SNOWPLOUGHS

[grober]

Had to smile slightly yesterday when the BBC anounced in its "national disaster" voice that certain local authorities had been forced to fit their road gritters with snowploughs such was the snow precipitation. For the benefit of those in the Southern half of our nation this is what a real snowplough used to look like! a 6 wheel drive MACK. IRRC these used to run on petrol and were only laterly converted to diesel

 

[baxlin]

Quite a beast, no wonder you SHOUTED the thread title........

 

[Darrell]

When it snows in Skiathos a few of the locals come along in their JCB’s and Bobcats and quickly clear the roads.
No fuss and no dramas and normally enjoying a coffee by lunchtime.

 

[Deleted member 6183]

We tend not to need those in the balmy South.

 

[optimusprime]

The snow plough came through last night .Pushing all the snow over to the curbside .Made more of a problem .

 

[Darrell]

We tend not to need those in the balmy South.

We had a fair amount in north London. My wife is restaurant manager at the Laura Ashley hotel in Elstree and she was snowed in at work. Had to stay the night in one of the posh rooms.... or so she said!!

 

[chrisk2010]

6 hours on the m25 yesterday trying to get home from Northolt to Essex, 2 of the hours between juction 16 to 18 i did see a snowplough .... it was going the other way

The funny part was though i went to town detailing the wifes car (non merc) i used my full kit and planning to post a picture sunday showing all my efforts, when i woke sunday the bleeding thing was covered in snow ! Lorries covered it in dirty snow on the way home lane changing, i must say though ...... the crap slid right off the Bilt Hamber speed wax

 

[Martin 1]

That's a brilliant machine ! I want one - maybe for Christmas

 

[grober]

The problem with roads blocking in Scotland is usually down to "blin-drif" - literally "blind drift" snow. A combination of strong winds , falling temperature and type of fine snow that results in blizzard conditions. This means that roads tend to fill up with snow as quickly as the ploughs clear them. Driving in such conditions is a nightmare as you are faced with zero visibility with your eyes presented with a white wall only a few yards ahead and the need to maintain forward momentum to avoid getting stuck. Road surfaces take on a mogul aspect with almost bare roads alternating with deeper mogul-like drifts where wind has found an opening such as a open gateway to a field or between buildings.

 

[MancMike]

Engine has as much torque as a remapped 265 E350 CDI, but at 1,000 rpm!

 

[Deleted member 6183]

We had a fair amount in north London. My wife is restaurant manager at the Laura Ashley hotel in Elstree and she was snowed in at work. Had to stay the night in one of the posh rooms.... or so she said!!

That's the issue though isn't it, in the south a couple of inches of snow is a big deal compared to Scotland because it's so rare.
For that reason I found the OP a little patronising.

 

[Alex225]

Been a fair while since I saw one of those in action although I think it must have been 2009 or 2010 when we had a really heavy snow fall in Surrey where I am. Had the ploughs out then but it's been rare round our way before or since. My road ends up really slippery as it doesn't get gritted but it's 100m to the main road that has a decent bus route and gets gritted.

 

[Dryce]

That's the issue though isn't it, in the south a couple of inches of snow is a big deal compared to Scotland because it's so rare.
For that reason I found the OP a little patronising.

Central Scotland isn't much better than London and the SE when there's a light snowfall - particularly early in the season. Fewer people and being a bit more spread out means that the mayhem doesn't build in the same way.

It's the parts that are further north or further south that tend to just get on with it and cope.

If the weather forecast is bad in the SE and in the highlands then I'd be more worried about driving the motorways in the SE rather than the A9 over Drummochter. With the motorways you can end up with poor conditions causing a standstill that will take hours to unpick. With the A9 the conditions will be worse but they will grit and plough and convoy the traffic over - or turn you back. But then the A9 isn't going to be carrying as much traffic and isn't part of a an extended major network of conurbations - and the people who look after the road are used to the conditions .

 

[Darrell]

TBH, apart from being bloody freezing my commute into west London was perfect.

 

[zipdip]

We have had it bad here measured the snow on top of the car it was 2 inches,oh well back inside cup of coffee and a biscuit.

 

[Deleted member 113659]

We feel very much cheated here. We may have to go in search of snow this week sometime. Clear blue sky's and sunshine here for the last 4 days. (Albeit -4)

Wishing we were back in Manchester.

 

[WOODYTHEWISE]

 

[E55BOF]

Or in Newcastle, if you're going out for the evening, maybe a T-shirt instead of a wrestler's vest...