In search of snow.... The Rotary Pilot on Nevada Northern's Snow Train looks as if he's calling for the train's locomotive to mount a charge at the next drift, but alas, he's just calling for the train to advance toward a new parking spot in the engine house. Unfortunately, the weather for the 2015 Winter Photo Shoots was hardly what we've come to expect for a February in the high desert. Not only was there no snow, but daytime temperatures were in the balmy 50s, and night-time lows were right around freezing. Given those conditions, it made little sense to spend a lot of time doing run-bys with the plow train consist, so the museum folks just hauled it out of the barn for a few minutes so we could photograph it in the late morning sun.
The plow train today is led by the 1907-vintage Rotary B, an Alco-Cooke product, which is original to the line and the only rotary that the NN ever owned. The designation "Rotary B" is a bit misleading. There never was a "Rotary A". All significant MOW equipment on the NN had letter designations, instead of numbers. The "A" piece was the 100-ton steam wrecking crane. The "B" piece was the plow. The tender behind the rotary is not the rotary's original tender, but rather, a hand-me-down from one of the line's long-since-scrapped 4-6-0s. Standing in for the usual steam power on this day is Alco RS-2 #105, which was making its first appearance in several years. Bringing up the rear is steel Caboose #22, lettered for Kennecott Copper. On an actual snow train, this caboose would have provided transportation for extra crew members, as well as a place where the crew could store their tools and eat.
