Omaha daily bee., 1905-02-15
TRAINS STRUGGLE WITHSNOW
Passenger Traffic Much Delayed by Drifts
and High Winds.
BRANCH LINES ARE ALL ABANDONED
Railroads only Try to Keep Main
Lines Open During the Com
tinuance of the storm
in state.

There was no telling yesterday what the
next hour would bring forth at the rail-
road passenger stations. Sometimes an
hour would bring forth a belated train and
then again it would bring only a report
giving the number of hours a certain train
would be late. 1t was exasperating to the
travelling public to say the least, but the
railroad people did the best they could to
give service and succeeded admirably, in
spite of the elements with which they had
to contend All day long sorry lot of
travellers haunted the stations and asked
the officials all manners of questions. OF
course. for the greater part, most of the
travelling public got away sometime dur
ing the day, but most of those destined TO
branch lines just had to make themselves
at home until the service is reopened.
The Burlington is open through to the
northwest to Denver and to the southern
division via Beatrice and Wymore. The
branch lines north Of Aurora and the
Schuyler branch are closed. All day yes
terday snowplows were kept busy over the
open lines. No. 92, Nebraska local, due at
noon, arrived at y. m, the snowplow
having jumped the track. Burlington No.
g. from Denver, came in yesterday morn
ing on the dot at 655. No. 3, the Denver
limited, was two hours late. The Chicago
flyer left on time last evening No. was
three hours late and the Deadwood train
four and half hours late. The St Louis
Burlington trains were only an hour be-
hind.
Some Real Difficulties.
The Rock Island experienced some diff
Guilty near Avoca, Ia, where trains Al and
became stalled for some time. No Al
was due at 7:1O, but did not come in before
evening No was much belated. Rock
Island No. 6. Denver to Chicago, reached
Omaha only three hours to the bad. Like
the other roads, the Rock Island schedule
was disarranged so that employees of that
road would not have recognized it had they
not known 1t to be theirs. And thus the
Rock Island had plenty of trouble OF its
own.
The Union Pacific started the day by
bringing in No. II from Denver on time.
No. from the west was a few hours late.
No. was run in two sections, the first
section being started at p m. for local
passengers as far as Valley, branch trains
being annulled.
The Milwaukee experienced trouble near
Bagley, Ia, where trains Nos. and
were blocked. No. / was due at 1885, but
did not arrive until 4:45 p. m. No. 8, the
California express, due at $40 D. m, was
detained at Bagley some time.
The Northwestern train that was stuck
in the snow at Bennington crawled in at 1880
with a large tardy mark registered against
it's number. 1t was due here at 1876 a. m.
The Black Hills train over the Northwest
ern was three hours late.
North and south Lines.
The Great Western line was snowbound.
The Illinois Central did not report much
trouble. The Wabash brought in its spe-
cial at 80 D. m. with THE Isle of Spice"
theatrical company from Maryville, Mo.
The special was belated, but got through In
time to allow the members of the company
Boyd theater last evening The Wabash
people reported some trouble with the snow
in Missouri
While railroad men were more or less on
the qui vive two of the busiest men in the
business yesterday were Passenger Director
Joe Mix at the Burlington station and In
formation Agent Mcbride al the Union sta
ton. Mr Mcbride particularly, answered
all sorts and manners of questions and sue
ceeded in maintaining for the various lines
entering the Union station the goodwill of
the travelling public. Some hard names
were called the railroads by impatient
tourists who, judging by their remarks.
thought the railroads were doing 1t on pur-
pose and that the officials were out on the
right-of- way heaping up piles of snow to
impede the progress of trains.