This CPR 401027 Wedge Type Snow Plow and Jordan spreader are on display at the Revelstoke Railway Museum in Revelstoke, BC.
Built in 1927, this was a real PLOW! Not one of those fancy rotary things developed in later years that could fling snow several hundred feet in a chosen direction away from the track while moving at a crawl. No, these required a great deal of PUSH to get through 15 foot deep drifts. In lesser snow depths, however, these plows could fling snow quite a distance if pushed fast enough. This plow was equipped with foldout wings on each side to further aid in getting the snow away from the tracks. In 1927, snowplows had hardly evolved in 70 years, probably because they were pretty effective at their job. The rotary plow, however, would, for the most part, supplant them in due time.
This particular example has a Jordan spreader in tow (named after the developer, O.F. Jordan Inc. of Chicago) which is used to push snow further from the tracks in areas where the train cannot run at great speed, such as passenger stations. The spreader, by the way, can also be used for spreading fresh ballast when it is applied.
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