Nostalgia & History > Maroon Monday - The Blizzard of 1957

From the April 1957 issue of The Rocket
Digitized by the good people at Google Books

Not as spectacular as the City of San Francisco stuck on Donner Pass but a
heroic story of Rock Islanders coming together in time of crisis.

An observation about the letters to the Rock Island.
Back in the day important shippers rode the passenger trains.
They could see first hand how the railroad handled itself.
If it didn't pass muster hundreds of carloads could find another route.
Passenger trains were the window to the railroad.

Link to 1957 public timetable
http://streamlinermemories.info/?p=5925

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/19 16:00 by Englewood.

---

---

---

D.B. Jenks addresses the fake news



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/19 16:05 by Englewood.

---

---

---

For those who say rail is the all-weather mode, please note the snow encrusted ground-to-a-stop Golden State Limited. 

 Great reading material!

Great story that made you feel you were one of those trying to get to the stalled train and free it.

THANKS.

         When we were kids in 1957 and saw the 10 feet snow drifts the next morning, we thought it was great fun. Obviously we had no idea what others were going through. We lived about50 miles west of the stalled #4 .

Further east of Meade at Haviland (see above 2nd zone map on right side), which is 10 miles east of Greensburg and 20 miles west of Pratt, I was a high school sophomore.  We awoke to the 8' and 10' drifts the following morning also.  We fortunately had an early model Firestone radio that held a portable battery and that was our only source of news.  KGNO in Dodge City reported the stranded No. 4 Golden State train.  All city streets were closed as was US54 highway which paralled the Rock Island.  We had food, water, and gas heat so were fortunate.  The next day it was digging out and later some fun in the snow, and in the evening, the radio provided me with a favorite song of Marty Robbins, A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation.  That white sport coat is what I wore to our Junior/Senior Prom the following year. Later from my hilltop home four blocks north of the Rock Island mainline I could view the train traffic as it resumed its flow.  We learned more of the stranded train as newspapers regained their circulation.  One of the biggest blizzards I experienced in my youth.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/19 21:29 by rrman6.

NOAA posted extensive coverage of the 1957 blizzard a few years ago.  https://www.weather.gov/ddc/1957Blizzard.   According to various newspaper accounts at the time, the westbound AT&SF Grand Canyon stalled near Garden City, with 110 passengers removed.  The eastbound Grand Canyon also got stuck further west.  On Union Pacific, the City of St. Louis was marooned, as was eastbound mixed train 370, which was carrying only two passengers.  I have heard that MP's Colorado Eagle also was snowbound, which seems likely, but I have not found any contemporaneous account.