Today, January 15th, in Railroad History is brought to you by the TTML and written by Dr. Joseph Lechner. This continues the rescue efforts to rescue Train #101 (SP 6019) at Yuba Pass. _________________________________________ Southern Pacific train #101, the westbound City of San Francisco, had been stuck in a snowdrift near Yuba Pass since shortly after noon on Sunday, January 13, 1952. Several rescue attempts had already been foiled by mechanical failures or inclement weather. Both tracks of SP’s main line through Donner Pass were blocked by snowdrifts, and four of the six rotary snowplows on SP’s Sacramento Division were either buried in snow or mechanically out of service. An engineer named Rolland Raymond, who had been operating a rotary snowplow, was killed by an avalanche within one-quarter mile of the stranded passenger train. A rescue attempt by the U.S. Army had failed when their three “Weasel” vehicles got mired in the deep, soft snow. Helicopter pilots stood by helplessly, grounded by gale-force winds. Most of the 196 passengers and 30 crew remained in good spirits. Railroad employees and their customers worked side-by-side to solve problems that cropped up. Fortunately a physician, Walter Roehll MD, was among the passengers. He was traveling from Ohio to accompany a patient to San Francisco. The train’s conductor reported to the doctor that a passenger was screaming, cursing and tearing up his compartment. Roehll recognized the symptoms of a drug addict entering withdrawal, and he administered morphine. The addict was then locked in his compartment, but he would escape from a rescue train two days later when it reached Sacramento. During the snowbound ordeal, Roehll was also called upon to treat three passengers with respiratory infections, as well as several cases of carbon monoxide poisoning. The carbon monoxide incident occurred after crew members used a portable generator that had been brought in from Crystal Lake by an SP section crew. The locomotives’ diesel fuel had long since run out, and the cars’ batteries were almost dead, so crews were running the generator to provide lighting and to recharge the batteries. However, passengers became ill from the fumes. The crew then opened some windows to ventilate the car. Passengers bundled up in drapes from the car windows and bedding from the sleepers to keep warm. The dining car served what food was available, but supplies were running short, and so food was rationed. Steward Ed Tschumi ordered that milk be reserved for children. Cooking stoves in the galley burned coal. When the coal ran out, crews collected the ladders that were used in sleepers to climb into upper berths, and broke them up for firewood. Water aboard the train was in short supply. In order to conserve water, toilets could not be flushed. Assistant Road Foreman Charlie Carroll found cans in the baggage car, and organized a latrine patrol. Engineers, firemen, conductors, a brakeman and a baggage agent all took turns emptying the cans. A relief train had been dispatched from Reno NV with dog sleds, supplies, and a medical doctor. It was supposed to follow rotary snowplow #7210 and Mallet #4173 west from Norden, but the rotary derailed west of Soda Springs, so the relief train never arrived. The only motor vehicle that succeeded in reaching the train that day was a Sno-Cat owned by Pacific Gas Electric Company. A Sno-Cat had two sets of bulldozer-like treads fore and aft, and could operate on deep snow without sinking in. Skiers, dog sleds, and the Sno-Cat delivered supplies from the relief train. However, a Sno-Cat could not begin to transport hundreds of people away from the scene of the disaster; and in any event, on the evening of January 15 1952, the marooned travelers still had no place to go. TO BE CONTINUED Joseph Lechner
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 21:14:44 +0000
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