Bridgeton pioneer. (Bridgeton, N.J.) 1884-1919, 1902-02-27
SNOW BOUND ON
THE TRAIN.
The Pioneer" Man on the Sp0t
and He Remains Spotted
for Some Time.

for Some Time.
Writ Stalled train by an editor of .'Pio-
neer'' Wednesday. Feb. 1s.l
just south of the Glassboro station.
the rails of the West Jersey and Sea-
shore tracks curve gracefully to the
! westward. On either side of this
i track are acres and acres OF country
with nothing to break the monotony
but here and there cedar tree, a wire
fence, and off in the distance farm
| house, barn, or some other outbuild-
| ings.
| Sweeping over this expanse of open
country, for two days the wind has
been blowing a hurricane catching up
the light snow from the white fields
and carrying it in clouds through the
air and depositing much of it upon
the gracefully curved rails already
mentioned.
| Packed like bricks is the snow.
| You can cut it with an ak and pile it
up like stone.
Along comes the Bridgeton trains
putting, snorting, steaming, blowing,
the ponderous engines strain every
piece Of the intricate machinery, but
of no avail and the train comes to
stop.
It's the same now as yesterday.
There were troubles at this point
Tuesday. Trains on the Bridgeton
branch coming and going, arrived at
this interesting point, and the tired,
disgusted passengers rushed to the
dusty, dirty, uninviting little station.
The two rooms were packed with men,
women and little children, all out of
sorts and fault finding. The operator
at the ticker was working with all
dispatch. He appealed to Camden for
help, for orders for the train men,
but answers came slowly. The pas
sengers deluged the operator with dis
patches from business men, from hus-
bands to wives, from wives to hus-
bands, and others to members of the
families.
He could not handle the volume of
business. His wire was already
crowded with railroad orders.
At eight O'Clock Tuesday night, Or
ders came to make up train at Glass
boro for Camden. One-half of the
people in the station boarded the cars
and were taken to the city along the
Delaware where they secured some
sort of accommodations.
In the meantime men were shovel
ing off the tracks. They made slow
progress. The snow whisked back on
the rails almost as fast as the men
could move it, but during the night
the wind dropped, and at four O'Clock
in the morning the trains that left
Philadelphia at noon, at 8. 80, '5 and 6
O'Clock pulled ont at Glassboro.
This morning the wind came Sob
bing, signing, growing into greater
volume, and across that expanse of
country at Glassboro swept with cy-
clonic force. Late, very late, the
first two trains from Bridgeton plowed
their way through and went ON to
Camden
We left Philadelphia at $50 this
morning. We asked the man in the
ticket office at Camden if we could go
through to Bridgeton. He said he
had not heard of any trouble on the
line, and somehow we did not believe
him. We got on the train and pro-
ceeded smoothly. At Sewell we were
held up by the danger signal. The
Millville train was in the block ahead
of US. After an hours wait we start
ed on and at ten O'Clock reached
Glassboro.
On this graceful curve stood the first
train from Camden to Bridgeton, the
one that is due there at 742 o'clock.
| 1t was hopelessly stalled. Blowing
directly across the path of the train
were the sheets of snow, completely en-
veloping the lone man who was SHOW
elling about switch. Minutes, like
hours, dragged themselves along, and
there came a demand for dinner.
Some of the belated passengers had
had no breakfast, and the train men
had been struggling with their trains
all day yesterday, all last night and
were still at it. They were tired and
hungry, but kept on with the work.
Two big engines were hooked back of
the stalled train, and after some dig
ging and shovelling. the train backed.
Then with all the driving force of the
three great engines the train moved
swiftly, plowing up the crusts OF
snow, throwing them far on either
side and sped over the danger spot on
the way home. With good start,
the two engines in the rear were de-
tached, and all depended npon Engi-
neer Griner and the machine he con-