Robert Carr Harris of Dalhousie, New Brunswick patented a "Railway Screw Snow Excavator" in 1870. This invention, (see PHOTO and VIDEO of modern equipment), cleared a path for technological upgrades and developments. Quebec's Arthur Sicard is generally credited as the inventor of the first PRACTICAL snow blower (1925). Sicard's original company is now a division of SMI-Snowblast, Inc. of Watertown, New York.

A rotary snow plow is a piece of railroad snow fighting equipment. It is characterized by the large circular set of blades on its front end that rotate as a unit to cut through the snow on the track ahead of it. The precursor to the rotary snowplow was the wedge snowplow.