The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-03-02

4 way sofget it ont was ts dig trenches every
| SIX feet down to the rails md then use the
saow-ploughs. But that was not always
successful. AT one time three engines were
thrown from tie track and the snow-plongh
smashed iii trying to get through, when to
the eye It would seem that one engine could
lgo through without difficulty.
CAT some points on the road have seen
the snow so hard that the engines would
leave the rails and run right up upon it,
mounting It as though 1t was fiint-rock.
You would not believe that unless you could
see It, but 1t is true. did not believe it till
saw ii, for it seems incredible. At one point
we had thirteen coal-cars wrecked by this
snow of 6iht-like hardness. The engine ran
over it and kept the track, but the cars
mounted It and ran off sideways, making a
complete wreck. The snow for four inches
above the rails seems to have become ice Of
f1inty hardness.
SOME EASTERN MEN WHO KNEW ALL ABOUT 1T.
~" There were some eastern railroad men
on one of the blockaded trains who thought
they knew how to get through. told them
they were welcome to go out and test the
matter for themselves. They had fair trial,
and gave it up that such elements could not
be conquered by any agency of man. The
same amount of snow on eastern roads
could, no doubt, be disposed of without Sc
rious trouble, but the snow they have to con-
tend with there is as different from the snow
here as daylight is from darkness.
"Then the amount of snow was beyond
all precedent this winter. The records show
that upon the line of our road in the noun
tains more snow fell this winter than in the
last six winters put together.
"Were you prepared this winter to meet
such a season as you had three winters ago
without causing delayf" asked.
owe were, most emphatically. The WIN
ter Of three years ago would not have him
dered Us with the preparations we had this
year. We were prepared to meet anything
equal to any winter since the road has been
built"
"Mr. Clark, if you had known ten months
ago just what sort of a winter this one was
to be, could you have prepared for it so as to
have avoided blockade?"
eyes, sir, we could. We were prepared
for anything like an ordinary winter; that
is, for any winter such as we have had since
the opening Of the road. But this has been
extraordinary, winter such as has not had
an equal within the memory of any man in
the mountains. But hereafter we shall be
pASpoAou Aol JuSI SuCLl HluCclS uS tuls, ahA
will escape without any more blockades.
"The experience of eastern railroads in
winter does us no good, but rather misleads
us than otherwise, for the character of the
snow they have to contend with is entirely
different from the snow on our line above
here. Nor do they have such winds to pack
the snow. Their snow-ploughs are of no
service whatever here, and their experience
likewise. The only lessons of experience
that have done us any good are such as we
have learned on our own road. Hereafter
we shall be prepared for the worst, pretty
well satisfied that the worst can be no
worse than this winter has been. Our snow
| sheds will have to come down and be built
ON different plan, the old way not suiting
the elements here. We made the sides to
slope at all angle of about eighty degrees,
thinking that the wind-driven snow would
strike it and scoot' up. But instead of that
it packed hard, became of enormous weight,
| and in many instances smashed in the sheds.
Hereafter we shall build the walls perpen.
| dicularly, and make them as tightas house
Snow fences, such as you have seen along the
road, we have found to be of good service at
many points, although there are places where
| twenty lines of them seem to be useless"