The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-03-24
BATTLES WITH SNOW.
How the Railways over the Rockies
Are Cleared of AvaIanches.


Are Cleared of Avalanches.
Anaconda Standard.
When the present winter opened Il
MADE its appearance with such a fall of
snow that all railway men predicted that
tiele would be some new experiences
IN pucklng drifts. The region In which
montana railway men have their fercest
pattle with the snow is on the divide
lhat separates Montana from Idaho ON
the Occur d'Alene branch of the North
ern Pacific. On this divide the usual
oepth of snow in February Is about six
teen rect and at times 1t has been much
deeper than this. Snow falls upon these
mountains almost daily. and with a very
niue Wlnd 1t causes untold trouble TO
the railway men unless they exercise the
most constant vigilance. But the war
rare against the snow has been reduced
10 a science by the introduction of the
rotary pillow, and in recent years there
mas been little difficulty In keeping the
line open between Missoula and Wallace
where it crosses this divide.
The passenger who looks out of his
car window at the white wall of snow
that rises sheer and straight above the
top OF the train does not realize the
constant fight that goes on against the
encroaching snow that fills up the cuts
almost as fast as they are opened Twice
day during the stormy season the
snow fighters clear this line over the
divide. Just ahead Of the train, upon
which this passenger Is being whirIed
over the mountains, buried as they are
In snow, is the snow-fighting train. At
Its head is the rotary pillow that is cut
ting path through the drifts for the
train coming up the mountain behind It,
from Its huge chute there pours forth
stream Of snow that falls over the
bank and rolls down the mountain side
like small avalanche. It is a magnifi-
cent sight. Constant practice has made
these snow fighters experts, and there Is
seldom any accident in the work. Be-
hind the pillow, pushing 1t forward at a
steady pace, keeping the whizzfng knifes
pressed close against the wall of snow
ahead, is one of the big locomotives of
the Northern Pacific, snorting and puff
fng at its heavy work But there Is no
pause. Steadily the locomotive FORCES
ahead and steadily the rapidly revolv-
ing knives Of the rotary slice away at
the banks of snow that bury the rails
The train following behind finds q clear
track in the mass of snow that lies some
times twenty feet deep all around.
1t is prosaic work now that 1t has been
reduced to such perfect system, and it
is not often that any incident occurs
these days that varies the monotony of
~.
tains in the morning and back In the
afternoon carving out of the unbroken
waste Of snow a pathway for following
trains But in the early days Of rotary
work. when these magnificent machines
had not been perfected, there were plenty
Of little occurrences that kept the boys
from suffering from ennui.
One day coming down the east slope Of
the mountains, the snowplow train was
entering the yards at Saltese. That was
the winter when the two-story station
at Saltese was nearly buried in snow
for several weeks 1t was the record
season for this line. At the west end of
the yard the rotary left the track, but
the fact was not noticed, and the locomo-
tive behind kept pushing the pillow ahead,
while the knives cut their way through
the banks of snow. All went well until
the station was reached. By that time
the plow was so far off the rails that
the knives were pushed up against the
heavy plank platform around the sta
ton and proceeded to make chips Of the
lumber. The work progressed favorably
for short time, but the knives were
not built for cutting wood and soon gave
out Then there was a rotary in the
hospital for a while. Nobody was hurt,
though the engineer of the rotary was
badly shaken up.
The hardest job Of buclxing snow the
Northern Pacific men ever had was in
the winter that they opened UP the Burke
branch In the Occur d'Alenes after
it had been buried many feet beneath
the monster snow slides that made that
winter famous. 1t was one Of the big
gest Jobs Of the kind that vas ever at
tempted. IN the canyon UT which this
branch runs the Union Pacific and North
ern Pacific tracks run close together and
both were buried beneath almost so feet
OF hard snow. 1t was June before the
Union Pacific line was opened, but the
Northern Pacific had its tracks clear in
a few days. The rotary did 1t. There
were two distinct slides. about 200 yards
apart. Through these the rotary, with
some assistance from shovelers, cut
path.