A NIGHT IN THE SNOW.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 103, 2 May 1908, Page 3

A NIGHT IN THE SNOW.

EXPERIENCE IN A TRAIN IN THIT

HIGHLANDS

One of the most striking incidentsof the week-end blizzard was the snowing-up of a train on the West Highland Railway. Powerful snow-ploughs had been patrolling the line all the Saturday, but towards evening the snow became heavier, and a passenger train from Glasgow, due at Fort William at 8.35 p.m., got embedded in a large wreath, about a mile north of Rannoch sta*tion. The engine attached to a snowplough which was despatched to the j train's assistance left the metals at i'lthe same point, while early on the Sunday morning a relief train from Glasgow was held up by another snowdrift about a mile south of Rannoch. station. '

Attempts were made to relievp the passenger train from the. Fort William end. A large squad of men with engine and snow-plough succeeded in cutting through the drift to the train, but only to find that the track behind them had again become choked up with snow.

The train, with its fifteen or sixteen passengers, was thus completely imprisoned. And in this condition matters remained all the Saturday night and the greater part of the Sunday. The train being steam-heated from the engine, . the passengers* suffered little discomfort. Supplies of food were conveyed to them from Itannoch. By six o'clock on the Sunday evening the Glasgow relief squad managed to extricate themselves, and succeeded in reaching the derailed engine, which was got on "the line. Then the passenger train was,reached and taken back to Rannoch. The drifts to the north were then attacked, and a way N was made for the passenger train, ' which reached Fort William about a quarter past eleven at night.