Wyoming Snow Fences


Pre-production N scale snow fence.	Production HO scale snow fence. Notice the much improved board edges.

Snow fences such as the ones shown here are a vital part of controlling snow drifts where trains run through snow-covered mountains. Properly designed and positioned snow fences can virtually eliminate the snow drifts that otherwise cause delays while snow plows attempt to clear the tracks.

The Kit

Our kit is an exact scale model of snow fences from plans provided by the state of Wyoming, and have been in use from 1971 until the present. These fences are 8' tall by 16' wide, and each package comes with parts for a total of six fences, or a total length of nearly 100'. The fence itself is supported by truss frames that would be anchored with rebar driven into the ground.

We've put a lot of work into making this kit easier to build. The horizontal boards are all held in alignment until you've finished gluing everything together, at which point you simply cut the entire fence out of the board. This allows the "individual" boards and very simple kit construction. You can literally build all 6 fences in each kit in one evening.

The Prototype

Snow fences are typically positioned so they're perpendicular to the wind that blows during heavy snow conditions, and a row of fences should be long enough to protect sections of track that might be susceptible to snow drifts. These fences are best positioned on the crests of ridges and hills upwind of the track.

In practice, these 8' tall snow fences should be placed at least 280' from the tracks they're designed to protect, as shown in the figure on the right. When you have them angled as shown here, you might need a couple of rows that overlap a little to protect an area of the track. Also, the 16' wide panels should be spaced right next to each other with only a tiny gap in between (a six inch gap between panels is too wide on the prototype).

Of course, 280' is a lot of space on a model railroad, so this is a good place to use selective compression to give your scene the feel you want without using too much space on your layout.

Pricing

Description	Part #	Price
N Scale Snow Fences (6 per kit)	32004	$16.95
HO Scale Snow Fences (6 per kit)	33004	$23.95

Related Products

We're very proud of our all-wood laser-cut snow fence kit and think it's a very good product. But in case it doesn't meet your needs exactly, we're aware of some examples from other manufactures.

Blair Line at one point carried another variation of the "Wyoming" snow fence, but it looks like they may not offer this product anymore.

Builders in Scale sells an HO white metal kit, #568, that is the same design as the Blair Line kit.