Right about now I am really looking forward to summer. I’m never a fan of the cold (despite sleeping in an ice hotel, and visiting Alaska in winter…) and this winter feels exceptionally so. The winter we’ve thus endured, however, pales in comparison to the winter of 1888. The Great Blizzard of 1888 is one of the most severe blizzards ever recorded in the US, with 22 inches of snow in New York City and 48 inches of snow in Albany. It took the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad eight days to clear the snow from their main line to New Haven. The New York and Harlem Railroad’s attempts were less successful, recorded as a small blip in the annals of history.
Meet Old Eli. This comical looking contraption was one of the first snowplows built for the New York Central Railroad in 1864. The plow was mounted on a six-wheeled truck, and connected to an engine with an old-fashioned push bar. The plow usually required several steam locomotives to push it, and for the 1888 blizzard the plow was being pushed by a total of five. It is worth mentioning that this plow was hardly an ingenious innovation, instead of pushing snow to the side, it often pushed the snow up and above the engine – a grievous issue when traversing an extremely narrow rock cut.
Scene from the wreck at Coleman’s during the Great Blizzard of 1888.
Heading north from White Plains, Old Eli was to clear the snow from the Harlem all the way to Chatham, but instead met doom at Coleman’s. The narrow rock cut there was plugged with snow, and the aforementioned deficiency of the plow ensured that the lead locomotive was thoroughly buried in the snow. All five locomotives derailed, Old Eli was destroyed beyond repair, and five crew members lost their lives, three of which were boiled alive by the lead steam locomotive.
 
New York City in the Great Blizzard of 1888, a subject that was heavily covered by the news of the day
Thankfully, most of our winters have been far less eventful, except maybe for the random guy running around wearing a horse mask. I’ve wandered around the Harlem Line during the past few snowstorms, capturing the trains and the people that make them run… so let’s take a little tour of the Harlem Line in the snow…
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I LOVE the photos in this post. Smiling railroaders, trains in the blue hour with and without falling snow…what’s not to love? I’m not a huge fan of the cold (can it just be October forever?) but I do love railroad photography in the snow!
great! thanks for sharing
It looks like most of the railroad people really don’t mind having their pictures taken. How about various passengers? It appears as if as long no securigoons or hostile trackworkers are lurking about, there’s little objection. Thank you so much for all this neat stuff.
Very nice pictures. I admire your bravery to stand outside in the cold and snow to take them.
Fantastic photos, as usual!
Great pictures, as always.
I thought that 1888 might have been the so-called “Year Without a Summer” but that was 1816 (snow fell in Albany on June 6).
Emily, you must have been one cool cat getting these pix for us. Your rapport with the folks who run the railroad comes thru in the various portraits. Thank you for some beautiful stuff.