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Following the miserable snow storms in the Chicago area in the early 1970s, it was decided that a more aggressive snow plow was needed for the IC suburban system. Two 1926 motor cars were coupled back to back,
painted green, and converted into a snow plow train by the IC. The steel structure seen in this photo is minus the plow. Of course, Chicago had no severe winters for several years after that.
The two car snow plow consist sat at the south end of the 18th Street MU yard for years, unneeded. Eventually, the IC decided to get rid of the cars, and moved them to the South Chicago branch storage yard,
where they were heavily vandalized (note the additional paint that was added by the vandals in this scene). After nearly a year, they decided to scrap both cars, and they were taken to the
Metra Rock Island District Blue Island Yard, where the plows were removed (the steel support structure remained on the cars). And subsequently they were moved to the freight storage yard at the
Port of Chicago, where both were scrapped.. This scene shows a work train pulling one of those old 1926 motor snow plow cars in Blue Island as it heads for the Port of Chicago on August 3 1989.
Caption data from Stephen M Scalzo, photo courtesy the Don Ross Collection
