REVOLUTIONIZATION OF THE RAILROAD

Did you know... The Elliott-Jull Snow Plough was designed in Orangeville?

The railway was integral to early Canadian society and economy. Each year, thousands of men were hired for the sole purpose of clearing the tracks of snow, so that the train could continue its route. Early plough designs were similar to the functionality of a cow catcher, which proved troublesome as it packed down the snow instead of removing it, making it more difficult for the men to clear the tracks afterwards. A solution was invented by Dr. J.W. Elliott in Toronto in 1869, who designed the first rotary snow plough. Elliott’s design featured a fan that rotated to scoop in snow to a wheel that was driven by a rotary engine. Flat plates in the wheel ejected the snow through a hole overtop of the wheel. However, this invention was never constructed due to lack of investors. Orange Jull, the grandson of Orange Lawrence, improved Elliott’s design in 1884. His version of the plough consisted of a large wheel, rotated by a two-cylinder steam engine and a gear system, that had revolving steel plates that pushed the snow into chambers behind the plates, ejecting the snow through an opening and moving it away from the tracks. The plough required a locomotive to push it. There is was an ice cutter attachment that removed ice from in front of the train’s wheels. Thus, the Elliott-Jull Snow Plough was born and was patented in 1884. It was purchased by the Rotary Snow-Plough Company of Canada and manufactured by Edward and John Leslie of Orangeville. The ploughs were used throughout Canada and the United States by 1911, revolutionizing the railway industry and becoming the most famous invention from Dufferin County.