Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1872-03-06
THE PACIFIC ROAD SNOW BLOCKADE.



How the Passengers Lived i'm the Cars.
Red6eld of the Cincinnati Commercial
is out in Nebraska investigating the snow
blockade OH the Union Pacific Road. He
says the road has many enemies, but the
evidence goes to show incompetency in
the officers of the road. They were not
prepared for the snow as the Central Road
was. He gets this account of the suffering
of passengers from Governor Potts, of
Montana:
"Was there much suffering among the
passengers, Governor?'
No actual suffering among first-class
passengers, who were in sleeping cars and
had money to buy whatever they could
find, except the suffering and anxiety that
were natural to the situation. We have
had plenty to eat, believe, all the time,
such as it was, and sometimes it was pref
ty, rough.
But among the second-class passen-
gers, | tell you there has been suffering.
You can't crowd so many people together
i'll a commonscar, forcing them to eat and
sleep in it for month, with nothing to
cook upon but coal stove, and no dishes,
but what there will be suffering. The cars
became wretchedly filthy. Many of the
passengers were taken sick, and one little
girl on western bound train died, Others
will never get over the exposure. Think
of being sick in common car, full of peO-
pie, with the mercury indicating ten and
fifteen degrees below zero, with nothing
to eat but dry bread, crackers and cheese,
and perhaps little meat, with nothing to
cook it on, and you can imagine that there
must necessarily have been great suffering
| think there must have been nearly a
thousand second-class passengers blockad--
ed on western-bound trains. They suffered
much more than those upon eastern
trains, for there were more of them, they
were closer crowded, and out longer"
HOW THE SNOW DRIFTS WE'RE CLEARED.
In some places the snow was fifteen feet
deep, though the track was protected by
miles of fencing. On this point Redfeld
says
"Many of these cuts, containing sn ow
to the depth of fifteen feet and from four
to five hundred feet long, are not of a ma
ture to invite and hold so much snow,
being not over three feet in depth, but re-
peated shoveling out raised the banks to
an enormous height,and making them ten
times harder to clear out than ut first. The
operation of removing snow from cuts is
as follows:
Trenches are dug across the track, eX-
tending down to the rail, the snow from
these cuts being thrown out of the cut
when practicable, or carried out at the
end. These trenches are two and q hall
feet wide, and where the snow is six feet
deep they are about eight feet apart. The
snow-plow, with two engines attached, is
started far enough back to get up speed
of thirty miles an hour on entering the
cut, and go in with rush. The distance
they penetrate depends upon the depth
and character of the snow. Three hun.
dred feet is considered a very successful
run. When the engines stop they are
usually found to be completely imbedded
in blocks of snow, which must be broken
up and thrown out before the engines car
be backed out. Another run" is then
taken, and the operation repeated until
the cut is cleared. The snow thrown out
by the pillow invariably comes out in
blocks, ranging in size from walnut to
masses containing two cubic yards. Wher
the powerful plow is in rapid motion
through a snow cut the flying masses lool
like the result of continuous sand blast.