The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-03-09

often faced the dangers in the hills
and has yet been spared the fate that
generally comes soon or late. He is
reluctant in relating the most har-
rowing experiences, which friends
credit to him, but tells of the days
before the advent of the rotary. or
even the pilot plow. He ran over
the road through the Rockies years
ago when snowslides were removed
from the tracks only by men with
shovels, and when a small slide gen.
orally meant blockade for days.
There were some hard old times
on the level roads through central
and eastern Washington for some of
the "old timers" too.
OF this bunch there still remains
Frank Bonner, Jene Dancer, Conduc-
tor Hubbard, Gus Bowman, Engineer
Charles Secord, Conductor Huxtable,
and many others whose names will
long be remembered.
Snow Blockade in General Washing
ton.
In the early nineties the SHOWS
through the Central Washington
branch of the Northern Pacific were
perhaps the worst and most stubborn
in the history of the line. This was
when Superintendent Ramsey had
charge Four and five engines were
stalled at a time in the deep cuts
through the sand hills AMI two or
three more could not have pushed
the pillow through the drifted snow.
Wind blew hard nearly all the
winter of 1890, and members of the
"old school, declare that the snow
was drifted 20 and 25 feet deep some
times down around Almira and the
country this side, before the trains
could reach the end of the line, turn
around and come back.
'"They paid as high as 50 an hour
for shoveling snow down there by
Reardan in the early nineties," said
Conductor Huxtable in discussing
the snow problem. 81 was with one
crew going in from this side with
snow pillow, and another crew on the
west side was trying to cut through
the snow to get back to Spokane.
Well, they got plumb buried in a
snow bank-they were absolutely
stuck and they had to leave the en-
CINE an walk back around to get as
sistance.
Say Heavy Trains Cause Avalanches.
Some of the old railroad men say
they believe that many Of the slides
of today, that seem to be worse and
bigger than those of few years ago,
may be attributed to the heavier
trains the roads are hauling over the
hills, and the larger and much heav-
Ter engines that are being used. They
say they believe the vibration OF the
earth about the tracks, caused by the
heavy loads and pounding of the big
compound engines, cause the snow
and rock to loosen more readily, and
thus cause greater and more disas-
trous slides.
Snow sheds are built all along the
Great Northern tracks near Yelling
ton where the terrible avalanche &C.
Cured recently, but it is said that
the two demolished trains stood In
a place that was practically unpro-
tected by these. Such great TRACED
les as these will call for some OF the
greatest engineering feats of the age;
1t is thought, in an effort to bring
future risk in the mountain lines, to
their minimum. It Is declared that
already the Great Northern is endeav-
oring to figure out new tunnel that
will cut the route through the noun
tains shorter, and which will forever
eliminate the dangers OF the hill,
newly christened Death Mountain"
from it's trail.