The Portland daily press., 1896-03-06
FL ON THE MAINE CENTRAL.
Trains Running Regularly the
Bridges Withstood the Flood.

Train service on the Maine Central is
now practically complete. All trains on
the main line between Portland and
Vanceooro on all the branches, except the
Pennington branch, and on the Knox &
Lincoln division ran yesterday as sched-
uleu' anu Will be hereafter run, it is ex-
pecteo, without any Interruption Pas
senger trains on the Mountain Division
are now running. nearly on time, al
5hough transfer is necessary at Pre-
sumpscot River. Freight traffic on that
division will be resumed in the course of
d week or ten days. On the Pennington
ofanch 1t Is expected that passenger train
service Will be resumed on Saturday of
this week. Traffic to and from Lewiston
mas peen carried on for the the past two
days by the way, of Brunswick, but it is
expected that this mornings early train
will run from Auburn to Portland. and
that by this afternoon, trains can be run
between Auburn and Lewiston.
NOW that the momentous events of the
past few days can be Judged more clearly,
IL becomes apparent that the Maine Cen
tral railroad suffered less, Iroportionately
from the great flood than any of the
towns corporations or industries located
along It's line The food did not conf1ne
ITSELF to any enc section of orr state, but
devastated pr " tically the entire extent of
the territtry laying adjacent to Maine
rallrosd 1T m. The interruption to
trafhc has been annoying and unprece-
dented in the length of it's duration, but
this interruption of traffic was caused
not by the destruction of bridges or road
beds, but by the height of the water
which submerged the track The water
did not subside as rapidly as usual, and,
OF course no trains could be run, or re-
pairs made, until the track was out of
water.
few of the smaller steel bridges on
the Maine Central were slightly moved
ont OF line by the enormous pressure up
on them, but were not injured in the
least degree. and are now in perfect con-
dltion. All the larger bridges stood the
strain magniicently. The long steel
bridges owe rthe Androscogginyat Lewis
ton and Topsham, and the two over the
kennebec at Waterville, yielded not a
hairs breadth to the furious torrents OF
water. ice and logs that so long assailed
them. These bridges, it will be remem-
bered, were erected about two years ago,
and took the places of structures which,
while entirely safe, were not up to the
| high standard the Maine Central had set
for itself. Had the old bridges been con-
tinued in use, they would have gone
down like PAPER before this great freshet,
and Central Maine would have been cut
0 Fl from the outside world for months, in
stead of for days The false work for the
new bridge to be erected over the Pre-
sumpscot river at Cum berland Mills, was
carried away, but will be replaced at
small expense as soon as the condition Of
the water will permit. All in all, the
management can be congratulated on the
manner in which the Maine Central
withstoOd the ravages of the recent flood
The travelling public may also congrat-
ulate itself on the fact that the Maine
Central is operated on the principle that
it is better to be safe than sorrow. I"
During all the disturbances of this week,
not a single accident of the slightest kind
happened to person or property on the
Maine Central railroad.