Eastern Railroad Discussion > Hauling snow in coal hoppers to Florida: true story?

Very topical for early July, I know, but it was on my mind recently...

I've heard this story a number of times, and was wondering if anyone here knew if it was true or not... According to the story, one year in the city of Buffalo, NY there was a very heavy snowfall... One railroad, in an effort to clear its yard tracks (the story doesn't specify which RR or yard) cleared the snow out of the yard tracks and, since there was nowhere else to put it, loaded into a nearby train of empty coal hoppers, and shipped it south to Florida; by the time the train got there, the cars were empty since the snow had melted and leaked out...

True story or not? I've always wondered...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/17 17:55 by MC6853.

Not only true, there was a shot of it in the LA Times many years ago. It got to the point where they couldn't
get further out on the frozen lake to pile the snow so they filled empty coal hoppers which melted long before
they got back to being loaded. The one fallacy is the Florida thing, the hoppers weren't headed that far South.

Out

I don't know about hauling snow to Florida, but I do know that the Santa Fe Railway hauled many, many, many train loads of snow fro their Chicago area Corwith Yard, as a result of that famous 20+ inch snow storm in mid January 1967. I returned to work at EMD, after getting drafted into the U.S. Army, on January 2, 1967, and after a week or so in the office, I was sent to Amarillo, Texas to ride Santa Fe SD45 units. The huge snow storm hit Chicago, which is still the all time record snow accumulation from a single storm, after I departed west. I soon began seeing train loads of anything open top cars, fully loaded with snow, headed westbound for California. It seems that there was no longer any room to plow the snow, so the Santa Fe began loading it into any car that was open top. The city of Chicago was dumping the snow into the Chicago River as fast as they could haul the snow out of the loop area.

I heard about it from Chicago but not Buffalo

Posted from iPhone

eastpenn23 Wrote:
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> I heard about it from Chicago but not Buffalo

Right, especially since Buffalo gets very heavy snow darned near every year due to lake effect. They must be used to it in Buffalo.

Same happened during very heavy snows in Chicago during January, 1979. At BN's Cicero hump yard, snow was loaded onto whatever cars were in the yard (flats, gons, hoppers, or anything else that snow could be dumped on) and sent out of town. I don't think destination was a major concern, as long as it was away from Chicago. I'm sure other railroads did the same thing. Chicago was dumping snow in the Chicago River that year too.

OK, so the story has some truth to it; interesting... How did they load the snow into the cars? Hoping they didn't just have a bunch of unhappy employees with shovels...

We did this on the New York Central from places like Buffalo. It was easy to load snow with front end loaders. Since the NYC didn't go to Florida we just sent them to Cincinnati where there were warm ups even before the end of winter.

In the snow zones just wait a few weeks and they fill by themselves.

And how is it unloaded? Just take the train far enough south to let it melt out?

The snow was never unloaded. Mother took care of that.

January 26th, 1967 a day that will live in infamy in Chicago. Began snowing about 5:00 a.m. 23 - 24 inches by 5:00 a.m. the next morning. I lived there on the West Side and worked in the suburbs. Screwed up traffic and parking for me for nearly a month. initially would find a snowbank to drive my car into for the night and dig it out in the morning or left car in suburbs and took EL back home. My memory is that several railroads filled gondolas and hoppers with snow from their yards and sent them South. Like the earlier responder don't know if they made it to Florida.
Dick Eisfeller
Greenland, NH

MC6853 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Very topical for early July, I know, but it was on
> my mind recently...
>
> I've heard this story a number of times, and was
> wondering if anyone here knew if it was true or
> not... According to the story, one year in the
> city of Buffalo, NY there was a very heavy
> snowfall... One railroad, in an effort to clear
> its yard tracks (the story doesn't specify which
> RR or yard) cleared the snow out of the yard
> tracks and, since there was nowhere else to put
> it, loaded into a nearby train of empty coal
> hoppers, and shipped it south to Florida; by the
> time the train got there, the cars were empty
> since the snow had melted and leaked out...
>
> True story or not? I've always wondered...

Norfolk & Western Rwy, Bison Yard late seventies, one of those years with bad lake-effect snow blizzards. I was an employee of N&W at the time and had friends who were sent from the Transportation Offices in Roanoke to help clear Buffalo. As it was related to me, there was a string of Clinchfield empty hoppers. With piles of snow about twenty feet high in the yard occupying areas in the yard that needed clearing, it was too tempting not to load the cars. Family Lines was not too pleased when the cars arrived back in the coal fields still loaded with snow. The cars were sent to Florida to thaw out.

Here is a 15 year old thread relating a more recent case:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,323862,323961#msg-323961



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/17 22:06 by ts1457.

HotWater Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't know about hauling snow to Florida, but I
> do know that the Santa Fe Railway hauled many,
> many, many train loads of snow fro their Chicago
> area Corwith Yard, as a result of that famous 20+
> inch snow storm in mid January 1967. I returned to
> work at EMD, after getting drafted into the U.S.
> Army, on January 2, 1967, and after a week or so
> in the office, I was sent to Amarillo, Texas to
> ride Santa Fe SD45 units. The huge snow storm hit
> Chicago, which is still the all time record snow
> accumulation from a single storm, after I departed
> west. I soon began seeing train loads of anything
> open top cars, fully loaded with snow, headed
> westbound for California. It seems that there was
> no longer any room to plow the snow, so the Santa
> Fe began loading it into any car that was open
> top. The city of Chicago was dumping the snow into
> the Chicago River as fast as they could haul the
> snow out of the loop area.

IC sent theirs to Florida during that storm.

TAW

I don't know about the part where it melted by the time it got to Florida. I've seen 10' piles take a month to melt. It may have been a bit cooler than Florida but when you pile the stuff up like that, it takes awhile to melt.

California has plenty of water now but sending it to them would have helped with the water shortages.

John

New York City has several propane heated V shaped truck bodies designed to melt snow in tight city zones. Bucket loaders dump snow onto the hot metal, a filter grabs guns, syringes, waste products, as warm water flows into the sewer.

I believe city employees built the first few units.

Posted from Android

Yes, the snow trains departed loaded and arrived empty. Guess the claims guys had some explaining to do.

gmojim

Saw them do that once right after the Conrail split. We were stopped, and an entire train of snow-filled gondolas passed us headed south. Train was loaded in NY State somewhere with front end loaders, and was sent south to "self unload" in warmer weather.

wa4umr Wrote:
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> I don't know about the part where it melted by the
> time it got to Florida.


There were pictures in Chicago papers after the 1967 storm, of kids in Florida playing in piles of Chicago snow.

TAW

Thank you for this info! Good to know the story was truthful...

ts1457 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Norfolk & Western Rwy, Bison Yard late seventies,
> one of those years with bad lake-effect snow
> blizzards. I was an employee of N&W at the time
> and had friends who were sent from the
> Transportation Offices in Roanoke to help clear
> Buffalo. As it was related to me, there was a
> string of Clinchfield empty hoppers. With piles of
> snow about twenty feet high in the yard occupying
> areas in the yard that needed clearing, it was too
> tempting not to load the cars. Family Lines was
> not too pleased when the cars arrived back in the
> coal fields still loaded with snow. The cars were
> sent to Florida to thaw out.