The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-02-09
DIFFICULT
For Trains to Best
the Storm.
POLICEMAN CONDY
Performs a Brave Act at
Union Station.

The railroads suffered all kinds of
troubles on account of the snow storm
that ragged all day yesterday. Difficult
ties came from all directions and were
met with on all sides by the men en-
ployed on all roads that come into Wor-
cester.
With the exception of a few trains
that came into Worcester early in the
morning, they all ranged from a half
and hour to a couple of hours late, max
ing matters disagreeable for those who
wished to.eatch a train for any desti-
nation. The Chicago special due here
at 1.50 o'clock was, as usual, behind
time, it being three hours and four min
utes late. The train that leaves Bos-
ton at o'clock and is supposed to ar
rive in this city at 4.OS o'clock, was rs
minutes late. The train from New
York due to arrive at A. 3S o'clock was
"a minutes delayed in getting to the
city.
On the Boston and Maine and Fitch
burg railroads the passengers had to
guess as to where they were at. Trains
on these roads had great difficulty in
making good time either going out of
the city or coming in, and large force
OF extra help had to be employed to
keep clear the tracks as well as they
possibly could.
People waiting for trains at the
Union station We're kept in a nervous
state expecting their trains, but they
had to content themselves with a long
wait on many occasions.
The trains, however, on the Boston
and Albany and New York, New
Haven and Hartford roads carried
heavy baggage, and the transfer agents
were kept busy during the whole day
The police officer on duty at the depot
was not loaf1ng in answering questions
of the impatient patrons. One man
asked if the officer knew of anybody
who did know when it was going to
stop showing and when the trains
would come in on time. Others walked
to and fro, saying all sorts of bad
things, such as that the fellow who
said that snow was beautiful ought to
be incarcerated in the nethermore
depths of the foreign lands.
So hard was it for the engines to
carry the passenger trains on the Bos-
ton and Albany road that it required all
the steam that they could get up to
pull the cars along. This prevented the
cars from being supplied with the
warm and the passengers had to draw
close their wraps to keep any way com
Portable at all. 1t was a hard thing
for the engineer to get his engine start
ed for the snow made the tracks very
slippery and the driving wheels re-
volved and revolved many times before
the engine moved forward many feet
The Fitchburg road had the hardest
work in getting their trains on the
move after leaving the Union depot. 1t
took train No. IS, which leaves this
city at 345 o'clock, in charge of Con-
ductor Daniel Parkhurst, over Is min
utes after leaving the station to cross
the Shrewsbury street crossing. The
engineer had to send the train forward
and backward several times to get her
fairly started, and then when he did
she got held up again at the Summer
street crossing.
While the train was trying to best
the snow that lay in the tracks on the
Shrewsbury street crossing by making
the train go both ways, people who
wanted to cross the tracks to either
side made frequent attempts to get on
the side they wished. If it was not for
the timely action on the part of Officer
William Condy who stood there warn
ing persons from crossing while the
train was attempting to get out, one
little girl about the age of 10 years
would have met with a serious accident,
perhaps a fatal one.
The train after backing up several
times then made an attempt to go
ahead and managed to clear the track
about half. When it went so far men
with shoVels were called to the front
of the train to clear the snow that was
banked up in front of the engine while
the steam valves were opened to do all
the melting that could be done. The
train had stopped about minute when
persons on both sides of the gates
crawled under the gates to cross back
of the train. Among them were two lit
tie girls evidently sisters. They ran
across the tracks unobserved by the
officer, who was warning people COM
ing from the other side to stay where
they were until the train cleared the
crossing. When the little tots reached
the track which the train was on they
stopped for a moment only and then
both started to pass in back of the
train. The conductor of the train was
ahead quite a distance and he not see
ing anybody going across, gave the sig
nal to back up just as the girls made
to go across. One of the girls crossed
about two yards up on the track from
the last car while the other tried to
scale the distance across very near the
car. AS she did she slipped and the
wheels Of the car which had just turned
would have surely gone over her body
had not officer Condy come to the res
cue.
Her playmate who saw her fall cried
out and this attracted the attention of
the officer who without stopping to
think, made leap forward grabbed the
child by the arm and reached the other
side of the track as the train passed
over the place where she had fallen.