This is from the files of my local newspaper.... dated Feb. 1, 1957....an Associated Press item.

That blockade was covered in detail in one of John Norwood's books. It seems that since the last big winter in 1951, management had been lulled into a sense of complacency by several light winters, plus a lot of the most experienced people in operations had retired.

The result was, IIRC, about half of the operable engines on the entire narrow gauge ending up stuck in snow on the pass, along with most of the crews. What a hell of a mess.