Since avalanches are affecting the Empire Builder just now it would be appropriate to read the historical novel 'Vis Major' by Martin Burlash (2009)
Vis Major: Railroad Men, an 'Act of God'-White Death at Wellington
It was a great read! Fantastic!
via Google Books
https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Martin_Burwash_Vis_Major?id=JdGkjlx9gaEC
Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Vis-Major-Railroad-God-White-Wellington-ebook/dp/B005OAG2YO/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394246916&sr=1-2&keywords=vis+major
[i bought my ebook via Google - much cheaper there few months ago than Amazon or Barnes & Noble. [GoodReads link below lets you check prices at various storeS & library holdings]
Goodreads listing:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7396279-vis-major?from_search=true
[Also see an actual history
The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche
http://www.amazon.com/White-Cascade-Northern-Deadliest-Avalanche/dp/0805083294/ref=la_B000APQDSS_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394247509&sr=1-2
by Gary Krist - It came out a year before Martin's book & influenced it {they worked somewhat in tandem].
[i have the ebook...on my 'do list']
From Vis Major's Google page
Description
At 1:43 a.m., March 1, 1910, a wall of snow descended on two Great Northern Railway trains stalled in the town of Wellington, Washington. Ninety-six people died in a single moment. To this day, the Wellington Slide remains North America's worst avalanche disaster. Although other accounts of this monumental event exist, none are told entirely from the perspective of the railroad men who battled the week-long blizzard leading up to the tragedy. Vis Major gives voice to those men.With vivid imagery and evocative prose, historian
Martin Burwash brings railroaders from CascadeDivision Superintendent James O'Neill to brakemanAnthony John Dougherty to brilliant life. Relive thecrucial moments where men worked feverishly toclear the snow-clogged line over Washington'sStevens Pass and intimately feel the fatigue,frustration, and misery of working hours uponhours in the harsh winter weather or aboardsteaming rotary snow plows.
Expertly blending historical fact with railroadknowledge, Burwash delivers an amazing fictional
account of this incredible, but often overlooked trueevent and simultaneously reveals the courage andfortitude of the human spirit.