The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1911-05-18
ROCK ISLAND BUILDING
The New Short Line Between Car
Isle and AlIerton IS to be Com
pleted by August lst, 1922.

The contract for the 6S miles of
new Rock Island road which will
pass through Charlton, was let last
week to Macarthur Bros. Company,
of New York and Chicago. This firm
established Offices in Charlton last
week, renting the Lee Willoughby
cottage west of the Clarinda Poultry
Co. plant, because they could not
find suitable Offices vacant on the
square. Mr.. F. c. Hitchcock, of New
York, vice president and manager of
the company, Mr.. Dennis Madden, of
Chicago, general superintendent of
the company, and Mr.. C. c.. Tinker,
who will be superintendent in charge
here, all are in Charlton, and will
have their Offices here until the new
line is completed. They will have un-
til August 1st, 1912, to complete the
grading, but if they have good wealth
er they will finish the work by the
first of next February. Most Of the
work is heavy grading, the line being
the heaviest work of a similar length
in Iowa. There will be many bridges
and culverts, besides i1numerable
fills, as the line runs at right angles
to most of the streams along the
route. The larger bridges will be of
concrete and steel, and the smaller
ones that are to be filled in with dirt
eventually will be of wood. Mr. Hitch
cock estimates that about 5000 men,
1900 teams and ten steam shovels
will be engaged in the work. Most of
the work will be let to sub-contractors
and they will begin work at once.
Dirt may be flying in several places
within a week, as the right of way is
practically all secured, and all of the
eS miles has been subcontracted for
except one stretch of eight miles.
Macarthur Bros. have sublet the
% miles between Charlton and Al
lerton to J. p. Atkisson & Son, of
Omaha; II miles north from Chari-
ton and IA miles northwest from Dali
las to E. A. Wickham & Co., of Coun-
Gil Bluffs; and the first nine miles
south of Carlisle to Yale & Reagan,
OF Chicago. The steam shovel work
IL the vicinity of Charlton, including
the large cut under the Burlington
tracks in the southeast part of town,
and the large cut one mile north of
town, has been sublet to E. N. Mat
thews & Co., of Davis, Okla.
This covers the whole line except
one stretch of heavy steam shovel
work in the vicinity of Dallas, and a
short stretch or two elsewhere, which
will be done mostly by Macarthur
Bros. themselves. =
j. c. Dunn, of Chicago, has the con-
tract for all concrete, bridging and
timber work.
The Macarthur Bros. contract calls
for the right of way to be finished
ready for the ties and rails, but the
actual work of laying will not be
done by them.
The Macarthur firm has just COM
pleted a large contract of 10 miles
for the Burlington road, in the Wind
River Valley, of Wyoming.
There will be but three town
touched by this 6S miles of new
Rock Island line-Corydon, Charlton
and Dallas. Allerton and Carlisle will
be the terminals, and there will prob
ably be two new towns established,
one between Charlton and Corydon,
and the other in the northeast part
OF Lucas county.
Mr.. Beach and his party of snr-
Veyors have rented q cottage just
north of the Bates residence, and
will have their headquarters here to
represent the Rock Island during
the building of the railroad. Mr..
Hanson and part of the party will
have. a camp between Charlton and
Corydon. The line north from Chari-
ton will be taken care of by another
party.
A large number of grader wagons !
and some grading machinery manu-
tactured by the T. S.. Stroud Co., at
Omaha, has already been unloaded
here, part of it for delivery to con-
tractors and part of it for advertis-
ing purposes. 1t is stored on the va
vacant lots just west of the Herald
Patriot Office
The sub-contractors named above
will sublet part of their work the
second time so as to insure the COM
pletion of the grading on contract
Herald-Patriot.