Fergus County Democrat. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-1919, 1907-04-30
LIVE NEWS OF
The RAILROADS
No Doubt As to Intention of Great
Northern Concerning Building
Line to Lewistown.
FAST WORK ON MAIN LINE
Expected to Have Road Practically
Completed BY Next Fall-An-
other Line for Montana.

Very little reliable railroad news
Of any sort could be raked up around
the city this week although that is
the chief topic of discussion among
the business men.
There is now feeling Of certainty
among those i'll position to judge
accurately that all talk Of Lewistown
being passed up by the Burlington
Great Northern is without much
foundation. The greater part of sur
vey into this place has already been
made and it will be completed this
summer. 1t is undoubtedly the in
tention of the Great Northern to COM
plete the line between Billings and
Great Falls before starting on the
Lewistown branch.
Surveyors Called OF.
From all appearances the Great
Northern has abandoned its intention
Of constructing the proposed Lewis
Kendall branch Of the Billings
& Northern railroad and the engineer
ing party which has for several weeks
been engaged in running line be-
tween the two points has been called
off the work says the Sunday Great
Falls Tribune
In connection with the construction
of the Billings & Northern the Great
Northern has made its surveys on in
to LewistoWn and there is no doubt
but that this section OF the work will
be taken UP Immediately after the
construction OF the main line
Several weeks ago party Of sur
veyors was put to work between
Lewistown and Kendall for the pur-
pose of surveying branch line into
the latter mining camp. Yesterday
orders were issued to this party of
engineers to cease work May l.
Whether this suspension OF the
survey work is permanent or only
temporary is not known here but it
is believed to be temporary
The work of laying track on the
Billings & Northern from the Ar
mington end of the line, which was
to have been started a week ago, was
delayed on account of the shortage
of the tie supply. The arrival of this
class of material has been slow ana
has had the effect Of holding back
that part of the work.
F. M. OBrien, superintendent of
for Guthrie & Co., the
head contractors, who was in the city
yesterday, stated that track laying
would commence in few days, prob
ably on Monday
There is already many cars Of ties
i'll the storage yards at Armington
and more are passing through this
city daily for that point. However,
as about Is cars of ties are needed
every day to allow the work to pro-
ceed without any delays the con-
tractors do not care to start the
work until they are satisfied that they
have on hand an ample supply to
prevent any stoppage in construction.
According to Mr.. O'Brien the
grade of the line from Arlington to
the Arrow creek summit is practically
SO that no delay to the
laying of track will be occasioned
from that source.
Construction work at the Billings
end of the line is being pushed and
large force of men and teams, aid
I'd by steam shovel, is at work at |
laurel constructing immense yards
or the use of this line
Billings Will Boom.
Billings is scheduled to be one of
he principal stopping places of a
ranscontinental train, which the
treat Northern and Burlington rail
Dads contemplate running from St.
-ouis to Seattle and Portland, juss
IS soon as the Billings & Northern
abroad is completed, says the Bill
ings Gazette.
1t is the intention of the Hill in
erests, according to information that
las leaked out from official sources,
o have one of the finest equipped
'assenger trains in the world start |.
t St. Louis, run through Kansas
,ity, Omaha and Lincoln over the
Burlington into Billings. From here
will run over the newly construct
d Billings & Northern railroad into
treat Falls, Montana, and then over
he Great Northern railroad into Il
seattle and Pacific coast points. It