Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-02-02
A LILLIPUT RAILWAY.

Inc champion Lilliputian railway of
the country is located at Anderson, Ind.
lts right of way is through the back
yards. and its president, who is the
Youngest railway magnate in the United
States, is only 4 years old.
The name of the road is the Dillon
trunk line. The rolling stock, as vet.
is somewhat Incomplete, but the shops
nave equipment under construction.
me motive power consists of a two
drlVe-Wheel engine, No. s. The roadbed
is well ballasted and the heavy 3X3 inch
hickory track is securely held on good
cross-tles. Following the first methods
OF railway building, strips of steel are
laid on top of the hickory rails, and the
3O0-pound engine '~"scUOtS' over them
with the grace of a swan in a duck pond.
Engine No. s is a model of perfection,
and is undoubtedly one of the smallest
practical engines in the world. She goes
at a good gait over her twenty linen gauge
track and can be easily started and
stopped by her 4-year-old engineer. She
IS now undergoing some changes which,
when completed, will put her ahead of
big locomotives. She will burn crude oil,
which will be a great convenience. From
the ground to the top of her smokestack--
her highest pOint-she measures but So
inches, and from the point Of her cow
catcher to the end of the running board
back of the tender she is less than six
feet in length. Her four drive wheels
are but eighteen inches high and her
boiler is about three feet in length.
She has a head light, which lights up
fifty feet of the track, and her cabin,
With its levers and valves, is just large
enough for James William Edward Dill
lion. her 4-year-Old engineer, who is
also president, manager, conductor, fire.
man, brakeman and grand bounce of the
train, and foreman and section man of
the entire stretch of track. He is a ''prac-
teal man in every department and dis
plays most remarkable executive and
mechanical ability.
billions Trunk line does a monster
business after school hours. All of the
children in the western part of the city
gather along the right of way. The
conductor has run a corner on all of
the pins in Hardwood addition. He
charged ten pins a ride for some time,
until he had every p~incushion in his
part of the city bankrupt. and then he
condescended to remove the tariff and
let his customers ride for their good
fellowship. He stands we'll with all of
the young women for miles around,
and he is the genuine heart smasheI
of the bloody third ward" because he
has a railroad behind him.
J. A. Dillon, the power behind the
throne, is a wire drawer at the Ameri-
can Wire Nail mills, and formerly lived
in Covington, Ky. He is in no sense
a mechanic or an engineer. About a
year ago he began building a locomo-
tive just for fun. The Dillon home is
located near the tracks of the Indiana
Midland, and he took the passing en-
gines as his models. He worked over
two months, spending all of his spare
time at the bench and in the foundry
He had many of the parts specially
cast, and when he finished his work
he had considerable money wrapped up
in the 300 pounds of locomotive.
She was painted neatly and the master
mechanic then turned his attention to
right of way and to the track. How well
he has succeeded in his work is evidenced
by the great crowds of people attracted
to his line. Not only children, but men
and women of mature years come to take
a ride on the Dillon Trunk line"