[Bob Carriere]

I have enlarged the cab area of the snoblo.....look at the fron fender..... seems the whole cab was lifted and filler panels were fitted above the fenders........


In the Ottawa area such snoblowers were very common..... almost every decent size town had a few....some were original ex RACF....... remember the WWII was first to introduce Winter flying as we know it today..... runways used to be rolled not plowed and planes had skis....... of necessity I beleive snoblowers were improved, modified....maybe originating first with the railway system......

It would be interesting to do the history of all the modification.... unfortunately a lot must have been done in local field units.... only David Hayward can tell us if the were ever actually ordered as such.... or cab frames were later modified.

I recall seing some small one.... short wheel base....say 134" and unless my failing memory of what I remembver seeing as a kid... the rear engine had a driveshaft arrangement running along the outside of the truck encased in sheet metal..... the rear engine drove the blower fan exclusively...... I do not recall seeing hydraulic drives in those days. Most had additional windows installed in every bling area of the cab 13....even the doors had windows in the bottom panels.......

The really big ones.... long wheel base were usually painted yellow... ex RACF yellow...... the drive shaft from the rear engine was buried underneath on the bigger ones.

Being right hand drive they were very handy at following the side of the side walk.

Snow banks in those days were removed maybe once a month along main streets such as bus route..... they may have been 5 to 6 feet tall 8 to 10 feet at the base... the large blowers could clear almost 8 feet wide...... kids had the nasty habits of burrowing snow forts in such snobanks and kids, dogs and other careless passerbys have been known to be sucked in and instantly shredded into the recieving dump trucks....... the dump truck was usually covered by a tarp ..so was the blower and they were driven away after the coroner made the usual investigation.

Today it is illegal to drive/operate a snowblower on a city street without having a security person walking in front of the machine in constant view pof the operator.

In my rural neighbourhood alsmost every year or so a well meaning absent minded operator gets off his farm tractor equipped with a snowblower to clear a jam or do maintenance while the auger are operating.....Zapp..... in a matter fo second they get sucked in half wayup... some are lucky enough to die instantly.....

So much for red snow....... who else recalls seeing these monsters on the street of Canada. City archives maybe helpful.

The difficult part would be to sort out the ones designed/built during the war from the ones built by enterprising city yard staff or even industrial suppliers who bought surplus cab 13 and retro fitted something that may resemble a previous military model.

Ah.. the good old days!!!!