Athearn Rotary Snowplow

[doctorwayne]

Got a bit more work done on the rotary today, including the installation of the rest of the grabirons and all of the sill steps....



















As you can see in the first two photos, I've also re-located the rear truck farther back than the original, which, in my opinion, makes it look a little more well-balanced.   It doesn't, however, help the scrawny look to which I referred yesterday, and I'll be adding some sort of centre sill to address that shortcoming. 
I'll also be adding some weight to the back end, as it's currently front-heavy due to the casting for the rotary cutter and its drive mechanism.
I've seen where some modellers have powered the cutting head on these plows, but unless I were planning to do snow scenes, with really deep snow, it won't be happening on this one - the rotary will be mainly scenery at various sidings around the layout.

I haven't decided whether to do the rear coupler with its stock pivoting draught gear, or simply body-mount the coupler, as the relocated rear truck creates a bit of interference with the pivotted set-up.
It's also possible, of course, to do a drawbar-type connection between the plow and its tender, although that might create access issues for cleaning-out the smokebox - I don't know if oil-burners needed much of that, as they don't make cinders like coal burners do.

Wayne