Harsh Conditions
Operating trains in the rocky terrain of the high alpine mountains was a grueling and dangerous job. Snow above timberline would arrive in autumn and remain through the spring. The winter of 1898-1899 was especially severe, and constant wind and snow blocked train travel to much of the area. Tracks were buried under over ten feet of snow, leaving the rail lines inoperable for months. This amounted to huge losses for businesses and severe hardships for local residents in these small towns whose livelihoods depended on the railroad industry.[1] Even in the warmer months, railway travel through the mountains was challenging as trains were required to pass through areas susceptible to rockslides that could obstruct and damage the tracks.
Brakemen and conductors defied the odds as they drove across narrow gauge tracks which were built to accommodate tight passageways and steep grades. The smaller rail size only heightened the risk of a train jumping the track. The brake systems of the trains were not designed to adapt for these extreme environments and lead to a surplus of runaway trains and crashes. In the late 1800s, the majority of rail cars that went through Park County operated with Eames vacuum brakes. This system injected air through lines from the engine to the cars and created an atmospheric pressure that would apply the brakes. Due to the increase in altitude in the mountains, the pressure decreased within the brakes decreased, resulting in an unreliable system. This meant that train laborers would have to run across the tops of moving rail cars to pull individual handbrakes when signaled by the engineer.[2]
The Westinghouse automatic brake used compressed air and replaced the Eames system in the mid to late 1890s. This model was an improvement, but still unreliable, and not a system designed to be adequate enough to slow trains down on steep mountain grades at high altitudes.[3] Runaway trains and the stories about crews forced to jump between train cars to tighten brake wheels or pull emergency handbrakes on steep mountainous slopes were commonplace and discouraged many employees from wanting to work these dangerous and deadly railroad routes.