The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1920-03-09
EFFORT TO OPEN
CHATHAM ROAD
UNSUCCESSFUL
Men Worked Till Midnight Clear
ing Ice From Rails
PLoW STUCK AT ANTHONY
Line Continues Closed Beyond Flag
Station West Of Old Bennington
Village 1Pl sr
PLoW STUCK AT ANTHONY

Forty men, taken from the traction
gang, the freight office clerks and
others gathered here in the village
worked until midnight in an effort
to clear the track of the Chatham tdi-
vision of the Rutland railroad over
which no trains have run since last
Friday. An effort is being made to
open the line as far as Petersburg
Junction even though it may be
necessary to leave the section be-
tween that point and Chatham closed
for the present. M ssss
The snowplow that attempted to
go over the line yesterday AS at An
thony crossing, something over a mile
west of Old Bennington, and Is in
partially crippled condition. The
plow went off the track at the Main
street crossing yesterday forenoon
and again at Dewey street. After be-
ing hauled back upon the track it was
pushed over the steep grade by two
locomotives only to bang into an OBJ
struction of ice and snow at the An
thony crossing and again leaving the
rails.
llCtul " tiC fhAae,V III iCNH-
motives picked up caboose load of
shoyelers and returned late in the
afternoon. The best that the shovel
ers could do was to clear about sixty
feet of track in the cut near the
Jewett farm. Underneath from two
to four feet of snow the shovelers
found from four to six inches Of ice
encrusted upon the rails and picks
were needed to clear the obstruction.
The shoveler gang returned to the
village at an early hour this morning
and after daylight the locomotives
again went over the hill" to begin
the task of pushing the plow through
to Petersburgh Junction, il possible.
When the plow went OFF from the
rails at the Main street crossing yes
terday it narrowy escaped running
into the house on the east side of the
track. It made kindling wood OF the
fence alongside the track and when
it stopped it was upon the concrete
bridge put in last summer over
Dewey brook. Formerly the stream
at this point was spanned by an old
style pile trestIe Had this structure
been in existence yesterday the plow
would have pitched over the side into
the brook. A railroad man who wit
messed the accident remarked as'That
concrete bridge paid for itself to-
day"
1t has been reported here that the
snowplow that attempted to clear the
road to Chatham Saturday managed
to proceed as far as O-d Chatham
where it stuck in a drift. A relief
train of shovelers sent out from Step
hentown failed to reach the plow and
likewise became stalled. The milk
train which runs from Alburg to New
York and which passes over the Chat
ham division has not been operated
since Friday. The last run was that
of the empty cars which on their
northbound run went off the track At
Dorset and blocked the main line of
the Rutland road for the remainder of
the day.
The members of the Berlin high
school basketball team whoF came
here for a game Friday evening With
the Bennington high school five, are
still in the village. There is no pos
sible way for them to reach their
homes as the only railroad running
Il into Berlin is blocked at both ends