The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-02-02

Spring street. Little by little they went
along, some times sticking fast and at
others jumping ahead few feet. 1t was
morning when they had got around the
loop at the Grand Trunk and headed up
Middle street. A company of the shovel
brigade was in advance and they dug
holes in the drifts into which the snow
pillow plunged to stop and wait for the
digging of other holes which would per-
NIT of another step forward. In this way
by noon the car was at Monument square
and three hours later it reached the barn
ON Spring street, but the halt WAS only
long enough to shift the positions OF the
pillow and the car so that the pusher OF
snow might be in the lead, and another
trip was begun to the centre of the city.
With the exception of this Spring street
and the cars which staid out all night
on the suburban lines, the Portland rail
way got its cars safely housed before it
became impossible to run them. When the
performances at the theatres closed Mon
day night, the patrons of the amusements
did not find the usual lines of brightly
lighted cars waiting to take them home.
IT had then been decided by the railroad
men that all they could do was to get the
cars into the barns. 1t was fast becoming
impossible to run one. From that hour
all night and all day yesterday service
was at a standstill on the city lines. the
only efforts made in the direction of run
ming the cars being whers they were used
in the work of clearing the streets. When
the snow ceased falling and the wind
went down in the afternoon the Portland
road promptly put a large number of men
and teams at work on Congress street,
and the way the drifts were transferred
to the carts and hauled out of the way
was caution. Then there was once
familiar sight when one of the old time
plows appeared with six big horses at
tached to it. The work WAS pushed
vigorously forward and good deal mad
been accomplished by night fall. Never
since the.railroad has kept it's tracks open
in winter has 1t encountered SO much
difficulty as yesterday. The wind was the
chief source of trouble. If the snow would
have remained where the plows left it,
the tracks could have been dug out, but
as soon as pillow passed the wind prompt
" removed all traces of Its work. Another
difficulty in the way of the work in the
suburbs was due to the Sailing OF the
Maine Central freight train so that 1t
blocked the street at Woodfords and pre-
vented the passage of the street cars. The
train was so long that at first it blocked
not only the street at the railway statfon
but Spring street as we'll, SO that neither
the Deering or the Westbook cars could
pass, but the engine was detached and
succeeded In moving far enough with one
or two cars to open Spring street.
4 Manager Newman stated last evening
that the road was open to Woodfords and
at the Morrill's Corner end, but there
was a portion of the line along Spring
street which was still closed. This pre-
vented the running Of the cars from the
car house at Morrill's to the city. On the
city lines last night the west bound
track on Congress street had been brought
to the surface. A very large crew of men
was at work on the Deering line.
CAPE ELIZABETH ELECTRIC LINE.
Just how the Cape Elizabeth electric
line Jared during the recent storm can be
gathered from the statement cf General
Manager MacLoud. Shortly after ten
O'Clock on Monday night it was realized
that it would be useless to keep running
the snow ploughs, owing to the manner
in which the snow was drifting. The
two ploughs which had been doing good
work early in the fevening were pulled
up, and at that hour one car was stalled
in huge drift at Ferry Village, and
another at the Cape Elizabeth crossing
on the Cash's Corner line. This was the
situation when the road was abandoned,
at from 10 to 10 Monday night. Itsswa
hoped that by five O'Clock yesterday
morning the storm would so abate as to
render immediate work on clearing the
road achievable, and it was intended to
start out at once large force of shovel
lers, but owing to the continued down.
fall of snow no attempt was made to clear
the tracks until p. m.
Soon after 1 o'clock an attempt was
made to open up the road and two cars
with plough were started along the
line and aided by crew ofshovellers the
road was cleared from the terminus at
the Portland & Rochester railroad so as
to permit the movement of the cars, from
that point to the school house in Knight
ville.A This was Accomplished by $50
o'clock, at which time car left the pow
er house and made the passage to this
end of the line, On Federal street the
drift was on one side of the street and
the snow was thrown from the track, by
means of the plough, to the other and
afterwards by running the plough On the
second track. The snow was finally
pushed off to the side OF the street. In
opening the line two big drifts were en-
rountered, one at the international
steamship wharf and the other near the
power house on the bridge. They were
at least ten feet high and reached the