Mexico Missouri message., 1900-07-26
THE ALTON r. X.
Spending IS Million Dollars
For improvements.

FOR n year u new fallrodu nus
been building towards Kansas
City. Its progress has not been
hearaldcd in the newspapers or
placardcd on dead wall, but stead
lily aud persistently with modern
methods and modern machinery the
task has been pushed, until now it
is nearly done and Kansas City is
about to be welded to Chicago and
st. Louis with new transportation
bonds. The new, the reviviiied
Chicago & Alton railway is the ear
rier of freight and of passengers
which is knocking confidently for
admission at the gates of Kansas
City. It is true that for twenty
years the Chicago 4 Alton has OPP
Grated trains between Chicago, St.
Louis and Kansas City, but the
new Chicago 4 Alton is rs differ
ent from the old us is the present
Kansas City from the ragged, dirty
business settlement which strug-
gled feebly southwark from the
levee II quarter of Il century ago.
This is what the management Of
the Chicago & Alton has been do
ing for year:
Spending - million dollars ON
improvements, including the fol-
lowing:
Building and ballasting n new
roadbed between Kansas City, st.
Louis and Chicago.
Reducing grades to minimum.
Strengthening the track.
Replacing the old 60-pound rails
with new S0-pound steel.
Substituting stone culverts and
steel bridges for wooden structures
all over the syctcm.
Putting in new oak ties.
Purchasing the heaviest and
most modern styles of locomotives
and ears.
The Improvement work on the
Chicago 4 Alton will not be entire
ly finished until next spring, but
when it is done it will be as new a
railroad us if the ties, rails and as
much of the rolling stock of the
old system had been taken up and
thrown into the Missouri River
The only old thing used by the AL
ton in its rehabilitation has been
the right of way, and even part
of that has been discarded in the
elimination of curves and the
quest of easy grades. When the
work is done the Chicago & Alton
will be the peer of any railroad i'll
the world and its management vii
carry out plans now formulating
for new and fast passenger and
freight service between the tire,
great cities which form its termini
For the sake of its revenue, the
Alton must have close traffic rela.
tons with other railroads with
outlets to the seaboard, but it,
western terminus will remain al
Kansas City.
When the Chicago 4 Alton rail
road was built time was an impOr'
tant feature of the construction
contracts. Other lines were speed
ing toward the West and none
wished to be last in the race. En-
gineers sought the lines of leasI
resistance in laying out the routes
of railroads and expensive con
struction work was avoided by not
making the line run just rs straigh
as it later was made to appear OF
the map. The Alton railroad was
built just rs well as any of the
railroads of twenty five years ago
but new conditions and demands
have arisen in the meantime which
the Alton decided to meet. Rate.
for the transportation of freight
and passengers have steadily de
creased during recent years AM
the railroads have been forced {,
figure on ways and means to re
duce the cost per mile of transport
ing each ton. Cars with n capaci
ty of 40 to 80 tons each and loco
motives which would haul from 4
to 100 of these ears loaded, wer,
introduced, but it was found tina
such heavy equipment could not b
used on lines with light track, sharI
l \