Power
Early rotaries had steam engines inside their carbodies to power the blades; a few are still in working order, and in particular one on the White Pass & Yukon Route in Alaska performs annual demonstration runs through thick snow for the benefit of photographers and enthusiasts. Newer constructed rotaries are either diesel or electric powered; in the latter case, an electric supply is required. Many steam plows were converted. Some electric plows can take their power from a locomotive, while others are semi-permanently coupled to power units, generally old locomotives with their traction motors removed; these are colloquially called "snails." (This is derived from the fact that engineless but motored units that take their power from another locomotive are "slugs" - thus the opposite, with engine but no motors, is a "snail.")
Read more about this topic: Rotary Snowplow
Famous quotes containing the word power:
“...men give us most rarely that which we really want, not favor, but—Justice. Nothing is easier than to coax them to pet us like children, nothing more difficult than to persuade them to treat us like responsible human beings.”
—Frances Power Cobbe (1822–1904)
“Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“A physician can sometimes parry the scythe of death, but has no power over the sand in the hourglass.”
—Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741–1821)