LA 5513

Top icing machine used at the ice plant in the Santa Fe's Belen, New Mexico Yards for top icing and re-top icing. The three hundred pound blocks come down the conveyor from the ice house to the switch where the block is shown in this picture. It then slides down onto the conveyor in the bottom which moves it into the chopper. From the chopper it goes into a hopper where it is picked up by a flexible screw device which slings it out of the tube into the car. Although this is usually thought of as a blower, the ice is in reality thrown instead of blown out through the loading tube. the machine is moved along the loading platform under it's own power by means of an electric motor with a hidden lead to the power line under the walk at the left of the picture.