The two icebreaker frames were located with the first at one end. The second
was somewhat central, just away from the door, so it would clear out more ice
from the inside of any curve. Icicles hanging from the roof are only part of
the problem, although initially they may have been the main concern.
Manual labour was always an option, and for many years it was normal to have a
winter gang at the Spiral Tunnels chipping away at the ice. It was more than
icicles; where water was seeping out through the walls something akin to a
glacier would develop as new water was continually added to the ice. Some
tunnels are dry but there were quite a few that had wet areas to cause winter
headaches.
To reduce the labour, various methods can be tried to control the problem.
Sometimes the concrete lining will be sealed, or bare rock coated. If the flow
can't be completely stopped, foam insulation on the walls may keep the cold air
from reaching the water. Mother Nature is hard to defeat so the icicle breaker
cars are still used.
Returning to actual icicles, we should remember that the domes on the Canadian
were among the tallest equipment around in the 1950s, and the only thing with
glass up high. Autoracks, doublestacks and hi-cube boxcars were all in the
future. Any existing freight car that approached that height was solid steel
and would brush off any encounter with icicles. I believe the open autoracks
were what triggered the development of the icebreaker cars.
John
--- In cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Bob Grace" <rrgrace@...> wrote:
The icebreaker boxcars also had concrete added to them to provide extra
weight. There was usually an ice breaker at both ends of the car. I am not
sure what they did about icicles before these cars and the passenger locos
were developed. I wonder if back when manpower was cheap they may have had
section men that would walk the tunnels and knock down the icicles?
Bob Grace
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