Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-02-29
s THROUGH THE DRIFTS.
RIDING BEHIND A SNOW FLOW ON
 THE WESTERN PRAIRIES.

Thrilling Experiences While Fighting tho
 Snow Drifts in the Home of the BIiz-
 zard-work Tone on Western Railroads
 in SIidwinter.
 "1t is not every engineer that can run a snow plow," said locomotive engineer the other day. "You can take the best runner on the road and put him on a snow blow, 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 blows are diff ferent from what they were back in the six ties. was then on the St Paul road, and they turned @ snow blow out of the shop and put me aboard The engine was a wood burner, with O big stack, and the snow blow excited the admiration of everybody that saw it. It was made of riveted boiler plates, and reached about two feet over the top of the stack. It was V shaped in front and was bolted to the pilot and the manhead of the boiler It did fairly good work, and was SO much more effective than the former ones that it became noted. A snow blow nowa- days will do more work in one hour than could do with the old Fearless in day.
 'The last snow blow that ran was the new Storm King on the Northern Pacific. It was made of wood with a steel shoe and cutwater, VI Suooho", oS "C SdliCu 1uSJedu OI DelQR attached to the engine, it was built on a car and pulled behind the engine. This car was warm, had a stove, and was piled half full of pig iron to hold it down.
 "To give you some idea of the work a snow blow has to do, you will suppose that a bliz- gard 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 blow 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: Its 40 degs. below, Hank That's pretty chilly, but you don't mind it because you are dressed for it. l weigh 165 pounds in the buff, but when I am dressed for 40 degs below zero with a snow blow appear to weigh 800
 ''Now we are ready to start. Slowly we move out of the round house to the main track, where we couple on a 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 forstell 0 continuance of the cold weather. The rays of the sun emit no warmth aild 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 inn mediately covered with frost from our breath and the steam, but tho fireman keeps the front windows clear. May be we go alorv h1xyf Ia hafc As far as the eye can reach there is a track less waste of snow, white and glisteninr. Fences are obliterated in white drifts that are sometimes fantastic in their shapes The snow cutter on the engine pilot is cleavinc | it's way through the snow, occasionally striE | ing drift that makes it jump 0 little ard 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 a foun- | tain.
 "'Theres big one, Hank,' says the fire man. Sure enough, a quarter of a milo | ahead is a big drift half as high as a house, that has blown through gap in the fence. We are going about twenty miles an hour | It would be easier to go through that drift if 1 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. It was only a couple of rods l 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 a cut. This cut is from six to twenty feet deep and nearly quarter of mile long.
 "'Get stuck here, Hank says the fireman and you can bet he was right. let her go 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 it's heavy weight behind, does not help us, and we come to a dead stop, and only a rod or so into the cut, with snow in front, each side, and on top-we are literally buried. I reverse the engine, but the wheels only slip, and sand doesn't do any good. A toot of the whistle, and the shovelers como swarming out. They work like beavers for ten minutes, and then run for the car, and a relief gang comes out.
 "May be in an hour they dig us out and we back up mile and take another header into the cut to meet our former fate. A person would think that a snow blow 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 a pile of rocks, but it doesn't. It goes just far enough to make the men swear, and get out
 
 'It is common thing for cattle to take refuge in these cuts when they get caught in the blizzards. Several times we have run into them. Once we dug out thirty-two head of cattle after my engine had jumped tho track from striking the frozen body of one of them. You can bet the boys had steak in the car that day.
 1.-The revolving snow blows now in use arc 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 a machine that will pick the ice from between the rails. If man could invent such machine he could sell it for S1 100000 and royalty that would make prince of him.
 ''What I mean is this. In some cases a road is showed up for months, as the Hast | ings and Dakota division ot the St. Paul road was, think, in 1880. Over 100 miles of road was closed west of Bird Island all winter When 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 neces- sitates picking it out with pick by hand labor No engine can run, for the ice comes higher than the ash pan, and also freezes