The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-02-15
CONSOLIDATED
Fights the Storm With
Notable Success.

When any storm gets the best of the
Consolidated Street Railway Company
anybody can put it down in his note
book that there's no other street raIl-
way company doing business for a min
ute The blizzard, which kindly con-
scented to call a halt early yesterday
morning, took a fail out of Inc Luu-
solldated. But the street railway
would not stay down and the storm
mad not ceased long when the street
railway began to Chamber on top The
street railway put up a strong fight
and did better work than it ever did
before, and that is saying a great deal
1t tne worst storm that l had
ever seen in all my experience in street
railroading," said Superintendent John
y. Akarman yesterday to The Spy man.
When superintendent Akarman says
1t the worst storm he ever saw, that
means it's the worst anybody ever saw
Tor many years back, for his, connection
with street railways dates back sew
efal years, and what sJo.I445 49,. &c
during his period he knows all about,
for he had to beat them al oul
He told why it was worse than the
famous blizzard of 1888, which is a
landmark in the history Of storms IN
Worcester More SNOW fell in the
blizzard of 1888 than in this storm"
SAID superintendent Akarman, but we
could handle IL far better. The snuN,
was heavier and stuck closer and when
we got rid of II We were rid OI IL 4ur
keeps. This snow was so light that it
pIe". back WheIe We had swept, and
we could not keep any space clear
The blizzard of 1888 fell on compare
lively dry ground, and we got a foot
hold Tor our apparatus when we started
out to clear the tracks. This snow fell
on snow which had lain on the ground
and the rails were so cold that the
wheels would not take hold of them.
We could not get enough power Inlo
lie ploWs and sWeepers to push the
snow off the tracks"
Despite the unusual difficulties. the
street railway did magnificent work
ana had several of the main lines run
ming more or less during the day. The
pig Grafton cars were prize winners.
They We're taken off the regular line
during the first part Of the blizzard
Tor the officials saw 1t would be inn
possible to keep that line open The
cars were run back and forth on Main
street from Lincoln square to Webster
square, ana were as eueCtiVe as snow
ploWs. All night long at frequent in
ierVals the cars were kept going and
the main line was not blocked for a
second.
me other lines were not so fortunate.
me company attempted to run the
ploWS and brushes all night but they
Couldn't do it, as the snow piled up on
the tracks faster than the plows could
take II or. They had to give it up> for
bad job, ana wait until the Storm
ceased. The company was fortunate
IN one thing, however. Only four cars
We're stalled on outside lines. Three
We're snow bound on the lake line and
one on the Chandler street line on Park
avenue. BY getting the cars into the
barn before the night was over, the
company was able to start out yester-
DAY morning, bright and early, with its
ploWs and brushes, and could run them
all through the city without interrup-
ton from stalled cars That was one
reason why the company did such quick
work
The company had five plows and six
sWeepers out yesterday, and the two
Grafton cars which were as good as
snow ploWs. The cars are supplied with
four motors of 27-horse power each,
making total power Of 10S. The mo-
tors can develop 150-horse power on an
overload without injuring themselves
and they had every ounce of that extra
horse power on yesterday when it was
necessary.
Anybody looking for a Job could get
one from the Consolidated vester-
day. 1t wanted men badly and got
every man it could. Every team that
showed up near the barn was hired al
most before the owner knew he wanted
TO let his team. Superintendent Akar-
man telephoned to the city barn before
o yesterday morning. asking Street
Commissioner w. S. Prior to send him
everything in the shape of men and