. I expect they will begin bringing them north from Utica any day now (if they haven't already started).

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@Beckham Kellan Instablaster =)

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Thanks so much, glad you liked it!

The tracks are actually in place in the 10 miles between Boonville-Lyons Falls. The New York Central pulled out 14 miles between Lyons Falls-Lowville in the early 1960's thereby severing its St Lawrence Division. This was done to reduce the amount of property taxes the Central had to pay.

You are right, My mistake I got my towns mixed up. I actually switched Lyons Falls pulp and paper when I worked for the "MA&N" in 93 I think it was, then they like so many other mills and industries in New York went belly up. Still think that line would have made a great tourist RR.

Thanks for your kind words. No. 2456 was built in October 1964 by Alco.

tony wolton all GVT power was built by American locomotive company between 1951 and 1965. The only none Alcos are a EMD GP9 from the DL&W and a 1935 EMC prototype loco also built for the DL&W.

Also from the UK, county Essex. I echo all that was said by tony. Great video, thoroughly enjoyeable.

"..sound like hair dryers." Haha. That's true.

I think it did hop the rail at the last crossing in the video (mid point in the video) you can see the engine jilt to the side and hear somone yell. I think that's why the left the spreader behind on the 2nd attempt.

When I was a locomotive engineer I owned the New England produce switcher which has as power a SW-1500 assigned there. Many a time in the winter as a lot of trackage the flange ways would freeze solid and one off them at a 350 foot crossing, back and forth would usually take anywhere from 15 minutes to over an hour going forward until you saw the lead truck vearing off where the track is stop, back up just creeping along. No track crew available. The ice would add a couple of hours to our day every day in the winter to open up the tracks so we could set our refrigerator cars for each consigned customer. Once it melted it was a lot easier work.

like what he said!!

@@jamesshanks2614 No pick or pry bar in the cab to manually clear the flange ways? A locomotive in Colorado derailed and tipped about 25 degrees at a grade crossing. Crew too lazy to clear hard ice from the flange ways? No need to clear all. Just enough.

@@rearspeaker6364 nnnnnnnnn ji ji

I thought the same thing.

Their must be a protocol or rule which is why they did this I guess.

No. 2456 cleared the tracks northward. The real purpose in bringing the spreader was to really clear the ROW between Lyons Falls-Boonville on the return trip. For whatever reason, this operating preference works best for the railroad. The MA&N is likely to store cars on the 10-mile stretch of tracks between Boonville-Lyons Falls just as they have done the past few years.

That spreader is made for clearing yard not large amounts of snow, that's why it has such a short plow on the front.

A Jordan spreader can clear large amounts of a lot of things, including snow. It just has to be setup properly. Here is one in deep snow. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-S2lYIZPD094.html Short plow on front is adjustable on both while the one in the link has the required upper sections of the plow.

I'm Little puzzled why they're wearing T-shirts

pashon4percushon, Could have been like days I've had. Snow on the ground and in the 70s. In Feb of 1988 while at Ft Eustis ( Virginia ) it was sub freezing in the morning, rapidly melting ice and snow by noon with temps in the 70s, raining by 1300, hail by 1330, and snow by 1400. And then I got out of that crazy weather and flew back south to Florida.

Hello & thanks for commenting. MA&N dates to the early 1990's. The railroad bought the 45-mile Utica-Lyons Falls, NY line back then too. Nowadays, the only freight customers (Bailey's Mill & 3B Timber) are located in Boonville, 35 miles north of Utica. The MA&N has been storing cars in the ten mile stretch of track between Boonville-Lyons Falls the past few years and will be doing so again this year. That's a good money-maker for the railroad. Regular freight moves to Boonville (apart from bringing cars north for storage) occur approx once every week to two weeks. A paper mill in Lyons Falls used to receive a goodly numberr of cars but that operation went under approx 10 years ago.

Freedomtower Studios Genesee Valley Transportation operates this line, lowville Beaver river, falls railroad, Depew Lancaster and western, and “the” Delaware Lackawanna.

Got up to 60 here today then temps plummeted by early afternoon.

I bet it's not going to stay 70 for long :P

BVERailer 21 degrees C

NOT WHY!

they just chillin

I was thinking the same thing - between the guys (several that we see, not just one) wearing T-shirts and how sticky the snow was I think it can be concluded it was quite warm.

Tom Servo I lived in Vancouver for many years. You could always tell the people who grew up back East or The prairies in the winter, while we were all togged up in down jackets, hats and gloves they were sitting outside Tim Hortons drinking double doubles in T-Shirts!

At the beginning of the video it says that it’s 60 degrees.

in canada we call that summer

ry. an radiarn

ryan radian to

ryan radian y

Marco. Antonio. Solisw

Dave White They can ride up on packed snow and ice but usually crews are going slow so it’s more common to see them basically spin out. The flange on the wheels isn’t very large so just a little lift is all that’s needed and the locomotive is spinning on the packed ice.

When you consider that the load on each wheel is nominally 16.25 tons, what chance do you think ice on a railhead would have? (Ans: none.) The snow's (obviously) just pushed aside. Many spreaders incorporate flangers, sometimes protrusions below the plow blade, to toss some of the snow between the rails. And, they do have sanders for traction if needed- pretty self-sufficient.

Dave White YES, a large road unit and will derail on iced up flangeways. Snow isn't that big of a problem, but when you have traffic packing snow into the flangeways at a grade crossing, then it freezes, you can get in trouble very fast. I've been around and work on derailments where this occurred. Track gangs need to pick out the ice and apply rock salt, or some other form of ice melt material. The signal department may not like salt used at a crossing with gates, but sometimes you do what you have to do. I've seen loco's in snow service pulling a Flanger (a piece of snow equipment developed by the former Southern Pacific) have snow build up under the fuel tanks and walk right off the track while going around a curve. Never even damaged the track. We got it rerailed and it took off plowing like nothing happened.

In the fall, on the former Yellowstone Branch, we used our maintenance air compressor and a wand to blow out all of the dirt and rocks that accumulated in the flangeways during the warmer months. We were always concerned about ice buildup in the crossings and between the switch points on turnouts.

Here is a video of a locomotive that derailed because of ice build up at crossing. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--cjfU-XPUHY.html