I have been a huge fan of Maciej Drwięga and his LEGO modeling for a few years now. Maciej’s train station layout is quite impressive, and deserving of it’s own article. But I wanted to focus on one of his latest models today.

Polish Railway Lines 411S Snow Plow

Maciej’s model is a beautiful example of LEGO train modeling. He has not only an eye for creating a realistic shape, but also the ability to to pack in all the right details to bring the model to life. The color scheme while basic, is still pleasing, and very accurate to the real 411S snow plow.

The 411S is a standard gauge nie samojezdny snow plow produced by Rolling Stock Repair Plants Stargard between 1972 and 1989. Currently operated by PKP Polish Railway Lines, the 411s is capable of plowing a maximum snow thickness of 1.5 m. The plow blades: front and side, are operated hydraulically. The leading blade can be set to a V shape pushing snow away to both sides, or angled the same direction to push snow to only the left or right. Retractible hinged wings increase the width of snow to 6.16 m. The plow has space for three operators. The plow itself is not powered. To move it, a separate locomotive locomotive with a  tractive force from 77 to 180 kN (depending on the thickness of the snow) is needed.

Between 1972 and 1989, 158 411S plows were produced, mostly for use on Polish Railways, but also a few for export to Czechoslovakia .

The 411S was constructed on the basis of  401WD  wagon frame coal cars . Cabs were adapted from the EU07 locomotives. Two type 1XTa / B two axle bogies were used originally, then latter converted in the newer 25TNa. The plow has a diesel generator supplying 16 kW of power to operate the plows controls, lights, and the hydraulics.