With large swaths of the US being blasted by heavy snow and high winds, crews in heavy equipment have been working around the clock to keep roads and cities moving. We take things like dump trucks, front end loaders, and snow plows for granted, but until equipment like the Walter Snow Fighter truck came along, it was either done by hand or with horses and oxen.

In the late 1920’s the Walter truck company of NY designed and started selling a big truck designed to plow snow and fight the worst that the elements could throw at it. Featuring massive, nearly 700 cubic inch flathead gas engines rated for anywhere from 150-180hp and a drive system called “100% traction” due to its locked axles, they were part tractor, part truck, and part battering ram. Early versions had five speed transmissions and were capable of 30mph at full tilt. These weren’t designed to be highway runners, rather they were designed to be (relatively speaking) high speed bulldozers. The trucks were produced for decades, with more modern engines and powertrain options.

The videos below were shot in 1935 and show the trucks pushing and battering their way through snow drifts that are 10-12 feet deep. These trucks literally freed up communities who elsewise would have been cutoff from the outside world for weeks.

It was slow, hard work that is now accomplished by large machines that move more material in an hour than the old Snow Fighters did in a day, but back then, these big beasts were viewed as the best thing since sliced bread (which was pretty freaking new iteself!)