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The Railroad panel provides an overview of the construction of the Central Pacific railroad in the 1860s, as well as the need and methodology for snow removal and snowshed construction. Historic photographs in this exhibit are courtesy of the David Henry Photography Archives.

In the mid 1860s, the Donner Pass corridor shook with explosions. The mountainsides echoed with the ring of hammers and the clatter of thousands of people. These unknown men toiled with little more than hand tools and black powder to build the transcontinental railroad. Hundreds lost their lives, killed in explosions, swept away in avalanches, or succumbing to injury or disease. The ribbon of steel rail that crosses the Sierra is a monument to their historic achievement.

Theodore Judah, the Central Pacific’s Chief Engineer, was obsessed with finding a railroad route over the Sierra. Tirelessly, he surveyed potential routes and lobbied Congress for government support. Eventually, Judah met “Doc” Strong, a druggist in Dutch Flat, who showed him an essentially unbroken ridgeline between the foothills and Emigrant Gap. The line that they surveyed became the route of the Central Pacific railroad. On July 1, 1862, President Lincoln had signed the Pacific Railroad Bill, and Judah sent a telegram to his associates:

We have drawn the Elephant, now let us see if we can harness him up.

“They Were A Great Army Laying Siege To Nature In Her Strongest Citadel”

Without them it would be impossible to go on with the work. I can assure you the Chinese are moving the earth and rock rapidly. They prove nearly equal to white men in the amount of labor they perform, and are far more reliable.

– E. B. Crocker, 1867.

During the first three years of construction, only 50 miles of track were laid. Labor and finances were the biggest problems White workers  would often hire on, ride to the end of track, and continue on foot to the Comstock Lode. In 1865, construction superintendent Charles Crocker reluctantly agreed to try Chinese workers. At the time, discrimination against Chinese was rampant in California. Indeed, Leland Stanford, railroad president and former Governor, fanned anti-Chinese sentiment when he was in office.

Both were skeptical that the smaller Chinese could handle such hard work, but they were soon proved wrong. Soon, Chinese were the primary labor force for the railroad, though Irish and other workers also worked on the line. “Celestials,” as Chinese were often called, were paid 30% less than the others, and deductions were made for food and housing that were not made for whites.

Chinese workman and horsecart at the east entrance to Tunnel 6. Alfred Hart photo, courtesy Dave Henry Photography Archives.

Thousands of  men, working only with hand tools, used picks, shovels, rock drills & black powder to carve a roadbed across the Sierra Nevada. Between Cisco and Truckee, ten tunnels were bored through some of the hardest granite in the world. Using hand or horse carts, waste rock was dumped outside of the tunnel entrances or used for fill.

The summit tunnel (No. 6), took over two years to complete. At 1,659 feet, it was the longest railroad tunnel in the world at the time. The rock was so hard that average daily progress was only 8-12 inches. To make faster progress, crews bored a vertical shaft in the center so they could work from both the inside out and the outside in.

Interior of the Summit Tunnel (Number 6) before completion. Alfred Hart photo, courtesy Dave Henry Photography Archives.

Christmas at Donner Pass, 1866

On  December 25, 1866, there was already twelve feet of snow on Donner Pass. Crews working on the Summit tunnel stayed busy, getting to and from the worksite through tunnels carved in snowdrifts. Windows cut in the snow tunnels provided air, light, and places to dump waste rock.

One 400-foot long tunnel led to a blacksmith’s shop. Barracks and other shops were scattered around the pass, supplies were brought up on sleds.

“More Than Thirty Miles Of These Galleries Were Built…”

-- Edward Montague, Chief Engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad, in his report to the Board of Directors, 1873

When Theodore Judah surveyed the proposed route of the Central Pacific, he badly underestimated snowfall in the Sierra. In 1861, Judah wrote:

The depth at which snow lies upon this route is plainly distinguishable at any season. The trees are generally covered with moss down to the level of the snow… The greatest depth of undisturbed snow is 13 feet at the summit. In places where drifts occur, the depth is of course greater …it is only necessary then to start an engine with snowplows from the Summit each way at the commencement of a storm, clearing the snow as it falls. A similar course of procedure at each successive storm will keep the track open during the entire winter…

Judah based his observations on the unusually mild winter of 1860-61. In 1879, over 62 feet of snow fell at Donner Summit, five times the snowfall that Judah predicted.

In 1867, Edward Montague, the Chief Construction Engineer, concluded that snowsheds, or “galleries” were necessary to protect the track from snow and avalanche. The following summer, several miles of snowsheds built, which helped keep the line open the following winter.

Carpentry crew standing on the roof of snowsheds east of Donner Pass circa 1868. Courtesy Dave Henry Photography Archives.

23 miles of snowsheds were built in 1868. The sheds were instrumental in keeping the line open most of the following  winter, except for one two-week stretch.

The amount of material used for the sheds was staggering. In his 1873 report to CPRR board, Montague wrote:

More than thirty miles of these galleries were built, consuming 44,639,533 board feet of sawed timber and 1,316,312 lineal feet of round timber. Two general styles of construction were adopted. One, intended for localities where the weight of the snow only had to be supported and the other for such places as were exposed to “slides” and the slower, but almost irresistible “glacial movement” of the snow on steep and rocky slopes, along with a great portion of the road near the summit was built.

Railroading In A Barn

Both passengers and engineers hated the snowsheds. Passengers were deprived of the view across one of the most scenic mountain passes in the world. Everyone choked on steam and smoke from engine exhaust. Steam and hot exhaust damaged the sheds, and snowshed maintenance was a constant expense for the railroad.

The sheds were soon modified to decrease the hazards from smoke, steam, and fire. In some locations, telescoping shed sections were built, mounted on their own rails and wheels. During summer months, they were pulled open by a locomotive and closed during snow season. In some sheds, windows were cut in the side to increase ventilation and provide a limited view for passengers.

Snowshed under construction in 1868. The peaked roof design was abandoned after it was discovered that snow accumulations on the uphill side would push the sheds out of alignment. Alfred Hart photo, courtesy of Dave Henry Photography Archives.

In 1908, the Southern Pacific introduced a unique engine to the Donner route, the “cab forward”. A cab forward engine had the engineer’s cab at the front of the engine, and the smokestack at the rear, keeping exhaust behind the crew when traveling through snowsheds and tunnels. This greatly increased comfort and safety for both the engineer and fireman.

As snow removal skills and technology improved, sheds were gradually removed. By the 1950s, most of them were gone. The few remaining wooden sheds were replaced with concrete. The final section of wooden snowshed was removed in 2000.

“Drearier Work Never Was Assigned to Human Beings”

-- C.F. McGlashan, commenting on railroad snowfighting in the Truckee Republican, January 1890

Even with snowsheds, plows and other equipment were necessary to keep the line open in winter. For over a century, manual labor and three major pieces of equipment have fought Sierra snow.

Track crews still do the dirty work of shoveling out switches and clearing snow and ice around rolling stock as necessary. Their work has not changed much since the railroad was built.

Flangers are special cars with a retractable blade beneath the car. The blade scrapes snow from the inside rail flange, since ice buildup can derail a train. The operator has to be an expert in knowing when to raise the blade when it approaches a switch, crossing, or other track feature.

Jordan Spreaders are used both summer and winter. Outfitted with hydraulic “wings” that are hinged on the side of the unit, they spread and shape track ballast during summer months. In winter, the wings push snow away from the track. Operators have to be alert for signal crossings, tunnels, and other features, to retract the wings when necessary.

Jordan Spreader near Cisco in the 1920s. Today's spreaders have enclosed cabs to protect the crew from exposure and frostbite. Southern Pacific photo, courtesy Dave Henry Photography Archives.

Early snowplows were simply not up to the job of moving heavy Sierra snow. The first ones, called Bucker plows, were giant wedges on wheels that were placed in front of pusher engines. In use, several engines rammed it into a snowbank to push snow aside.

When conditions were just right, a Bucker plow must have been a magnificent thing to see. In 1874, one observer wrote:

The throttle valve was thrown wide open, and the engine and 40-ton [sic] plow in front started forward… as if propelled by gunpowder… On it flew with irresistible force at the rate of nearly a mile a minute, dashing the snow fifty feet in the air as if it had been the lightest spray.

More often, track crews spent lots of time digging the plow and engines out of the drifts after they became derailed or stuck.

Several plow designs were tried, with limited success. In the 1870s, a man named Orange Jull developed a rotary plow. A rotary uses spinning fan blades that throw snow up to 300 feet off the roadbed. The rotaries still owned by the Union Pacific are huge, and one in operation is an awesome sight. Originally built in the early 1900s, carefully maintained and converted from steam power to diesel, they are also very expensive to operate. In most years, rotaries sit idle, while flangers and spreaders keep the track clear.  

Rotary Snowplow throwing a rooster tail of snow near Troy in the 1930s. Southern Pacific photo, courtesy Dave Henry Photography Archives.

Better use of this equipment, combined with high maintenance costs and distaste for snowsheds in general led to the removal of most sheds between the 1930s and 1950s. The only active sheds on the line today are near Crystal Lake, west of Cisco, and the Norden complex near Donner Pass. Today, frequent use of spreaders and flangers, along with caterpillar tractors that push snow away from the right-of-way in exceptionally deep areas, make the sight and sound of the rotary plow rare on the line. The few rotaries that remain in service generally stand ready, waiting in the yard, a silent reminder of man’s attempts to cope with the heavy Sierra snow.

Rail from 1864 is compared with today's rail. Both pieces were used on the Donner Pass route.

A rock drill found on the railroad route. This drill was used to drill holes to set charges that loosened the rock so it could be removed to create a roadbed.