Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1887 — More of The Monon's Many Misfortunes. [ARTICLE]

More of The Monon's Many Misfortunes.

The I. I. & I. and €. &, I. C. Railways also Fare Badly. It is worse and more of it on the L., N A- AC. Railway this week. Not a through train passed this place from last Saturday night, until Tuesday .night. The cause of this interruption was several bad washouts on the road-bed, near the Kankakee river. The waters of that stream' Have been highest known for years, and as a consequence a great deal of water has been diverted into the i marsh north of the river, and this | has overflov-ed the track just north !of Shelby and several very bad I washouts have occurred. The i length of these, in the aggregate, must have been several hundred i feet, at least. The railroad men made the most strenuous efforts to repair the breaks, but the current lo£ water through them was so great as, for a time, to baffle all their ; efforts. If they succeeded in repaira break the crowding waters would soon break through in a new jdace. The method adopted in repairing the washouts has been to pile in vast quantities of baled hay, and upon this to lay heavy stones' and then smaller stones, gravel Ac. It is probable that upwards of 15 or 20 car loads of hay have been used in these efforts to repair the roadbed. ' The regular trains to and from ’ ChicagrT have been running over the Nickel Plate, as far as Wanatah, on the old line of the L. N. A. ■& C. Mail and express matter for Rensselaer has been brought from Monon on the locfd freight which went as .far as Fair Oaks, or on the construction and repair trains which happened to run over the road.

The washouts were finally repaired on Tuesday and yesterday the trains were again running ularlyThe waters which broke through the L., N. A. <t C. above Shelby also caused a big washout in the track of thp Three lApad, a few miles further west, 'fl? The newly built roW-bed of the Fair Oaks and LaCrosk extension of the C. A l. C. has also Buffered very badly from the high waters; inuch worse; in fact, than either of ihe other roads. In truth, if rumorhas not greatly exaggerated, the amount of damage that road has sustained,; there is very little left of it now except the right-of-way and a fe\v streaks of iron rust. -And ti:cro is no question but that the road has fared veiy badly, and vast stretches of the road-bed been washed away. From Wilders to Ln Cross, north of the river, it has been swept away entirely for a distanceof over three miles; while on this side, of Wilders, for many miles on both sides of the nver, reports agree in declaring that the j damage has been very great.