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Our new mega-snowblowers could roll into action - in Washington

Giant Boston snow blower

One of the snow beasts.

After last winter, Boston bought two giant snow blowers that, when coupled with dump trucks, can remove 2,000 tons of snow an hour.

WCVB reports that with the impending blizzard to end all blizzards expected to sock Washington, but mostly miss us, Mayor Walsh says he's offered to loan the vehicles to that city if they need it.

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Comments

Has no one started a poll on when they'll first be used in Boston?
I'm betting they'll need jumper cables from sitting so long.

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n/t

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They just better get back up here before we need them.

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If it goes to DC it should drive down I-95 with the blades spinning the whole way, no brakes.

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It would be so cool to operate that thing, especially when it comes to eating snowbanks like nothing.

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Aren't going to do shit, whether in DC or Boston. 2 snowblowers like this are what one mall uses to clean their parking lots. Boston has thousands of miles of streets and roads that the snowblower salesman knew these wouldn't put a dent in.

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We ain't out of the woods yet.

Last year, we were supposed to get a BIG ONE on January 24, but it shifted and we got like 6".

Three days later and we had a top ten all time storm, followed by another.

I don't want this stuff 500 miles south when we need it.

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when the MSM, who have been stating 'dusting to 3 inches" most of the week are now adding the disclaimer "of course, the exact track is still uncertain. If it jogs even a little bit north, we could get much more snow."

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Dusting to 3 inches, but the panic never abates.

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Dusting to 3 inches, but the panic manufactured sensationalism never abates. But that's what happens when news organizations become profit centers instead of actually reporting news.

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Some people just love to complain. "What if we get 6"? OMG WHAT THEN?"

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Help me out with this, old-timer. When were news organizations NOT profit centers?

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and few advertisements. Now they give you canned news (usually citing another media source) and mostly advertisements. Not to mention the "fake news" features that are thinly disiguzed advertisements.

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When Walter Cronkite was working. He had a lot to say about the news departments becoming strictly vehicles for advertising, none of it good. IIRC, his own news department was put under the Sports Dept. head after Cronkite left. In those old days, all of the networks and major papers maintained networks of reporters in foreign countries, did actual investigative reporting, and refrained from uncritically repeating obvious lies spouted by politicians. They weren't by any means perfect, but they presented a semblance of reality, unlike today's product. And no, they were not profit centers; they cost the networks money.

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Obviously, as much as it would be fun to drive 'em down 95, that isn't gonna happen -- so they couldn't exactly be transported quickly, am I right? Given logistics and bullshit, they'd be gone for at least a week, I'm guessing. Does that sound risky to you?

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They probably wouldn't drive them down I-95, more likely they'd put them on a flatbed truck for the eight to 10 hour trek to DC. Or maybe even put them on a flatbed train car (if whatever railroad that has freight rights over the NE Corridor does that sort of thing on short-term notice).

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Freight does not move down the NEC. There are a few places freight railroads briefly use the NEC to serve a few customers, but there is no through service, mainly because no freight can move through NY Penn, and the next bridge north is near Albany.

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I have to admit when I woke up this morning and turned on the TV, the first thing I saw was Marty Walsh at the White House podium - did I see that?. Not quite awake yet I wasn't sure what happened since I went to bed the night before.

It was a startling sight, but it did wake me up.

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Heard a great story on the radio 20 years ago after DC got hit by a blizzard. Entire federal government got shut down except for the US Supreme Court. Clerk for the court had a downstairs tenant who owned a four wheel drive vehicle. Tenant had the day off so the clerk commandeered him into picking up the justices to bring them to the office. Guy had to hoist Ginsburg into the car because she's too short to climb up. Souter drove himself since he figured he knew how to drive in snow, being from NH, but he got stuck turning on the main road because only plowed the main road leaving the sidestreets blocked by a snowbank. They had to dig out and psuh his car out of the snow too.

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