The power behind the plow. The White Pass & Yukon Rotary Fleet breaks out of Canadian Shed and heads north toward Fraser, British Columbia under a wintry sky. In this going-away view of the plow train, you can more clearly see the two pusher engines and their crews as they carefully push the 1898-vintage rotary in snow that is roughly 3 ft deep. Immediately behind the plow is the superheated, 1947-vintage Mikado #73. Behind her, and closer to the camera, is the saturated, 1908-vintage Consolidation #69. Close coordination between the crews of all three machines is important. The rotary pilot is in charge and is continually issuing both hand and whistle signals to the pusher crews as the snow conditions vary. If the pushers apply too much pressure, the rotary may stall...or even derail. In this neck of the woods a derailment would definitely be a bad day. If you look carefully out ahead of the train, you'll see she's being led by a large Caterpillar Bulldozer, which is breaking up the snowpack ahead. One of the great, unsolved mysteries of my rotary experience is how the bulldozer pilot knows where the tracks are in this featureless wilderness.
