It's the Cleaners!

In the continuing theme of things to get used to, there are some unusual vehicles on Canada's roads. Some of them I haven't even been able to define properly yet, they're so unfamiliar to me. Strange little cleaning machines and sweepers, as well as trucks with odd attachments and devices I just don't know the functions of*.

There are more identifiable vehicles as well, things that one can guess what they're for or know from seeing them on television and in the media. Snow ploughs for example. Or, as they spell it here, "plow"**.

Most of the ones you see around look like pickup trucks with a blade or two attached to the front, as seen below.

 

Many of the ones I see around here aren't as nice as the one in this picture, but what do you expect for a work vehicle that shovels snow and gets corroded out by salt?

The average Australian probably wouldn't think about how Canadians clear their highways. It wasn't something that really occurred to me before I started living here, that's for sure. Highways are just as important here as in Australia, if not moreso given there doesn't seem to be a passenger rail network covering most towns the way Victoria's does.

The road network here is really rather awe-inspiring, and even out here in the country the highways are lit and, as we discovered on one blizzard filled day on a trip to a town north of here, very well cleared.

That is the back of one of the highway clearers, and they're rather a sight to behold. I haven't seen a machine quite as impressive since I visited the mines in Kalgoorlie over twenty years ago. I wasn't able to get a good picture of the business end of the plough, but here's a fictional representation of what they reminded me of.

Labyrinth - ©Jim Henson Productions

Ok, so I might have indulged in a little hyperbole. Not by much, though! They may not be mine loaders or borers, but for something you just see out on the roads as a (winter) day-to-day thing, they're definitely impressive. Some have massive rotating drillheads to bite their way through major drifts, and given the amount of snow we've seen this last winter, you could see why.

These things tear through the snow and push it to the side of the road in as efficient a way as they can. They also spinkle the roads with the aforementioned salt to keep the road from becoming too covered over with rime before they can get back, as well as to give other vehicles a little more traction as they head to wherever they're going.

They're some of the scariest bloody things I've seen on a roadway, ever. Yet also, quite awe-inspiring.

One day I want to see one of the railway snow ploughs. Those things have to be huge!

*Yet. One day I shall find out and dutifully blog about them for others to peruse. It's a duty.

**Anyone else rhyme that with "snow" or "slow"? Just me? Ok.