Winter Troubles.

It is now many years since Scotland was visited by a really heavy snowstorm sufficient totally to suspend railway services for any considerable period. As for the green lands of Southern England, there are many children of school age in the Home Counties and the West Country to whom the sight of the glistening snowflakes fall is as yet an unknown ecstacy. On the Scottish and Scandinavian railways, snow fences are a common sight along the line. Three types are favoured-the “double,” the “sloping” and the “covered.” The first consists of two parallel lines of upright fencing, formed of stout wooden sleepers, placed about twenty yards apart alongside the track. Plan number two makes allowance for the undulating motion of the wind, by sloping the fence to deflect the air currents, thus assisting the wind to catch up drifted snow and carry it away from the track. Stout corrugated iron, which virtually converts a cutting into a tunnel, is employed for the covered type of snow fence.