The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-10-27
TALE OF WOE OF
SNOWBOUND TRAIN
Here's a Story of Experiences
OF Passengers During Storm
on Union Pacific.
0GDEN'S MAYOR WAS THERE
NO HARDSHIP, BUT MORE OR
LESS DISCOMFORT.
0GD6N'S MAYOR WAS THERE

Three nights of bumps, jolts and chilis
Il In Pullman berth. two days of Pullman
* diner meals that even the dining car
conductor refused to be held responsible
Tor, freezingly cold coach an endless
chant OF Oar Was I A1aitin at de
* Church by the porter. delays on side
tracks. stalls i'm snowdrifts, waits on sid
ings while the Limiteds supposed to be a
day behind you screeched gaily past-al
lnterspersed with numerous, luminous and
b lurid explanations from the overWorked
{ train crew as to how the storm HAP
pened,' why the blankety train was "a
hours late, why you couldn't have any
heat or lights and as to the ultimate prob
ability of your arriving anywhere, any
time or in any way. in brief tells the story
OF one trains trip from Omaha TO Salt
Lake this week in the storm which
strlkina here last Saturday ragged across
southern Wyoming and central Nebraska
Wednesday and Thursday.
1t wasn't bad with the LimitedS.
They had TO go through and they went.
Poking their noses out into the teeth
OF the swirling snow and sleet. bucking
the drifts in the cuts on the Union Pa
cities line. slipping in here to let an
Eastern Limited by, or to let the snow
pillow get out of the way they plowed
ahead and won out, only few hours late
into Ogden.
On the Other Trains.
II was a different story with the slow
trains. The Union Pacific's SLOW" train
from Omaha to Ogden is the China &
Japan Fast Mail. known as No. 3, which
leaves Omaha daily at AIS p. m.
Two Pullman sleepers, Niles and Shell
by. brought up the rear of No. Tuesday
afternoon as il pulled out of the Union
Station train shed of Nebraska's big rail-
road town.
A newspaper woman from Ohio and a
Salt Lake newspaper man occupied Niles.
Back in Shelby, his little light cap
perched jauntily on the side of his head.
long slim cigar between his teeth, sat
the chief executive Of ogden. Mayor h.
VI. COnroy. Mayor COnrOy disputed pos
session of his car with an old-time rail-
road man
ters of Niles and Shelby pleasantly as
they damned the big heavy grips under
the seats of the lowers
Not one had heard of a snowstorm. and
back in Sheiby'S smoker Mayor ConrOy
was having the time of his life explain
ing how he had escaped office all these
years only to be called by the citizens at
last, and Ogden'S mayoralty honors sim
ply thrust upon him. 1t was an inter
csting story, and the railroad man and
the newspaper man voted Mayor COnrOy a
right Smart politician when it was fin
ished. Up in Niles the Ohio newspaper
woman was reading something called
Skidoo. No. was due at North
"latte at 12:45 a. m. At o'clock We'd
llesday morning the long train pulled into
the cherries yards of that place four
hours late. Mayor Conroy doesn't get up
at ) a. m. when he's in Ogden. The Ohio
newspaper woman usually gets I'D at 9
a. m. and the Salt Lake newspaper man
goes TO bed week days round bout $3.50
a m The railroad man said he was used
to il.
Dumping and JoIting.
First it was bump. then it was jolt.
Then the engineer combined the two and
the porter damned you in the back with
, his knees he tried to catch himself
Ogden's chief stood it the longest-but at
80 the train engineer won out with
last long banging jolt that sent the train
3 onto siding and Mayor COnrOy into his
clothes.
1t was nearly > o'clock Wednesday aft
ernoon before No. rolled out onto the
Northern Pacific's main line and headed
for Julesburg. In the meantime every
thing in the shape of an engine at North
Platte had it's turn with the sixteen-coach
train. Up and down and around the yards
u was yanked and bumped. In the long
line of packed tourist cars ahead of the
diner half thousand weary travellers
looked diSmally out on switch frogs, box
. cars and water tanks while babies swung
, back and forth in the berth hammocks,
youngsters sprawled around on the floor
and the women goSsiDed.
Back in the Shelby's smoker a dead
( head" congress was held. What Mayor
ConrOy didn't know about running Ogden
he was gladly told. The word had been
passed along the line to the boys that
Niles and Shelby were going deadhead,
and the gentlemanly conductors, brakes
and pOrters Immediately ceased worrying
about them.
Reports had floated back from the
trainmen that all the trouble lay be-
tween Julesburg and Cheyenne. It was a
good hard climb for No. to the former
and moro time was lost Julesburg's
yards were filled with trains. No. had
caught the Limited and a half-dOzen 10
Gals and freightS. The mercury had
dropped and the wind whstled sharply
about the cars Fifty miles out in front
a train crew had been working for hours
shoveling out a stalled mail train. No one
knew when No. 3 would move. Everyone
was too tired to care very much. and
from the three cars of Italian laborers
back of the baggage car, through the