"Throttle back, boys!". White Pass Superintendent of Railroad Operations, Ed Hanousek gives hand signals to his pusher Engineers to ease off on the power as Rotary #1 encounters a particularly dense pack of snow near White Pass Summit. Rotary plow operations are definitely a team sport, and the Rotary Pilot is clearly the quarterback. The pilot uses a combination of hand signals and whistle blasts to communicate with the Engineers on the pusher locomotives as well as the Engineer and Fireman on the Rotary. Hand signals are typically used for minor adjustments, such as the one seen here, while major changes call for the whistle. Whistle signals to stop, reverse and move forward are always acknowledged in-kind by both of the locomotive crews. During the 2011 rotary event, the entire White Pass crew functioned like a well-oiled machine, despite the fact that the rotary had not been run in 2 years! Of additional note in this photo is the inky, black plume from the rotary's steam engine. All of the White Pass engines burn heavy bunker oil and until the Fireman gets his mixture adjusted properly after each throttle change, that plume can be heavily laden with unburned oil....which rains down on anything nearby....including photographers, who get too close!
