Since I live in Maine and we get some snow from time to time, and since I have switched to 7/8th scale, I need a snow plow to keep the line clear. I have a pony plow on a couple of my engines but that only solves the light snows. for the heavy stuff I needed something more substantial.
The maine narrow gauge lines had a very specific style of plow so no using a Backman hopper car with a sheet metal front end added. I started by making custom trucks based on the train Department’s 20" 7/8th wheel sets. one of the unusual things about the Portland company plows is the use of two different trucks. the rear truck was basically a standard freight truck but the front truck had a shorter wheel base and seemed to be inside framed.
I made mine using 1/4" plywood with an oak bolster. the rear truck has brass tubing bushings, the front needed custom bushings. I machined some up from Teflon. they seem quite free rolling.
the plow framing is quite substantial and complicated as you might guess. building the frame took quite a while, boat building skills were put to use too.
you can see the cutout for the front wheel set under the angled timbers making up the plow. the sides of the plow are built up with “nailers” of pine that bulk up the sides making the car wider but tapering down at the bottom and rear. this is how they were!
The siding i used is pine sawn from some planks my neighbors had in their cellar which they wanted out…FREE WOOD!!! I made the wood “ship lap” by running the edges through the table saw. I used my Grex pin nailer and Titebond III to keep them in place. there are a lot of studs and they are quite big to scale…this car is built to take a licking!
1/8" planking was used on the front of the plow…think “strong” The top few planks were ripped with an angle cut so they would fit tightly like. the remaining planks had to be tapered from the spine of the plow out to the edge. the spine is shorter than the edges. again I used my pin nailer.
I sanded the plow face smooth…remember we want the snow to slide easily over the surface! you can see the tapered planking in this view
I wanted the plow to look like it has been around a few years.
I started by giving the entire car a brushing of alcohol and india ink to “weather” the wood. then I splashed some water onto the surface and sprinkled some nasty sawdust from my table saw onto that. I blew off the excess and gave the car a light spray with Ace red primer. I let it dry then brushed the surface clean.
for the numbers, I made a stencil…printed on paper “stencil” font, covered it with clear packing tape and cut with an Xacto knife. I taped the stencil onto the car and masked off the rest with blue tape. i sprayed the number red, let it dry then dabbed on some white which was toned down with some dark brown. The WW&F has the original siding off a box car and the white pained number protected the red underneath.