Boston: the "Snowzilla" machine and other snow-removal oddities #mbta #snowzilla

It snowed a couple more inches yesterday, with a few more due today, and another "foot, foot-and-a-half" (30-45cm) due this weekend. Travel is a mess. Side streets are still awful, and the T (Boston mass transit) is limping along on a reduced schedule, which forces more autos on the roads, taking traffic even worse. Sidewalks are dangerous, at best. Some visual oddities: I saw the T's Snowzilla, a "Hurricane Jet Snow Blower"  (a track-mounted jet engine with a downward-directed exhaust) in the Wellington train yard yesterday --- an odd and obviously high-mileage beast. The nozzle is in the travel position in these pix: Other pix, info: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/02/07/mbta-using-heavy-duty-equipment-to-clear-snow-ice-off-tracks/ http://www.railwayequipmentservices.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=88&Itemid=35 http://tinyurl.com/pynjkhd The City of Boston also has borrowed several snow melters from other states to try to get rid of the giant snow piles. My apartment complex rented a smaller version, locally, to melt snow by the front-end-loader bucketful. It's dragged into place by a heavy truck, and accompanied by its own fuel bowser to keep it fed --- it uses an astonishing amount of fuel oil: http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/snow-removal-boston-northeast/42028195 Yikes, what a winter.