Pictured here in 1953 is a Sicard snow blower clearing snow on Frontenac Street in Montreal, Quebec. With an average snowfall in Montreal of 235 cm, mechanized equipment was a must in the early 1920s.
By 1925, Arthur Sicard, based in Quebec, had built his prototype four-wheel drive snow blower. After demonstrations of his machine in several cities, he had sold two Sicard four-wheel drive snow blowers to the City of Montreal for $13,000 apiece.
Arthur Sicard was an innovator not only in snow blowers. He went on to design and build highway tractors, vocational trucks such as dump trucks and mixer trucks, quarry trucks, street sweepers, flushers and garbage trucks. Sicard engineered larger snow blowers for airports and highway snow clearing. Many are still in operation in heavy snow regions of Canada and United States.
The Sicard snow blower shown here was produced between 1938 and 1946. It was Arthur Sicard’s first designed four-wheel truck chassis. In the following decades, new designs emerged that could have other attachments such as the V-plow and side-wing plow.
By 1949, the Sicard Snowmaster line of snow blowers were introduced with upgrades that lasted to 1968.
Initially powered by a 6-cylinder gas Buda engine in the carrier while a 115 kW Buda diesel handled the blower portion. (Allis-Chalmers had taken over the Buda Engine Company) Typically, replacement engines were Cummins, Detroit Diesel or Caterpillar when doing an overhaul.
The Historical Construction Equipment Association (HCEA Canada) 2023 event the Last Blast takes place October 14 at the Simcoe County Museum near Barrie, Ontario.
To see more than 60 pieces of vintage construction equipment in action be sure to attend. HCEA Canada is a proud Heritage Partner of the Simcoe County Museum. Visit the HCEA Canada website at www.hceacanada.org for updates.
More vintage equipment:
- Link-Belt K 365 model cable shovelÂ
- Ontario highway 401 construction
- Barber-Greene Snow Loader clearing Toronto streets in 1942
