C&Sn3

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

"Along the Blue" #31 | 0 Comments - Click Here :

Table d'Hote on Snowbound Train
Served from Sample Cases of Packing House Agents. Another Rich Tale of Winter Travel on "High Line" of the C.&S.

Summit County Journal; March 20, 1909;

Tales of adventure by the passengers on the Colorado & Southern train No. 71, which was blocked in the snow near Buffehr’s Siding on Wednesday night read like fiction, but E.W. Reeme, agent for the Western Packing Company, who was one of the victims, says that every word of it is true. Those who do not believe what he says are requested to ask George B. Christensen, the Armour agent about it. James L. Smith and Robert J. Clark, of the Leadville Light and Power Company, were also on the train and are prepared to verify his statements, relates Sunday’s Herald Democrat.

“We left Kokomo Wednesday evening about forty minutes late,” said Reeme in telling his experiences yesterday. “It was then a warm spring day. The sun was shining brightly, and there was not a bit of wind. When we neared Robinson a strong wind came up. At Buffehr’s spur we found a freight train stuck in the snow, which had been blown across the tracks.

“The passenger engines were cut loose to take the freight back to Kokomo. By the time they returned the snow was several feet deep. Half a mile east of Buffehr’s the engines were taken off to do some bucking. They bucked so hard that soon they were nearly a mile away from the rest of the train. By the time they were ready to get to the coaches, a ten-foot drift had been blown across the track between the engines and the cars. It was impossible for them to get through. There we were compelled to stay all night. It was cold and stormy, and the passenger had had little to eat. While no new snow was falling, the wind was picking up what lay on the ground and hurled it about the cars as if intended to wall us in so that we could never get out.”

“There was no sleeping for any of us that night. We tried to keep up a fire in the little stove, but we had to hug up against it closely to keep warm. Fortunately there were no women nor children on the train, and we acquired considerable heat from the sulphurous talk that most of us put up in discussing our hard luck.”

Here is the worst part in Reeme’s story, but he says it’s just as true as the rest of it. When the passengers got hungry, he and Christenson opened their sample cases of packing meat and distributed it among their fellow sufferers.

By taking a sardine and wrapping a piece of chipped beef around it, they formed a first class sandwich, which went pretty good on an empty stomach. Some pickled tongue took the place of vegetables and they had smoked ham for dessert. After it was all over, someone ordered soup. Christensen opened a box of pork and beans, mixed it with gold water and served as good a dish of soup as any caterer ever set before his guest.

On Thursday morning the passengers walked to Kokomo and got some breakfast. That afternoon they learned that the rotary was coming. The same evening, the rotary passed through, and later in the night came back with the passenger coaches and all but one of the engines. In rescuing the last engine, the fan of the plow was broken, and it was necessary to go back to Como for repairs.

Friday morning prospects for getting home were no better, so Reeme and Christensen decided to walk. They bought two pairs of skis and started overland, following the general route of the railroad over most of the way.

While their trip was not as dangerous as it might have been, they suffered more from sunburns than from anything else. They have felt no ill effects from eating the meat samples, and so far as they can learn none of the others passengers did, either.

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