It has been said that muscle power and black powder built the KVR. Preparing the roadbed was hard and dangerous work. Hard-rock miners blasted out the rock cuts. The rubble was cleared by labourers using picks and shovels. Horse-drawn scrapers and little cars pulled or pushed by the workers moved the earth and rock away. Drillers earned $2.75 a day, and the labourers earned between $2.00 and $2.50 a day. Black powder was the explosive used by early railway builders. Up to five boxcar loads of explosives were used in a single blast. There were many accidents with explosives, usually because of carelessness. Dynamite became available to the builders in 1913. The main element in dynamite was nitroglycerine. It sometimes froze in winter. When in a hurry, men used to heat it up in a frying pan instead of letting it thaw in hot water. The results could be fatal!