I read a story about the City of San Francisco getting trapped in the snow at Donner Pass in 1952. According to this account, the train stayed there for several days with passengers on board while crews tried to free it. Back then, cars were heated by steam circulated through a pipe which, like the air brake pipe, went all the way through the train from the engine. This was a hold over from the steam era. When diesels replaced steam, the passenger diesel locomotives had a steam generator that would produce the steam to be circulated through the train. During the time this train was snow bound, the steam generator ran out of water and the train lost heat with people still on board.
Now, why couldn’t they gather up some snow and melt it down to make water to put in the steam generator? It seems like that would have been an obvious solution to keeping the train warm while the crews continued to work on freeing it. Could one of the SP fans shed some light on this?
I’m not an SP fan, but… have you ever tried to make water in the mountains by melting snow? I have, and you’d be amazed at how much fuel and snow it takes to make a gallon (or even a pint) of water. Mountain snow is only about 10 percent water! I expect they could have melted enough snow to provide drinking water, had it come to that – but not to fuel a steam generator (remember, steam generators in those days were one shot affairs – no condensate return – and it takes a lot of steam to heat a car). I could calculate it for you, but… it’s too late at night!
i wasn’t there so I can’t say for sure, but having serviced those P’s about 10 years later, I can tell you that your idea would not have been possible. To water a locomotive, caboose or passenger cars, you use a hose like a 3/4 inch garden hose that has a 1 inch rubber fitting on one end that fits over a cone shaped fitting attached to the pipe that fills the water hopper. The hole in that fitting is about 1/4-1/2 inch and will accept water only (usually) under pressure.
That, and it would take much more steam to melt the snow than you would get water out of it. With a steam locomotive, you could do what you suggested, but even then, you could use more water to melt the snow than you gained in steam.