Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1903-03-04
RATTLES WITH SNOW
rpm FIGHTING FOR RAILROAD
MEN IN THE ROCKIES.
or.py sNowPLows AND THE MEN
vuo RUN THEM - BucKINd
rueoueH MONSTER DRIFTS.

,,.o-r western railroad is equipped
In large force of snow fighters.
,,ato-v snowplows and men who know
NV 10 run them can cut their way
.hropph drifts that In the early days
- western railroading would have
,,,ted In complete blockades. The
.starv snowplow is one OF the mar
Its of the railroad of today, and 1t is
I,heral education In the art of snow
sehting to see one Of them eating Its
NV through a white drift that threat
sns 70 cut of communication between
No cast and the west. There are sew
-, masses In the Rocky mountains
,rttcb for six months in the year or
r,ore form a constant menace to train
crews. These passes are situated at
the ton of the Great Divide, where the
elements have full sway. Boreas pass,
"a Colorado, is a fair example. The
snow begins falling Mt Boreas late in
August or early in September, and 1t
does not cease until well into May and
sometimes June. There will be inter
mittent snowstorms In the midsummer
months, but these are trifling affairs
and are not to be mentioned In the
same breath with the tremendous
suowfalls of January and February.
Few men make their homes at Boreas.
II Is nothing for them to get up in the
morning and find themselves complete
" buried In snow. The one store Is
usually at the end of a tunnel cut
through an immense snowdrift The
populatioh OF Boreas during these
snowy months consists, for the most
part, of the railroad men who are en-
Gagged In the strenuous work of fight
ing constantly changing drifts. Snow
at Boreas does not fall; 1t RACES. 1t is
blown about in swirls and eddies and
"a forever forming new drifts as treach-
erously as a river that Is constantly
shifting the sand banks of its mouth.
These drifts are not little affairs that
will barely cover stake and rider
fence. They are piled ten, twenty and
thirty feet high, and they spring up in
a night,
To the ''tenderfoot'' II would seem
iHlpOSsTDie W pow II way thiouSh tisSt
drifts at Boreas. but when huge ro-
tary snowplow comes whlrling up the
track with three or four engines push
ing vigorously behind 1t the tender
foot" reserves his decision. He is
still inclined to favor the snowdrift.
but he prefers to await Developments
before committing himself. With
rush and II plunge the big rotary is
hurled into the white mass of snow.
Black smoke pours from the engines.
and the huge blades of the snowplow
eat relentlessly into the drift. The
snow shoots out of the orifice at the
side Of the pillow. forming huge. white
semiclrcle constantly moving forward.
One can keep track of the progress of
the plow by following the advance
ment of this rainbow of SNOW. Foot by
foot the rotary eats its way forward,
and finally 1t and the engines are
buried in a huge trench of white. Only
the stacks of the engines can be seen,
belching their blackness on the virgin
garb about them. But the great white
semicircle never fails to go forward
until finally the 'tenderfoot" knows
that the drift Is being conquered.
When the regular overland limited
comes along a few hours later the pas
sengers do not know of the battle that
has just been fought. They travel
through canyon of snow as they pass