Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-02-13
ATTEMPTS TO WRECK.
Continues from page one.)

caution as to running trains that has
been followed since the commence
ment of the trouble; not to do this
and the regular night freight trains
We're not started, Monday night. and
subsequent developments proved the
wisdom of this conservative course
Between Sunday evening and Mon
day evening, no less than six deliber-
ate attempts to wreck trains We're dis
covered at different points in a stretch
of $50 miles, a list of which is given
below:
Feb. 9th: Switch partly thrown at
West Schools. causing derailment Of
engine.
Feb. 10th: Bowdens Siding: Bolt
driven into switch, causing derail-
ment of tender of engine.
Feb. 10th: About a mile north of
Houlton; spare rail taken from rail
stand and placed across track and
braced against post of stand; rail
struck by some northbound trains
presumably No. land broken and
thrown to edge of right of way
Feb. 18th: Carys Mills; switch
found thrown for siding.
Feb. 18th: Caribou; switch on track
*" tempered with, lever raised and
lock replaced, switch locked and light
put out.
All of the above cases are of such a
nature that the mischief could not
have been done except by men with
railroad experience.
In these cases the malefactors
were partially successful causing de-
railment of engines at West Schools
and at Bowden Siding, just north of
Milinocket.
Those criminal attempts, particular
ly in the vicinity CT Roulton, We're
outrageous, the displacement of a
main line switch at Cary's Mills, about
four miles south of Houlton, would
surely have derailed one of the regu-
lar night freights had they been run
ming as planned.
The placing of an angle bar in a
switch at the ncrth end of the Houl-
ton yard would also have derailed a
train If any had gone over ii, but
perhaps the worst case of all was the
placing of steel rail across the main
line track about one mile north of
Houlton, and the evidence shows that
this rail was strick and broken by a
northbound passenger train, on Mon
day night, ana it seems providential
that this train was not wrecked and
many passengers killed.
No further attempts We're made on
Tuesday night; this is in line with
the practice elsewhere, it being GUS
tomary to wait after the first attempts
for few nights so as to try and get
the management of a railroad off it's
guard, but the Bangor & Aroostool< is
being thoroughly patrolled night and
day, and is taking every possible pre-
caution to prevent the success of any
further murderous assaults of this
kind from this miscreants.
1t is time that the authorities of the
State and of the counties through
which this railroad runs We're aroused
to their duty in protecting the travel
ing public from such risks. and it
would certainly seem that the COM
pany was wise in its refusal to arbi-
trate. and in its desire not to take
back into its employ any of these men,
who are either directly or indirectly
responsible for these outrages.
The travelling public and the prop
erty of the railroad company are GER
tainly entitled to protection and until
adequate measures are taken to re-
press this kind of disorder, the longer
it will be before normal conditions
are restored in either passenger or
freight train service.