February 1977 taught us not to mess with Mother Nature
Forty-six winters ago this month – it was the famous blizzard of 1977 – a freight train became stuck in a snow drift on its way from Pandora to Bluffton.
This train was stranded on the A.C.& Y. Railroad track near Bentley Road for parts of two days. The snow was four or five feet deep in front of the train for about 50 yards.
By the time the other cars were removed from the stranded train, the snow had drifted heavily behind the engine. It finally broke free after more than 24 hours on the tracks near Bentley Road. The snow remains however, and as of Sunday tracks were still unpassable.
Workmen from the railroad started to dig out the stranded train last Thursday afternoon, removing cars one-by-one until finally only the engine remained. The rescue engine is shown behind the stranded engine.
