Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-08-29

it is to be south of the present line all
the way from Street to Sugar Creek
or where it crosses the Agency road
near the residence of B. Hermann, a
short distance east of Franklin Park.
At this point it crosses the present
right-ofway and goes to the north of
Agency road through Riverview addi-
tion and finally cuts through Franklin
Park and rejoins the present line
near the Morrell packing house.
The Grading.
The contract for preparing the grade
for the track layers has been let to
Flick & Johnson of Davenport. This
firm which has much work all over
the state and in other states, has sub
let much of the Burlington work to
other contractors. Peterson Brothers
are making much progress in the work
They have two gangs of about seventy
five men each working on two adjoining
hills. In this way they make two cuts
and three fills, for they fill On each side
of the hill on which the cut is made.
Their work has it's east end about a
mile from the Hermann place and is
about half mile long. Other SUBJ
contractors and other gangs under
Peterson Brothers work east Of this
point
Much of the grading work is done
with steam shovels, but not until there
is way prepared for the steam shovel
to be brought to the place. When that
condition prevails the work is all done
with men and horses, which costs more
but necessitates nothing like the build
ing of tracks for the steam shovel and
the cars used to carry away the dirt
from it.
The Excavator.
This is the kind of work being done
by Peterson Brothers and one of the
machines they use is most interesting.
1t is called an excavator. 1t is large
pillow suspended under a platform over
four wheels, on which platform stand
two men who operate the machine,
raising and lowering the plow and gov
erning the discharge of the dirt. For
this machine, instead of simply plow-
ing the ground, carries the dirt up to
a distance of about ten feet and loads
it into a wagon.
This is done by means of and endless
belt running on two rollers, one of
them located near the pillow and the
other in the air where the wagon may
drive under it to be loaded. AS the
dirt is loosened it falls upon the end
less belt and is carried up and dump
ed into the wagon which is loaded
while being driven along by the side o.
! the machine. Eighteen horses furnish
the power for the excavator, fourteen
in front and four behind. Two driver!
and two operators are required and the
time used to load one of the wagons
!: varies from thirty to fifty seconds &C
cording to the nature of the cut the
plow is able to make.
/ The wagons hold about one and one
i half yards of earth. They are spec
tally constructed, with three tires ant
a boX-like bed, the bottom smaller thai
the top. The driver controls leve
which dumps the load through the bot
tom of the box when the wagon arrives
at the riquired point
A Big Fill.
At Sugar Creek, on the Hermann
homestead, a seventy-two foot fill i
being made. This is the highest on
on the whole six miles of road. Her
a force of about thirty-five men ha
been working for nearly three month
on large double culvert, each part be
ing thirty feet in diameter, Thes
men are railroad employees, and tn
work is superintendent by Patric
Buckley, the railroad company's super
intendent of concrete work, Jane
Rowley, sub-foreman, handling tn
men This culvert is one of the lars
est ever built by the Burlington an
the building of it is necessarily an in
: portant piece of work, as it must b
sufficiently strong to held the emo
nous volume of dirt used in the fill
and besides that the weight of th
countless trains that will in the futur
run over the track above when tn
work is completed.
Wagon Road Changed.
Nearly all the way to Franklin Par
some grading has been done and on
!, can easily see the route that is to /
taken. The old Agency road is to /
, changed just east of the foot of Franl
lin Park hill, as the railroad compan
has bought the land where it now i
The wagon road will be north of tn
right-of-way and will climb the hi
/, more gradually than now.
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