Hey John [JDEMARIS]

[Roy Suomi]

In a post a couple of days ago you mentioned Tug Hill...Some years ago [1939 I think] a film was made by Frink Snowplow Co. ..This film was called Tug Hill [ go figure].. It was about a road department blasting thru 12-15 foot drifts with a 30"s Walter 4X4 single axled truck with a single exhaust stack thru the hood with no muffler and a TALL Vee plow..It was absolutely amazing what the driver put that Walter truck thru..In one shot , it showed the rear end of the truck coming right off the ground when he blasted the snow drift in Rome N.Y...Just wondered if you ever saw that film..As the story goes , the film was found in the trash by someone at Frink..Then it was copied and distributed it to dealers of Frink products..

 

[TimV]

Roy: I live just off the Tug Hill (I can see the windmills from my house) and if you can find one of the old plow drivers from those days and have a few hours to spend, you'll hear lots of amazing stories. Even with modern equipment, keeping the roads open up there is a challenge. Haven't seen the film you mention, but there's lots of old home movies and such showing houses buried in snow, drifts up to the wires on telephone poles, vehicles sunk out of sight and not recovered until Spring, etc. All part of living on Tug Hill, home to 300+" of snow a year--the most snowfall of anyplace in the US east of the Rockies. It's common for snow plow companies to test their equipment here--if it can survive a Tug Hill winter it should be good for anywhere except perhaps the high mountain passes.

 

[RodinNS]

The old man talks about a storm like that back in the early 60's before the road was built up here. They ran crawlers with V's on them at that time and had what was a fairly new Oshkosh for the highway at that time. They were blocked in for several days that time as the crawler could not open the road so they had to wait for the Oshkosh... but he will never forget sitting in the dining room one afternoon and watching the Oshkosh work 1/2 mile away across the field. For the longest time they couldn't see him at all. They'd just hear the truck backing away, nearly half a mile in the other direction, then quiet, then they'd hear the old 250 Cummins winding up and grabbing gears... John Willie was a comin'. Next thing they'd see was a plume of snow go flying up in the air, then the boom... then the long slow whine as he backed away again. Did that all afternoon but he got the road open. I don't know if it's funny or just plain sad but NS Department of Infrastructure 'Renewal' is still operating some of those old Oshkosh's; mabey even that one. They've also still got a rump of 'legacy' Cat 950's and D6C's. Damn old things just don't die. They keep fixing the Oshkosh's even to the extent of having parts made that they can't buy... probably because the people who make purchasing decisions will not buy FWD plows... but the people in purchasing don't see the repair budget either...


Rod

 

[Dave Sherburne NY]

Is This it??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW8iCvnKWXg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyFxkVefcsE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhCHVzHMhSQ&feature=autoplay&list=QL&index=2&playnext=2

 

[Roy Suomi]

So far in Chardon Ohio we've gotten 94.5 " of snow this season..I work for the Chardon Township road department..Me and the '98 Mack have been very close friends this season..

 

[JDemaris]

Nope, never heard of the film until you mentioned it. Now I'll have to look around for it.

I've got a lot of woods right in middle of Tug Hill in the almost ghost-town of "Worth Center."
A town road used to run through my land, but was given up to beaver ponds over 60 years ago.

Driving around there now gets me a little dizzy with all the huge wind-towers all over.

There are two huge old plow trucks sunk in the swamp there. Both with big Vee-plow on them. Both look 40s vintage.

 

[Anonymous-0]

When they had that 108" dump in Oswego back in 66 or 67 I saw one of those big plows doing a back road outside Syracuse and the wind was so bad the snow closed in immediately behind the plow while he was moving and stuck him so he couldn't move forward or back. My wife's Grandfather was from Oswego and one of the ways to pay your taxes was to work for the town. He used his team on a snow roller to pack down the roads for the sleighs. Brrr

joe-

 

[jgilles]

We love that Lake Ontario snow making machine in our back yard...People have no idea what real snow is. I work in Syracuse and they get pretty good snow, but just drive 1/2 hour north and there is twice the snow... 200-300 inches a year.

 

[Zachary Hoyt]

Are those trucks on your land? I would think that one of those plows might come in handy for you but I don't know.
Zach