Description: PC0002 Image no. 254. Inside view of snow gallery at summit bolting the frame to the rocks
Photographer/artist: Alfred A. Hart
Date taken: 1860s
Photo location: Summit
Type: photo
Subject: Transcontinental Railroad Construction
County: Placer
Source: Stanford Collection
References:
Contributor: Stanford Libraries
Notes: Original image is 3.4 MB. HCS 1/16/2022. Image at Stanford site. See also Goldbaum and Huffman's 2012 book, Waiting for the Cars, p. 268. The authors explain that to withstand the incredible force of avalanches, snow "galleries" were anchored to the mountain face with iron rods and bolts. This photograph is probably from 1868. The authors add: "Fires were a constant threat to the sheds in the summer, especially in the days of wood burning steam locomotives. To reduce the risk, the roof timbers and boards were covered with a mixture of coal tar and powdered rock, and by 1873 sections of the sheds were sheathed in galvanized corrugated iron."
Fire trains were fully manned and readily available, stationed in strategic points along the railroad line. In later years, sections of the sheds were built to "telescope" past adjacent sheds in the summer creating openings which served both as firebreaks and to help clear the locomotive exhaust from the sheds.
Rights: NOT FOR SALE; research only
Identifier: AAH0078
Serial Number: 2132
Donation: Alfred A. Hart Collection (AAH) collection (#34)
