| OCR Text |
Show PREPARING FOR SNOW DRIFTS. Ah the soason of snow storuia draws near peoplo begin to anxiously com-idcr and discuss the possibilitica of blook-ad:a blook-ad:a upon the Union Paoifio road. Those who wore here last season, well remember the long siege then endured, recalling the daily bulletins of storms, drifts, blockaded trains and delayed mails, with the tales of suffering and privation, which those who had been snow-bound delivered with due unction and proper flpice, to oager listeners. Those who have not yet enjoyed en-joyed the pleasuro of oightly call at the post office to hoar the remark, "no eastern mail," reiterated week after week, and to read the latest bulletins of the railway jfaiiw.look forward with anything any-thing but pleasure upon the chance for making such expsrieuoe their own. Fortunately the prospect for a repetition of the experiences of last winter is very dim and distant Every precaution against inch n event is reported to have been taken by the railroad oomparjy; snow ' i sheds and fences having been built at all points liable to obstruction, the track elevated so as to avoid the accumulation accu-mulation of snow upon the road bed, and superior snow plows constructed. From the "Bee" we tase the follow ing description of one of the monster plows built at Omaha: The Union Paoifio railroad is having built at its shops in this city a snow ftlow, whioh, when finished, will be the argest and most powerful in the world. It is rapidly approaching completion, com-pletion, and in a few days will be ready for business. The trucks on which it is built arc heavy and strong, and were cast especially for this plow. The platform on the trucks is twenty-two feet Ion.?, and ten feet six inches wide, and is composed of solid oak timbers eight by sixteen inches. These timbers are held together by ten iron bolts.one and a quarter inches iu diameter, which run orosswise. This solid bed is fastened fast-ened to the transom beams by forty bolts, twenty over each truck. The inclined in-clined slide, placed on the platform, is twenty-two feet loDg and slopes at an angle of thirty decrees, and ia held to the bed by forty bolt?, ot an inch in diameter, and is supported from behind be-hind by inclined poeU, aijt feet long, eight inches wide and sixteen inches thick. Tbe entire Jromh Jrom the rear of the platform to tho end of the slide is thirty-two feet. The slide is to be ironed, and an immense plow of the ordinary shape, eighteen feet long, eleven feet wide and five feet hih,and covered with iron three-sixteenths of an inch thick is to be securely placed upon it. On the point of this plow there is to be an iron plate, steel pointed, eleven feet long and four feet wide. Thi; plate of course runs across the track and only one inch above it The rear of the platform will be boxed in, making a room twelve feet high, eleven feet wide and ten feet long, for the purpose of keeping the snow out. It will be furnished with a door, so that if necessary it can be loaded with iron. Tbe monster will weigh fifty tons, and will be operated by three of the heaviest engines on the road. The cost will be $5,000. The design was gotten up by J. H. Congdon, general master mechanic of the read, who most have made it a study since last winter. There will be but very few snow-drifts that this plow won't clean out. All of these preparations are most assuring evidenoes to faint and doubting doubt-ing souls, and the promise seems very fair for but little if any of the annoying annoy-ing accidents and incidents of a year ago. |
