Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-04-13
4 THROUGH THE DRIFTS.
RIDING BEHIND A SNOW PLOW ON
THE WESTERN PRAIFtES.

Snow Drifts in the Home of the Biz
zard-Work Done on Western Railroads
in Midwinter.
''It is not every engineer that can run a
snow plow,' said a locomotive engineer the
other day. "You can take the best runner
on the road and put him on snow pillow, and
very likely he would resign his job in an
hour if he could, just because he is not fitted
for the place Nowadays snow plows are diff
ferent from what they were back in the six
ties. was then on the st. Paul road, and
they turned a snow pillow out of the shop and
put me aboard. The engine was wood
burner, with a big stack, and the snow pillow
excited the admiration of everybody that
saw it. It was made of riveted boiler plates,
and reached about two feet overAthe top of
the stack. 1t was V shaped in front and was
bolted to the pilot and the manhead of the
boiler 1t did fairly good work, and was SO
much more effective than the former ones
that it became noted. A snow plow nova
days will do more work in one hour than I
could do with the old Fearless in day.
''The last snow pillow that ran was the new
Ii
made of wood with steel shoe and cutwater,
or cutsnow, as we called it. Instead of being
attached to the engine, it was built on a car
and pulled behind the engine This car was
warm, had stove, and was piled half full of
pig iron to hold it down.
''To give you some idea of the work snow
plow has to do you will suppose that biz
card has been blowing for three days and
traffic has been entirely suspended. At last
the wind stops blowing. The morning is
clear and cold-oh, SO coldi The snow pillow
is ordered out. Gangs of men are at work
shoveling off the turntable and clearing the
yard You jump into the cab of your engine,
and your fireman incidentally remarks: It's
40 dogs. below, Hank That's pretty chilly,
but you don't mind it because you are dressed
for it, weigh 165 pounds in the buff, but
when I am dressed for 40 degs below zero
with a snow pillow appear to weigh 800.
Snow we are ready to start. Slowly we
move out of the round house to the main
track, where we couple on car filled with
provisions and show shovelers In the town
we find everything clear, but the minute we
get beyond habitations, which doesn't take
long up in Minnesota and Dakota our work
begins.
1.-THE sun looks like frozen ball of butter
in the air, and on each side is seen the sun
dogs, that invariably show up on such cold
mornings. They are very beautiful, with
their rainbow colors, but we hate to see them
all the same for they foretell continuance
of the cold weather. The rays of the sun
emit no warmth and the air is full of little
needle like particles of frost. The curtain of
our cab is let down and tightly buttoned.
Our windows are battened, and we are COM
paratively warm. The side windows are i'm
mediately covered with frost from our breath
and the steam, but the fireman keeps the
front windows clear. May be we 60 along
smoothly for mile before we strike a drift.
AS far as the eye can reach there is a track
less waste of snow, white and glistening.
Fences are obliterated in white drifts that
are sometimes fantastic in their shapes. The
snow cutter on the engine pilot is cleaving
its way through the snow, occasionally strik-
ing a drift that makes it jump little, and
behind the Storm King is sweeping it up
from the rail and two feet on each side, send
ing it up and outward like jets from foun-
tain.
"'There's big one, Hank says the fire.
man. Sure enough, quarter of a mile
ahead is big drift half as high as house,
that has blown through gap in the fence
We are going about twenty miles an hour.
1t would be easier to go through that drift if
our pace was accelerated little. I pull out
the throttle and we bound along thirty, then
forty miles an hour, until we are upon it,
and little extra yank at the throttle and we
dive into it. That was fun, and how the
snow did fly. 1t was only couple of rods
long and six feet deep, and we cut through it
like sharp knife through piece of cheese.
"Again we have clear sailing until we
reach cut. This cut is from six to twenty
feet deep and nearly a quarter of a mile
long.
"'Get stuck here, Hank says the fireman.
and you can bet he was right. I let her 20
Gallagher, and we light into that cut like a
thousand of brick, but this time the snow is
the victor. Even the big Storm King, with
its heavy weight behind, does not help us,
and we come to a dead stop, and only rod
or SO into the cut, with snow in front, each
side, and on top-we are literally buried. /
reverse the engine, but the wheels only slip,
and sand doesn't do any good A toot of the
whistle, and the shovelers come swarming
out. They work like beavers for ten minutes,
and then run for the car, and relief gang
comes out.
''May be in an hour they dig us out, and we
the cut to meet our former fate. A person
would think that snow plow dashed against
a drift of snow at the rate of from forty to
fifty miles an hour would be apt to go
through not only snow, but through pile
of rocks, but it doesn't 1t goes just far
enough to make tho men swear, and get out
and shovel.
''It is a common thing for cattle to take
refuge in these cuts when they get caught in
the billiards. Several times we have run
into them. Once we dug out thirty two head
of cattle after my engine had jumped the
track from striking the frozen body of one of
them. You can bet the boys had steak in
the car that day.
"The revolving snow plows now In use are
a great invention. They work on the pro-
peller blade style, and cut swaths about eight
inches deep and throw the snow out Now,
the only thing that is wanted is machine
that will pick the ice from between the rails.
If man could invent such a machine he
could sell it for 81 ,000, 900 and royalty that
would make prince of him.
''What 1 mean is this. In some cases q
road is showed up for months, as the Hast
ings and Dakota division of the ST. Paul road
was, think, in $780, Over 100 miles of road
was closed west of Bird Island all winter.
When a case of that kind takes place ice
forms between the tracks, caused by the sun
on warm days melting the snow, the water
draining through and freezing. This necess
states picking it out with a pick by hand
labor. No engine can run, for the ice comes
higher than the ash pan, and also freezes
next to the rails, SO that the flanges on the
wheels won't set down.
The coolest place for train to be showed
in at is between Mandan, D. T., and the Bad
Lands, just east of the Little Missouri. This
country is bleak, arid waste, with not
tree in sight for 100 miles, and nothing to
break the wind, which comes from the Arc
tic ocean New York Sun.
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