Mystery Hook

While having morning coffee and sandwiches on the patio outside Newbridge Shed this morning I was reminded of a long standing query I had about a mystery hook on the rear of my Snowplough.
Can anyone explain the purpose of this hook?
There is no corresponding Hook or Staple on the opposite side of the plough.
The cab doors open inwards.

 

If the cab door opened outwards the hook would need to be about 2ft longer to reach the eye.
AS far as I know and after looking at the GA Drawings from the NRM the doors have always opened inwards.
I cannot remember seeing a similar arrangement on Number 20 at Beamish which is from the same build in 1909 at York.

 

Possibly to hang your jacket on, and runs for cover!

 

would there have been some kind of side sheet to prevent snow getting blown between the vehicle and the loco? my immediate thought was for some rearward opening door or panel that could be secured in the open position, was the snow plow an rebuild of another vehicle in that case a left over from its previous use?

 

The snowplough was designed as such from the outset in 1909 and is not a bodge together like the version in the care of the NRM at Shildon which is built on an old set of Loco frames.
Possibility of some form of a side sheet has been thought of but again why a hook only on the one side, nothing on the other side.

 

Do you mean the lamp bracket.

 

Good luck with that, and thanks for sharing, it's already driving my nuts

 

thats what i thought but more as a way to prevent snow build up or some kind of cover if the fireman had to empty the smoke box, as on snow plow duty they would be expected to service the engine remote from shed in a yard somewhere, it most likey is a local modification that was done by the railwaymen when in use to solve some problem, or something,

 

Emergency coupling?!

 

In the film "Snowdrift At Bleath Gill" a hook can be seen clearly on the opposite side.
Screen capture showing back of plough.

 

I missed that.
Then that would lend more support to the theory of a sheet being used to keep snow out of the area between loco and plough.
What bugs me now though is the strap holding the lump of snow as that is not present now.

 

Seems like an strange choice of tether for a tarp or whatever though? I'd have though cleats would make more sense to attach ropes too?

 

That's what I was thinking. It's not for permanently attaching anything, especially not a tarp that would be getting battered by the snow while in use. Plus there's only one - if you're affixing a tarp, you'd want it to be held securely in place on each corner.

 

But note above that there were two originally, just that one's no longer there. Still looks like a door stay or similar though. Any chance that the doors once opened outward 180 deg, before the lamp brackets and handrails were added?

 

See post 2

 

I'm of the opinion that at some point in the past some maniac has sawn off the end of your van

Looking at your images, the centre end panel looks suspiciously similar to the bodyside door apart from the ventilator bonnet. Same framing, same matchboarding with the chamfered corners.

Google turfed up this:—

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/hi..._for_bridge_____but_too_late_for_lead_miners/

Scroll down to the bottom for a very tiny picture of a pair of ploughs at Fieldon Bridge. One of them clearly has a bijou verandah-ette with two half-height side doors and what could very well be one central door leading into the cabin.

If that **is** a door, & it opened outwards, it'd need a hook.

Pete S.,
C&W Dept.,
GWS Didcot.

 

By the time that my plough was built in 1909 lessons on design had been learned and one of those lessons I am sure would be that an outward opening door would be undesirable when stuck in a snowdrift.
The photo in the report is of an earlier type of plough which did have an open rear balcony, these were rebuilt in later years as a fully enclosed cab.

Attached is an extract from a GA drawing for Ploughs 18 - 20 showing the rear window which is of a droplight type but is not a door.