Incredible snowing plowing films from upstate NY in the 1930s

[t-head]

On The Old Motor you can learn all about The Walter Snow Fighter. An early powerful brute of a truck made in New York that plowed highways and airports. Stop by and see an incredible film we have of one in Upstate N.Y. plowing 5' of snow. Two clips of the cool film we have posted can be seen below.

[1937pickup]

Neat to see-looks like they copied the RR.

[Vic Piano]

That's cool, I wonder if the Long Island City location was an actual assembly plant or a regional sales office?

[Tony, NY]

Walter Motor Truck Co. - 1911-1923 New York, New York 1923-1935 - Long Island City, New York -1935-1957 Ridgewood (Long Island), New York - 1957-1980s - Vorheesville, New York
I knew a guy that worked in the Vorheesville (neighboring to Albany, NY) plant sometime in the '60s. The Snow Fighter was a workhorse airport runway clearer.

[richard crow]

one of my maney jobs was a co named snow lift .they did snow removel for j.f.k & lga .in the early 60,s we had a fleet of walter snow fighters. they had what we called butter fly plow blades .they could plow at 30 + mph with no proulbem they were four wheel drive. they did not have a plantary hub they had what they called bevel drive. the new york thruway also used them.

[Vic Piano]

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Tony & Richard, thanks for the info, very interesting. I grew up in Huntington (Suffolk County) in the '50's & '60's, I only went into Queens to go to Joblot and drove through Long Island City (on the L I E) to get to Manhattan.

[richard crow]

i just watched the video the mechines we had were much larger. our mechines had very large singel tires on all 4 corners. they were much larger units & the plow blades were much larger. when plowing they never boged down the one in the video is a much smaller unit . with reg truck tires

[trainguy]

I spent 2 winters at Plattsburg AFB in upper N.Y.I remember the monster snow plows. by spring you couldn't see over the snow along the roads.It didn't go above 0% for weeks on end.I don't miss the hard winters we had in the 50&60s.Phil

[JonC]

I grew up in Herkimer NY when I was in High School I remeber jumping in the truck and the seat didn't even move. Of course it was 20 below for at least two straight weeks. The road from my grandfathers house in Newville had snow banks piled within two feet of the power lines, if I can find those old pictures I'll get someone to post them. Sorry to say I still live in Upstate but it's a lot warmer now only minus 1 this morning.

[42guy]

The Rensselaer County highway dept. had a few of them in the 60's and early 70's. We have some county roads in the hills that get a lot of snow. As stated in another post, they had them at the Albany airport. I never saw one get stuck. They were assembled in a plant out side of Albany.

[Barry-ct]

This video is on you tube on snowplowing in Maine. Many of these trucks in the videos are in the Coles Transportation Museum in Bangor, Maine. My great aunt Margaret worked for Coles at thier Bangor terminal for many years. I grew up in Bangor until the early 60's. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCgf56POaz0

[jim1932]

They haven't changed much. Tis is a 60's walker in front of the AACA museum in Hershey

[PeteVS]

I was surprised that they didn't hang up backing out of the drifts.

[jim1932]

What would hang up? Not like a flat plow that can ride up the bank.

[PeteVS]

Originally Posted by jim1932

What would hang up? Not like a flat plow that can ride up the bank.

The wings sticking out to the sides. I'm thinking that if the wings just move the snow out as far as their outer edge, any deviation of the path of backing up would cause the wings to bite into the snow, sort of "sucking it in." On the other hand, most of the snow they were plowing was dry and powdery or icy. The powder wouldn't matter if something caught it and the icy crusty snow that was shown a few times in the video was broken up some distance beyond the outer edges of the wings. Guess my original supposition was a little off base. :^(