Moscow sees a lot of snow. But the snow-eater is for special occasions.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

World
Moscow sees a lot of snow. But the snow-eater is for special occasions.
A record blizzard swept through the Russian capital over the weekend. That means it was time for a ravenous machine to come out.

By Amie Ferris-Rotman
January 28 at 12:15 PM

MOSCOW — It is really winter in Russia when the snow-eater comes out. ... It seldom makes an appearance, but when it does, hissing and gobbling up snow with metal rods resembling arms, you know there must be a lot of white stuff on the streets.

That is exactly what happened over the weekend. In a period of 30 hours, 20 inches of snow was dumped on Moscow, causing flight cancellations and car accidents across the capital. The unrelenting blizzard even broke a 70-year record. ... For the snow-eater, whose Russian name translates as “pawed snow loader,” it was time to get to work.

As the one-manned vehicle creeps along the sides of roads, its size and sluggish speed mean it is almost exclusively seen at night. The “paws” shovel heaps of snow onto a conveyor belt that extends up over its back. A separate truck follows close behind, collecting the snow as they go.

In the Soviet era — when regular snowfall was more common than today — the machine was lovingly referred to as “golden hands” by adults. Children would simply call it “paws." ... Today, the snow is carried to one of Moscow’s 56 melting stations, where it is liquefied, filtered and released into the sewer system — a far cry from the beginning of the 21st century, when the snow was being dumped in the city’s rivers, severely polluting the water.
....

Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report.

Amie Ferris-Rotman is the Moscow correspondent for The Washington Post. She was previously with Foreign Policy in Russia, and Reuters senior correspondent in Afghanistan. Follow https://twitter.com/Amie_FR

I can't link to the video in the WaPo article. Here's another video:

[FirstLight]

1. wow

Looks pretty post WWII easterm block antiquey- doesn't it? I live in the sierras, we've come a long way...

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Pretty smart design -- separates the functions of scooping and hauling.

Hauling can be done by any old dumptrucks, working in a closed loop while the scooper pauses only long enough for the next truck to move into position.