Winter 1880-81

[BaltACD]

Not even the railroads could move

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNGn_-msT1M

[Jones1945]

Not even a steam rotary snow plow could have handled such extreme weather, let alone it wasn't invented in the early 1880s...

[Overmod]

I suspect Jull's development of the practical rotary was a direct result of this winter; you may recall that Elliot (starting 1869) couldn't find investors.  It would not be surprising to find that many people expected subsequent winters to be as bad as that one...

Indeed, if I recall correctly, in 1949 came snows contemporary rotaries often couldn't deal with, and in 1952 the COSF incident I mentioned earlier that led to SP introducing bidirectional plow trains...

[Jones1945]

Overmod

Indeed, if I recall correctly, in 1949 came snows contemporary rotaries often couldn't deal with, and in 1952 the COSF incident I mentioned earlier that led to SP introducing bidirectional plow trains...

I found this article from Classic Train about the 1952 Train #101 incident, very detailed:

Stranded streamliner

https://ctr.trains.com/railroad-reference/operations/2002/01/stranded-streamliner

 

[BaltACD]

Jones1945

 

Overmod

Indeed, if I recall correctly, in 1949 came snows contemporary rotaries often couldn't deal with, and in 1952 the COSF incident I mentioned earlier that led to SP introducing bidirectional plow trains... 

I found this article from Classic Train about the 1952 Train #101 incident, very detailed:

Stranded streamliner

https://ctr.trains.com/railroad-reference/operations/2002/01/stranded-streamliner

All of which goes to prove that the only thing that can permit railroads to even attempt to operate in the worst of Winter weather is manpower in mass quantities coupled with all appropriate technologies.

21st Century railroads no longer employ sufficient manpower to even think about operating in such conditions.

[Flintlock76]

Sobering, scary stuff.  It's been said and with justification that the forces of nature make the powers of man seem as impotent as the waving of a baby's fist.

Interestingly, 100 years earlier there was another equally hard winter.  Here's the story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Gr0BUGRsA