MoW: Snow Blower uses Hydraulic Motors

Maintenance of Way equipment using hydraulic power is not unusual. In fact, MoW equipment that is more complicated than a speeder that doesn't use some hydraulic power would be unusual. Some, such as a ballast tramper, can use a lot of hydraulic rams. But these rams use just a fraction of the horsepower produced by their engine to power the hydraulics.

But this snow blower (from sr1002) has a second engine cross mounted on the back of the front-loader. Facebook comments indicated that it was a CSX snow blower leaving the yard in West Springfield, MA. It was made by Terex.

I asked a question to confirm that the engine in the back powers the blower using the two hydraulic lines that go over the cab to the snow blower attachment. That means those lines are carrying all of the horsepower produced by that, rather large, engine. It also means that the hydraulic motor that powers the attachment can handle a lot of horsepower. Rob Moore confirmed that the blower is driven by the rear engine.

The front-loader mounted snow blower that our town owns has the auxiliary engine mounted in front by the blower so that it can use direct drive. Using a hydraulic motor and mounting the engine on the rear allows for a better weight distribution on all four wheels.

Rob Moore commented on the posting
The output of the blower was impressive. This is it working W. Springfield yard January 2011.

I have since come across photos of equipment that use an auxiliary engine to power a hydraulic motor. I have added them to the end of the hydraulic motor posting.