The hardest rain storm known for years struck the Wabash west of Jacksonville Sunday night, causing fearful damage to railroad property. At Bluffs and between Valley City and Griggsville on the west side of the Illinois river the storm assumed the proportions of a cloud burst. Between Valley City and Griggsville on the Hannibal 2,000 feet of track is off the right of way and 1,000 feet has disappeared altogether. A dozen bridges are wholly or partially gone. The official report of Superintendent Garrett says that bridges No. 513, 514, 515, 522 and 523 are gone; also three one-arch culverts leaving two 60-foot openings and an opening 120 feet long by 25 feet deep. No. 511 lost four bents, No 512 all three; 517 and 518 all bents.

The damage extended over a distance of five miles.

East of Bluffs, between Bluffs and Morgan, 300 yards of track were washed out. While this was not nearly so serious as the washouts further west, it was imperative that this be first repaired, because it interrupted traffic on both the Quincy and Keokuk lines as well as the line to Hannibal.

Nothing could be done toward repairs till the water subsided but early yesterday morning a force of sixty section and bridge men was put to work and shortly after 9 o'clock the track was in condition for trains to pass over. The line from Bluffs to Quincy and Keokuk was not hurt.

Train No. 2 from Hannibal arrives, at Bluffs at 7:45 where it connects with No. 2 from Quincy, which stops at Bluffs thirty minutes for supper. The train from Hannibal turns at Bluffs and goes back as No. 1. When No. 1 reached Valley City on the return it found track which it had passed over less than an hour before gone.

As train No. 2 left the station at Bluffs to continue its journey to Decatur a section hand stood in the center of the track waist deep in water flagging the train. It was impossible to pass. The train backed into the yards and the passengers went to bed. The train got away from Bluffs at 9:05 yesterday morning and arrived in Decatur at 12:35 yesterday afternoon, a little over twelve hours late.

Train No. 8, the Buffalo mail, was detoured by way of Quincy over the "Q" and came thence over the Wabash tracks arriving here at 1:25 yesterday afternoon.

Train No. 4 arrived here at 1:26 p.m. Train No. 9 west was detoured from Bluffs to Quincy and thence to Hannibal over the, "Q."

All the energy of the Wabash yesterday was centered on the speedy repair of the damage done by the storm. Superintendent Garrett hurried to the scene yesterday morning, as did Trainmaster Swigart, General Roadmaster Shelah and Superintendent Strain of the bridge and building department. The massing of section and bridge men was not unlike one mobilizing an army. All the available men from the Middle division were gathered up and hurried to that point. The pile driver was sent there and also train loads of piling and bridge timbers. A requisition was made for the pile driver and quantities of material from the Western division, and these were promptly furnished. The men had to be fed on the ground and very considerable commissary arrangements had to be made. Hinges were procured in Decatur, additional bending cars, fitted up and quantities of provisions, were shipped. On the whole it was a busy day for Chief Dispatcher Kramer and his various. assistants as well as for the officers and men who were at the scene of the trouble. It is a principle of the Wabash to furnish plenty for the men to eat, but there will be little opportunity for them to sleep till the damage is repaired. Just how long this will take is impossible to tell, but it is hoped that enough men can be used to have it open for traffic tonight.

O. F. Clark. chief dispatcher of the Chicago division went to Baylis, a station west of Bluffs on Sunday to attend the funeral of an employee of the Chicago division. Mr. Clark was on train No. 2 returning and saw much of the storm. It was raining when he took the train at Baylis and the train ran through a heavy storm of rain and hail to Bluffs. The conductor said that it had been so since he left Hannibal. It appeared that the storm moved with the train. Their first information that any damage had been done was when they started to leave Bluffs. The water had risen ten feet in twenty minutes and was running over the track. In thirty minutes it was four feet higher. Even in the yards the water swept in a torrent over the track. In going from the train to the hotel an umbrella afforded scarcely protection enough to be worth carrying. From the hotel window one could look out over acres of water.

One of the most striking evidences of the storm was a corn field containing perhaps ten acres. The corn was up and had been plowed once. Yesterday morn­ing the ground was swept bare to the depth of the original breaking, perhaps eight or ten inches. Over a sma11 stream near Bluffs six iron wagon bridges were washed away, even the abutments.

The Wabash people congratulate themselves that no damage to trains occurred. There were abundant facilities for a wreck of the worst kind, but luck favored the trains on that portion of the road and none got into any of the washouts.