Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

CONSTRUCTION OF BERGEN-KRISTIANIA RAILWAY. 353 A PEEP INTO A SNOW PROTECTION. had to be used to shift it, the snow coming away in hard blocks just as if it were so much rock. When at last the way was open, the men had to dig paths to the dumping grounds and clear them of snow—if the material was required for the formation of embankments—as snow cov- ered with earth or stone would thaw so slowly that one summer’s heat would not remove it. In April and May some of the summer gangs were engaged. Their first duty was to clear the approaches to the many long cuttings in the rock, so that work might be begun upon them at the earliest possible moment. Had the engineers waited for the natural removal of the snow by thaw, the mountain section would have occupied several more years than it did. This shovelling work Clearing Snow from Cuttings. (1,408) 23 was at times very irksome and apparently useless, for over and over again a fall would refill a partly cleared cutting. Where the drifts were exceptionally deep—in some cases they measured 60 feet vertically—tunnels were driven through them to the working faces. By midsummer’s day, or a little later, the transport road became practicable for wheeled traffic, and the materials collected in advance on the Sogne Fjord were brought up. By the end of High Wages. July the working parties were at full strength, two thousand men all told being housed in the barracks. Only the hardiest men would en- gage for the mountain sections, as the climate, even in the summer, could be far from genial, and there were few recreations with which to vary the monotony of labour. Also, the VOL. Ill,