A red fan for a winter railway: Bing’s rotary snowplough

Turn this Bing wagon towards the camera and the large red fan becomes its defining feature. The 0-gauge tinplate model represents a rotary snowplough, a machine built to cut into snow rather than simply push it aside with a wedge.

On full-size steam rotaries, the engine powered the cutting and throwing machinery, while locomotives pushed the plough along the line. The rotating equipment cleared snow to the side of the track.

Bing gives the toy a curved brown roof, printed plank sides, red window surrounds and a lamp above the front opening. The separate hood frames the red rotor. Our museum dates the example to the 1920s.

It brings a different kind of railway work into a tinplate collection: keeping a route open before an ordinary goods or passenger train could pass.