KPCW Board of Trustees member Stu Stanek and history buff David Nicholson will take participants back decades for a look at the ferocious winter of 1951.
Nicholson says it was the worst winter in 75 years, hitting California and Utah in full force.
“In our particular case, or the train that became snow bound, the city of San Francisco, encountered 100 mile-an-hour winds and blinding snow, eventually being buried in 12 feet of snow.”
Stanek says the train’s difficulty getting through the snow came as a surprise to the passengers.
“This was an 8,000 horsepower train, and it couldn't maintain 12 miles an hour going downhill. It is rated for a top speed of over 100 miles an hour. So they just felt like they hadn't seen anything like this for a while. They were in denial that they couldn't get through. And the train didn't even operate for an hour before it became mired in the snowbank.”
Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Echo Church, Stanek and Nicholson will tell the story of how the train became mired and how they got out.
