ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Bytor]

My battery powered snow thrower(s) managed to tackle it as well, though I killed the battery(ies). I would say that I would invest in a 2-stage battery unit, but hardly seems worth it when we rarely get dumps like this.

Are those a thing? I have a second-hand plug-in snow thrower which looks like a toy but actually does pretty well. I had assumed that battery operation was infeasible for this application due to the amount of energy required. What sort of operation time do you get? How big are the batteries? My lawn mower is battery operated, which works great: the benefits of gas (no cord) but none of the downsides.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2GhoDQa6tA

[Bytor]

The trains are not operational between Willis Way and Mill Stations. So much for a train being able to plow though anything heh. 301R buses aren't operational either, which is odd because the main roads aren't bad now. They should be able to run shuttles if all other bus routes are fine.

I guess that's what you get when you build a surface level rapid transit system and don't think about clearing the tracks despite spending just under 1 billion dollars. I guess I'll be taking a bus home tonight whilst trying to traverse sidewalks nobody bothers to shovel. You do you, Waterloo Region.

Whatever happened to "We'll just keep the a tram or two running all night?" I don;t see any reason why our trams should be affected by anything other than a literal snow hurricane since they would constantly be clearing the tracks and not enough to stop them would fall in even 15 minute headways.

[tomh009]

The trains are not operational between Willis Way and Mill Stations. So much for a train being able to plow though anything heh. 301R buses aren't operational either, which is odd because the main roads aren't bad now. They should be able to run shuttles if all other bus routes are fine.

I guess that's what you get when you build a surface level rapid transit system and don't think about clearing the tracks despite spending just under 1 billion dollars. I guess I'll be taking a bus home tonight whilst trying to traverse sidewalks nobody bothers to shovel. You do you, Waterloo Region.

Whatever happened to "We'll just keep the a tram or two running all night?" I don;t see any reason why our trams should be affected by anything other than a literal snow hurricane since they would constantly be clearing the tracks and not enough to stop them would fall in even 15 minute headways.

From some of the photos it looked like there was significant snow on the tracks that had been thrown there by the snowplows (from the street).

[ijmorlan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2GhoDQa6tA

Thanks! <oldman>What will they think of next?</oldman>

[KW65]

Are those a thing? I have a second-hand plug-in snow thrower which looks like a toy but actually does pretty well. I had assumed that battery operation was infeasible for this application due to the amount of energy required. What sort of operation time do you get? How big are the batteries? My lawn mower is battery operated, which works great: the benefits of gas (no cord) but none of the downsides.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2GhoDQa6tA

[ac3r]

How much does an electric snow blower cost? I would consider getting one for my parents who are getting fairly frail at their age. An electric one would be perfect so they don't have to continually fill up gas tanks.

[danbrotherston]

My battery powered snow thrower(s) managed to tackle it as well, though I killed the battery(ies). I would say that I would invest in a 2-stage battery unit, but hardly seems worth it when we rarely get dumps like this.

Are those a thing? I have a second-hand plug-in snow thrower which looks like a toy but actually does pretty well. I had assumed that battery operation was infeasible for this application due to the amount of energy required. What sort of operation time do you get? How big are the batteries? My lawn mower is battery operated, which works great: the benefits of gas (no cord) but none of the downsides.

You'd be surprised how little wattage you can get out of a 15A 120V circuit compared with a battery. Snow blowers require a fairly high energy intensity (so do mowers mind you). I think longevity can be a problem, but power intensity is probably more limited using a corded unit.

[danbrotherston]

How much does an electric snow blower cost? I would consider getting one for my parents who are getting fairly frail at their age. An electric one would be perfect so they don't have to continually fill up gas tanks.

And electric snow thrower with a cord can be had very cheap, like under 200 dollars:

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/certi...p.html#srp

They go up from there, and obviously batteries add some cost.

[Rainrider22]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2GhoDQa6tA

Thanks! <oldman>What will they think of next?</oldman>

I have the single stage snow blower by EGO, it is fantastic.  It last long enough for me to do my drive, both my neighbors and at least 6 houses worth of sidewalk... Yesterday I did go through 2 sets of batteries but that was the most snow I have moved to date.  And that includes what the snowplow put into the drive as well.  I highly recommend.  I have the lawnmowers as well, and leaf blowers and trimers.  It is great having one style of battery. Best part is I don't have to store gasoline anymore.

[Bytor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2GhoDQa6tA

Thanks! <oldman>What will they think of next?</oldman>

To be fair, I would have thought they weren't ready yet, just like you. It's simply because I happen to subscribe to that YouTube channel that I knew about them. :-)

[Bytor]

Are those a thing? I have a second-hand plug-in snow thrower which looks like a toy but actually does pretty well. I had assumed that battery operation was infeasible for this application due to the amount of energy required. What sort of operation time do you get? How big are the batteries? My lawn mower is battery operated, which works great: the benefits of gas (no cord) but none of the downsides.

You'd be surprised how little wattage you can get out of a 15A 120V circuit compared with a battery. Snow blowers require a fairly high energy intensity (so do mowers mind you). I think longevity can be a problem, but power intensity is probably more limited using a corded unit.

1,800W to be precise. Or 1,875W if your mains, like mine, test out at 125V. ;-)

[Bytor]

That's the whole thing, right. One shouldn't prepare that much for the 100 year event except for making sure that, as much as possible, it doesn't cause any other damage; and prepare just a bit for the 10 year event.

Right.

It's been a long time since we had this type of crazy snow. CTV is saying 25-35 cm in the region, which might be the most in 20+ years.

Can't say were weren't warned, though I still feel bad for people stuck on highways (portions of the 401 in Toronto were closed as well). But at the same time, sometimes you just need to stay indoors until thing cleaned up.

We were warned, and rail is extremely easy to keep keep clear of snow. Even light rail. It wasn't snowing that fast as it took several hours before the 4cm had accumulated that the plows wait for before they start clearing the roads.

If GrandLinq/Keolis wasn't out there running a tram or or two all night to keep the tracks clear, that is incompetence on their part as we can easily expect multiple 5+ centimetre snow falls in a season, even in this day and age of climate change.

Also, how were the City snow plows allowed to just plow the snow over the LRT tracks? As easy as it is for light rail to keep up with falling snow, there's still such a thing as "too deep" for a tram. That is incompetence on the City's part to not make sure that didn't happen. It's also a bit more incompetence for GrandLinq to not expect such might happen and not have a rapid response contingency available.

[tomh009]

You'd be surprised how little wattage you can get out of a 15A 120V circuit compared with a battery. Snow blowers require a fairly high energy intensity (so do mowers mind you). I think longevity can be a problem, but power intensity is probably more limited using a corded unit.

1,800W to be precise. Or 1,875W if your mains, like mine, test out at 125V. ;-)

How much power do snowblower batteries put out? A short search showed that an electric lawnmower might use something like 800W under load.

[ijmorlan]

How much does an electric snow blower cost? I would consider getting one for my parents who are getting fairly frail at their age. An electric one would be perfect so they don't have to continually fill up gas tanks.

And electric snow thrower with a cord can be had very cheap, like under 200 dollars:

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/certi...p.html#srp

They go up from there, and obviously batteries add some cost.

That is almost exactly what I have. I recommend it. Cord management is annoying but no worse than a cord lawn mower. Depending on how far one has to go this could be a greater or lesser consideration. I use a 30m cord plugged in outdoors and still need to add on an extra cord to get to the furthest reaches of the sidewalk; somebody with a shorter range of required clearing would find this easier.

But based on what I’m hearing here I would have to seriously consider a battery one if I were buying now. The extra cost to avoid dealing with cords might be a good tradeoff.

[danbrotherston]

1,800W to be precise. Or 1,875W if your mains, like mine, test out at 125V. ;-)

How much power do snowblower batteries put out? A short search showed that an electric lawnmower might use something like 800W under load.

800W would be very low for a snowblower (just over 1 HP). See below for information on wattage of battery units.

You'd be surprised how little wattage you can get out of a 15A 120V circuit compared with a battery. Snow blowers require a fairly high energy intensity (so do mowers mind you). I think longevity can be a problem, but power intensity is probably more limited using a corded unit.

1,800W to be precise. Or 1,875W if your mains, like mine, test out at 125V. ;-)

Actually, the NEC and I believe our Canadian code matches it, limits the maximum continuous wattage of equipment on a 15A circuit to only 80% of the breakers capacity, so 1440W is the typical figure I hear.

But yeah, about 2 HP, rather anemic even from a low end gas blower.

Where as a high end battery unit could have 2 * 60 volt batteries * 7.5 amp hours * 5C discharge rate could easily draw up to 4500 Watts... or almost 6 HP which would be typical for a small engine in a snow blower.  That being said, I couldn't find any figures on actual wattage for these units, so I have no idea how much of that capacity they are using.