I Am From Norway May I Help You?

I pass this depot most days of the year and often marvel at the bright colour and imposing presence of these huge snow clearing machines. When bolted onto the front of a gritting lorry they quite literally force a passage through the thickest of snow drifts and keep our highways open through the often harsh Scottish winters.

My local council have quite a few of them and although they sit unused for most of the year, when it snows and blows here in the North East of Scotland they are the beastie boys! None of your £8.64 Tesco snow shovels in this yard!

I took the time today to stop and admire them only to discover that not only are they all different in shape and size but they are seemingly designed to meet conditions in local towns.
Emblazoned on them are town names such as Banff, Strichen and Huntly. Banff is more or less at sea level whereas the latter towns are in the foothills of the Grampians and presumably qualify for bigger ploughs.

The largest of these snowploughs, at the front left of the image, has the town name Braemar stencilled on the left blade and "Hello, I am From Norway, Can I Help?" on the right blade.

Braemar is at an altitude of 339 metres (1,112 ft) which is probably why it qualifies for help from our Norwegian neighbours.

Thank you Norway!