Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1912 — RAILS BROKEN BETWEEN ROSELAWN AND THAYER. [ARTICLE]

RAILS BROKEN BETWEEN ROSELAWN AND THAYER.

Section Gangs Called Ont Saturday Evening to Replace 47 Breaks in Three Mlles of Road.

A track walker between Roselawn and Thayer Saturday afternoon located forty-seven broken rails in less than three, miles of track. Just why so many rails should break there and only a few at other places can not be figured out unless a poor lot of steel happened to be used there or a peculiar current of atmosphere caused the breakage. z At about 5 o’clock Saturday afternoon a call was sent here for Section Foreman James Norris and his gang to come to Roselawn and aid in replacing the broken rails. The Fair Oaks gang with Foreman Clawson and the Roselawn and Thayer gangs with Foreman Frank Lewis and Frank Fuller were also called out and the rails-were all replaced with new ones except three or four on which anglebars were used in time for the gangs to return here on the 11:05 night train, The steel which broke there is all comparatively new, having been laid only about three years ago. There has been much trouble with broken rails ever since the cold weather started and peculiarly it has gone in sections, three or four rails being broken in a space of a half mile some times and not another one broken for several miles. But no place has been so badly hit as the section between Roselawn and Thayer, where on Saturday rails would be found broken one after another. The block system there has been entirely put out of commission by the broken rails and could not be put into working condition until the rail joints were rewired to form the electrical current.