Flangers

[stem]

Nice job spotting those flangers Dan!

It of course leads to more questions:

Was it normal on the D.A.R. to run a flanger behind a snow plow? Is that perhaps why they are parked together?

Were the snowplows fitted with flangers too?

[downeastrailfan]

Please post a link to the photo in question.

[DARMIDLAND]

Hi,
From what I understand is that Flangers were used for lighter snow falls that have covered the track.They would have been used alone on a freight train.The same section crew would either run a plow if needed or the Flanger and there would not be enough crew to run both at once.A plow would be sent out if there was drifting snow or deep snow that a train could not pass.There still is a flanger in use on the CBNS Railway it is an ex CN steel type.
A few years back when the grinding train came through Truro in the winter a flanger was pulled ahead of the grinding equipment to clear the light snow from the rails.Andrew

[stem]

There are flangers here in the gallery on this page. These are the ones that I was so pleased that Dan identified because I didn't know what they were with the cupola on top.

http://dardpi.ca/wiki/index.php?title=DAR400568

[Dan Conlin]

Andrew pretty much somes up what I know about flanger use. They were used for lighter snow and used in the summer for shaping ballast. In the Kentville photos, they are just parked together with the plows. Snowplows also had a flanger blade. In both rigs, the operator had to know the route very well and watch the track signs in order to lift the blade clear of switches and level crossings or face very destructive derailments.
There is a nice little booklet on the equipment and operation of CPR steam snowplow operations by Duncan duFresne titled ''Snow Plow Extra" published by the Bytown Railway Society back in 1980. If you ever see it, it is great little read.

Dan Conlin

[Frogmore]

In reference to the forum subject "Don't think this is Kentville" and photo of car 91, I wonder if this car was converted to a flanger?
It sure looks like the flanger I remember seeing on the tail end of the way-freights circa early 1950's.

Doug

[Dan Conlin]

The DAR had a couple of flangers which were converted baggage cars or combines which looked very similar to 91. Flanger 904 was converted from Baggage No. 41 in 1923 according to Andrew Merrilees. There was also Flanger 905, an ex passenger coach.

Dan Conlin

[mountainrail]

The DAR had 3 flangers which were converted from passenger cars.

#904 was converted from mail-express #41 in 12-23, scrapped in 10-55.
1st #905 was converted from mail-express #42 in 12-33, scrapped in 10-37.
2nd #905 was converted from coach #5 in 6-38, was renembered CPR #400400 in 11-58, and was still on the DAR in 5-60, but I believe it was scrapped soon after that.

The end platforms were removed, and a flanger blade with heavy wood framework was attached to the car ends.

Caboose #91 was retired in 1-55, and the body sold. It ended its days at New Minas. It was in a very decayed state in 1964, when I measured and photographed it.

Jim O'Donnell

[Dan Conlin]

Great info Jim. I did not know there were two 905s. What source are you tapping into for those precise dates?

Dan Conlin

[mountainrail]

I have a photocopy of three pages of handwritten notes documenting all the passenger equipment "taken over June 30, 1911" from the Merrilees Transportation Collection. I presume he must have had access to the records at Kentville headquarters when he did his research, as the whole document is filled with dates by month and year, information that would not be readily available elsewhere.

With this document as a starting point, along with other bits of info from other sources, such as Harold Jenkins,photographs, and my own memories, I am putting together rosters of passenger equipment, early vans, and MOW equipment as info becomes available.

Jim O'Donnell

[Dan Conlin]

Thank heavens for Andrew Merrilees recording all that info!
And thank you for sharing your notes.
It is great to hear from other people puzzling out the DAR fleet.
Is this the Merrilees Collection at Library and Archives of Canada? I found a list in the Merrilees Collection there entitled "Dominion Atlantic Railway Chronology of Passenger Car Purchases" (MG31 A10 Vol. 55-4) but it is not as detailed as the list you found.

Dan Conlin