Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1904-10-06
PRELIMINARY
HEARING

ter of the grade crossing at Mill street
began Friday morning ut 10 O'Clock
and continued throughout the day, an
| interested crowd filling the Court
! room. Numerous witnesses AID experts
gave testimony and exciting events III
the work of Thursday evening, Sept
ember %, when the frog was placed
bv trolley workmen and Danville citiz-
ems eager for the trolley roads con-
struction, were exploited. Among other
sensational incidents was the flour
ishing of a revolver by d. y W..
official Close cr"~ ANIMATION
brought out the many objections to the
overhead crossing proposed by the rail
road people.
A large number of ID. l.. & W. Off
cials arrived on the Gals train. In the
party were E. M. Rine, Superintend-
ent of the Bloomsbury division. Chief
Engineer Lincoln Brush, Division En-
gineer 6. J. Ray, Division Roadmas-
ter Scofeld, General Roadmaster P.
Dowling, Chief Special Agent j. E.
Adamson, Surveyor M. II. Dowdy and
large number of trainmen, engineers,
surveyors, etc.
The plaintiffs were represented by
FIX Judge Il. N. willard of the Lack
awanna county court, A. d. McOlin-
tok, of Wilkesbarre, and Hon. H. M.
HinckIey of this city.
Mr.. Hinckley asked permission of
the Court that the sixth clause of the
bill in equity offered by the d. L. &
W. company be changed to read as fol-
lows:
THAT W. F. Pascoe, @. E. Lippe,
W. c. Billman, and r. III. Koch are
partners doing business under the firm
name of the Standard Construction
Company and are engaged under con-
tract with the Danville and Blooms
burg Street Railway, Company to con-
struct for said company its line of rail
way and are now engaged in the said
construction, and have so located it's
line of railway as to cross the railroad
of the plaintiff at grade on Mill street
in the borough of Danville and have
declared their intention to cross the
tracks Of the said plaintiffs on Mill
street at grade and in said oonstruc
ton, with that intention in view have
almost reached the track of the plain
tiff at that point and have unlawfully
and by force torn up the rails of plain
tiff's railroad at said Mill street cross
ing and endeavored to place in posi-
tion grade crossing over the right of
way of plaintiff, greatly to the injury
of the plaintiff 5 tracks. -
Counsel for both sides agreed that
the testimony taken in both cases
should be applicable to either: after
which Mr McClintok read the differ
ent acts relating to merging of the
Lackawanna and Bloomsbury railroad
into the d. l.. &5 W. railroad.
f. NJ. Rine, superintendent and A.
L. Diehl, an engineer, testified that
the d. L. & W. railroad crossed Mill
street, after which Staticn Agent G..
W. Eggcrt was called.
Mr. Eggert's testimony was to the
effect that the crossing was used a
great deal and that much traffic passed
over it. He stated that eight passeng
er and six freight trains passed over
the crossing every week day, besides a
number of extras.
Division Roadmaster Richard Sco-
field of Kingston, was next sworn. lie
testified that it was necessary to be on
the track before a train could be seen
coming. And that at this point the
track was in sight for a distance of
$50 feet in either direction.
Mr.. Rne on being recalled stated
that though business was rather dull
at present, it had great possibility
of increase He stated that 38 trains
a week were now being run.
NJ II. Dowdy, Engineer and W. o.
Moser, draughtsman were sworn to
identify a number of blue prints made
for the company by them. The maps
were offered as exhibits and showed
the location of various streets. build
ings etc, relative to the case, as well
as dimensions of Mill street in lengths
and widths from the culvert TO Bloom
street
A number of photographs were also
offered as exhibits. There we've in all
nine views.
Division Engineer G. J. Ray testif-
ed that view could be had of 588
feet east of the d. j.. IL W. tracks
when On Mill street crossing and $50
feet west and that it was impossible
to see a train until within five feet of
the crossing
At this point Court adorned until
/ 80 p. m.
John Dineen, tho ID. l.. & w. cross
ing special watchman at Mill street,
was the first witness when Court con
vened again at 80 p. N. He narrat-
ed the events of the laying of the frog
at this crossing, which are all we'll
known to the people OF this city. He
testified that he received crack in
the forehead when removing ties,
which we're thrown back on tho track