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The Kid's Site of Canadian Trains
Yikes!
Snowsheds
Snowsheds were wooden tunnels made of huge Douglas fir trees. They were constructed with sloping roofs to cover dangerous sections of railway so that a snow avalanche would pass safely over the top of the shed and continue down the slope. The sheds however, blocked some of the finest scenery and so the Canadian Pacific Railway built an outer track to be used in the summer.
I Was There
"The sheds extend over some five miles of the track in the worst places ... and ... required 22,000,000 feet of lumber, and employed 3,500 men."
From Ontario to the Pacific by the C.P.R., by Mrs. Arthur Spragge. Toronto: C. Blackett Robinson, 1887, p. 167, 168
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