The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1903-06-10
NEWS OF RAILROADS
AND RAILROAD MEN
Flood Damage.

Flood Damage.
Proposed improvements on most OF
the Southern railroads have ceased tenn
porarily to allow the maintenance de-
partments to repair the damage done
by the great foods and recent gale.
Nearly every system operating out OF
Washington suffered heavily. and it was
no. until this morning that the superin-
teLdents were enabled to announce to
the travelling public that they could
count on something like schedule in
time.
kilograms were received by General
Manager Akert, of the Southern Rail-
road, that no more delay is being ex-
perienced. but that weeks and probably
months must elapse before the system
would be in the fine working order it
enjoyed before the disaster
Similar communications We're receiv-
ed by the local officers of the Seaboard
Air Line, the Atlantic Coast Line, and
the Chesapeake and Ohio.
Some of the lines are still sending
their trains around the scene of wreck
age. making their routes from twenty
five to fifty miles longer than usual, and
few of the smaller branches ere stin
out of business
The general condition, however. IL
wonderfully improved, and some extra
ordinary work was done by the con-
struction crews to accomplish this task.
According to the reports the railroads
combined lost forty bridges and tres
ties and nearly two hundred miles OF
track. In addition many cars, and in
one instance train, were lost The
railroads report. however, that not one
of their employees nor a passenger was
killed
Like other floods this one came sud
denly. A peaceful, blooming valley was
in few minutes transformed into a
raging torrent miles wide, and sixty
fee deep. which swept away houses
AID all other structures as if they were
toys In less than an hour the damage
Lad been done. Then the rivers began to
rise and in a few hours the hundreds of
thousands of dollars in property had
been swept away.
The story of what followed in the
L
Times. but nothing has been said of the
herculean work of the railroad men to
get things in order
superintendent of Construction bod
son was at work with his thousands of
nen, double tracking the Southern sys-
tenn half way between Washington and
Atlanta kilograms reached him In a
few minutes he had communicated with
Il dozen different points and In three
hours construction trains were on their
way TO the scene from all divisions
1t was discovered that carloads OF ties
had been washed away and then the
Southern went TO work buying. borrow
iig, and begging them.
In The meantime the Chesapeake and
Ohio was doing some quick work, and its
construction trains were not far behind
the Southern's. The Seaboard was busy
before dark, and the Atlantic Coast
Line needed ties also.
The result was that every tie in a
radius OF 200 square miles was soon
requisitioned. and the North had to be
called upon. 1t was the scarcity of ties
that delayed matters. Yesterday morn
Ing it was announced that enough to
reconstruct the tracks had been procur-
cd and laid They went into place as fast
as they reached the spot where they
were needed.
1t o'clock yesterday afternoon the
welcome news was received in Washing
ton that the trains were running almost
as usual, and that while the tracks
might not look so pretty as they did
they were in an excellent condition for
the traffic to pass over them. Then II
was announced that records had been
broken in repair work. but to what ex-
tent will not be known until fuller re-
ports are received.