The times., 1899-02-14
PASSENGER TRAINS
ARE ABANDONED
All Traffic at a Standstill for
the Present.
Snow Must Be Removed Before Re-
sumption of Business.
Washington Completely Cut on
From Rail Communication With
the Outer World.

The storm has wrought fearful havoc
with the railroads entering this city. Traf-
fic was suspended altogether at noon YES
terday, and no trains left the city over any
of the railroads after that hour.
Trains were dispatched from New i orl;
over the Pennsylvania and Baltimore and
Ohio Railroads up until noon yesterday,
but after that hour no trains were sent out
for this point from New York, Philadel-
phia. or Baltimore.
A double header, with three passenger
coaches, was sent out to Baltimore at
o'clock yesterday morning over the Penn
syivania, and did not arrive in Baltimore
until nearly O'Clock last night. This in
stance shows the terrible condition of af-
fairs wrought by the storm, when two To-
cOmotives were unable to haul three cars
for distance of forty miles in less than
ten hours.
The Baltimore and Ohio managed to get
a train into Baltimore in five hours yes
terday morning. but as the storm grew
fiercer il was decided to suspend traffic
altogether.
The last train which left New York for
this city over the Pennsylvania yesterday
morning managed to struggle through to
Wilmington, Del. where il remained
stalled all night, and is still stalled. The
Pennsylvania system decided to suspend
traffic also, rather than start trains out
on stalling expedition, and SO avoid ac-
cidents.
The condition of the tracks on both rail-
roads between here and Baltimore was ter
rible. At points the snow drifted feet
deep over the rails. and the force of the
wind compelled slow running Many OF
the smaller stations along both reads were
completely buried in snow. and for
stretches of a mile the tracks were not
visible.
The Southern Railroad managed to run
several suburban trains by putting three
locomotives in front of two passenger
coaches, but even this was of no ava
during the afternoon.
Several snowp!ows broke down on the
Baltimore and Ohio, and the tracks were
cleared for time by putting the snow
with trains of six locomotives. but this,
too, was abandoned in the face OF the
blizzard.
Much trouble was experienced by both
the Pennsylvania and Baltimore and Ohio
through the locomotives being disabled by
frozen steam pipes. 1t was stated by Off
cials of both of these railroads that no
attempt will be made to run trains until
the storm abates as it would be useless to
start trains out, only to have them stalled
and cause suffering, besides running great
risks from accident
Many of the drivers and firemen on loco
motives which came through du,ing the
storm were badly frost-bitten and expo
rienced much suffering. A locomotive en-
gineer on the Pennsylvania Railroad who
came through from Baltimore said that he
had never experienced such weather dur
ing fifteen years of railroading. He stated
that he could not see six yards ahead of
the engine cab. and that at times the
truck wheels were raised into the air by
piles of snow.
No suffering has been reported from the
stalled trains, as one OF these is stationed
at Wilmington. on the Pennsylvania and
the other at Baltimore, on the Baltimore
and Ohio.
Washington is at present completely cut
off from the outer world as far as transpor-
tation is concerned and railroad schedules
are but fgureheads until King Blizzard
gets into better humor.
AS passenger traffic cannot be handled
there is little hope for freight traffic for
several days. Large gangs of men will be
employed by both roads today digging the
snow from around the rails between here
and Baltimore.
On the western division of the Baltimore
and Ohio. through the mountains the con-
ditions are worse. The same can be said
of the Pennsylvania and Chesapeake and
! Ohio systems. No trains have passed over
the mountains since Saturday night. There
| has been practically no mail from East to
| West or West to East since Saturday. Bust
| ness on all the roads in the track of the
storm is practically at stand still.