File:Northern Pacific Railroad snow removal gang and engine, 1886 (MOHAI 7273).jpg

Building and maintaining rail lines through the mountains was a difficult job. Each one hundred miles of track required over 150 laborers to keep the tracks clear and the trains running on time. Heavy snowfall and fear of avalanches called for special equipment. This 1886 photo shows a crew of railroad workers standing near a Northern Pacific rotary snow plow. As the rotary was propelled forward into the snow on the front of the locomotive, the large blades rotated and hurled the snow to the side, off the tracks. When the snow was heavy or frozen, the gang of workers were needed to shovel snow into the rotary. The photo was taken near the eastern approach to Stampede Pass in the Cascade Mountains.

Caption source: notes provided by Doug Weeks; Locomotive Firemen's Magazine, Volume 19, “Recent Blizzard,” p. 200-202.

• Subjects (LCTGM): Northern Pacific Railroad Company; Railroad construction & maintenance; Railroad employees; Railroad snowplow locomotives; Snow removal