Flanger #328 at Antique Powerland on July 31, 2010
This piece of railroad equipment is called a flanger. It is used to clear snow and ice from between the rails, using two large funnel-shaped blades mounted under the frame, one for each side. The blades can be raised and lowered individually as needed from inside the cab. The flags on the roof indicate the position of the blades to others. Like a snow plow, a flanger has no way of propelling itself and must be pulled or pushed by a locomotive, and it can only be used in one direction; the entire car must be turned on a turntable or wye to clear snow in the other direction. Flangers are typically used in conjunction with snow plows or Jordan Spreaders, following directly behind to pick up what the larger equipment cannot reach between the rails. This flanger was built by the Southern Pacific Railroad as #328, most likely in their Sacramento, California freight car shop. It was completed on November 6, 1945. It is 37.5 feet long and weighs 44,000 pounds. It was retired in 1981 and donated to the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. It may be the last wood-bodied flanger in existence.
Flanger #328 at Antique Powerland on August 4, 2007
Flanger #328 is currently under restoration; in 2007 the wooden cab was in white primer and the metal components were in red primer.
Flanger #328 at Antique Powerland on August 3, 2008
By the 2008 Great Oregon Steam Up, the wooden cab had been painted in its original bright orange color with correct Southern Pacific lettering.
Flanger #328 at Antique Powerland on July 31, 2010
By the 2010 Great Oregon Steam-Up new windows had been installed. With these windows the flanger looked quite good.
The PNWC-NRHS page about #328, including a pre-restoration photo.
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