Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1907-04-18
RAILROAD NEWS
Read This But Don't Think Of the
Audubon Branch While Doing So

NedQ Ills bul DUu mink Ol Lne
Audubon Branch While Doing So
~ have been down in the country
few days visiting the farm and folks,
and incidentally, have mother fill up
my lard bucket. Not with the idea of
having anyone impose on mother un-
derstand; l will say that if it's neces-
sary to go down there you take the 7:20
a. IN. G. r. 1. q p. for Indianola then
when you get there, all you have to do
is to wait for ten or fifteen hours for the
G. b. 4 @. OF course there is a remote
possibility that you may be able to
catch the morning @ out of Indianola
for Charlton but they try not to let
such a thing happen; the Q is sche-
duled to leave Indianola few minutes
before the Rock Island arrives.
You see the c. B. & @. and the Rock
Island do not speak at Indianola. 1t
is living fact that if you go down to
Indianola in the morning, there is no
way of escaping before seven or eight
o'clock p. m. unless you go back home.
Now here is something that | have
never heard mentioned, it is suspicion
of mine-there is mystery about that
Indianola branch of the Q. | do not
mean to state it as fact, but am led
to believe it is a derelict. That branch
was laid out about twenty-seven years
ago Some say the line was surveyed
after dark by a gang that were intoxi-
Gated; others, and l believe the better
posted, say that the line was started
from Charlton with the ultimate notion
of reaching Indianola and they run it
wherever they could get strip donated
Il 1.,r F,,. ,s.rl,f of
poses. If that road was stretched out
| it would overlap Indianola and would
easily run into the Union depot at Des
Moines. / have known this branch
of the @ quite intimately since it's in
ception and / have seen many things
which have gradually led me to believe
that the road is derelict.
1t is not my intention, like writer's
of fiction, to work up case and then
spring climax. l will spring my
climax first. am this way: when my
suspicious are aroused I cannot rest
until | have verified them. [ have
never tried to trace down a railroad
and get at its antecedents, but it struck
me the proper way would be to go to
headquarters for information. / know
how useless it is to try to deal with
captains of industry unless there is
money in sight; so / wired the follow
ing message:
James j. Hill, II Wall Street, N. Y,
/ What are your bottom figures on
the Indianola branch?
]. F. Conrad,
r. f. ID. No. Lucas, Iowa.
l awaited an answer with good
deal of repressed nervous excitement;
in the event Hill set price, what
would / do? Along in the afternoon
l received the following message:
j. F. Conrad, Lucas, Iowa, r. f. d. l.,
Never heard of the Indianola
branch. What is it like? Are you US
ing cipher? ESQ., explain.
]. j. Hill, N. Y.
This was enough to satisfy me that
Hill was completely in the dark about
the existence of the Indianola branch
I had been taught to believe that the
c. b. 4 Q belonged to the Hill system
yet might be mistaken. Well, as it
did not cost much, and not being fully
satisfied, | concluded to tackle Harri-
man, so l sent him the following
despatch:
E. HI. Hartman, N. Y, Corner l4th
and Broadway Sts., "What will you
take for the Indianola branch includ-
ing rolling stock?"
j. Conrad,
r. +. ID. No. Lucas, Iowa.
In short time | received the fol-
lowing message:
j. +. Conrad, Lucas, Iowa, r. F. D.,
What in hell are you and Jim Hill
up to? He asked the same question
not am hour ago Are you giving me
your right name? Is r. +. ID. degree
or foreign title?
e. III. Hartman.
This left no doubt in my mind the
Indianola branch was DERELICT.
That the persons in charge were oper-
ating it for what they could make out
of it without going to any expense.
During my acquaintance with this
branch, on two separate occasions there
has been an attempt made by the
assessors to assess the rolling stock OF
theory that it was attached to the
ground, this in itself looked bad ;. no
the trains on the Indianola branch
move too often and too fast to be fix
lures. :. Only once in the last thirteen
years has train arrived at Indianola
ON TIME and on that occasion the de-
pot was locked and the office force at a
ball game between the college boys and
nine from Milo-they were not ex-
pecting the train. The ofiense has
never been repeated.
There has never been any section
+. men employed on the road to my
knowledge And today and for years,
there is a place just below Ackworth
where the train always stops. 1 took
. a look. There was one of the train
men with an old wagon tongue for q
!, lever and stone for fulorum holding
up a section of the north rail while the
train pulled across. After asking one
of the operators several times about
. when the train would arrive, l was
, told that by keeping an eye up the
; track could not miss it.'
: have also noticed that the train
: men never use signals and when they
want anything they yell one te
another. For this reason the engineer
often has to stop so he can hear what
is wanted. In this way he will stoI
and pull up again three or four times
before he hits the station inst ripht