Indianapolis Times, Volume 37, Number 98, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 August 1925 — Page 16

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BIG FOUR R. R. SHOPS BROUGHT TOWN IN WORLD Industry Employs 2,600 Men With Large Monthly Pay Roll. The Big Four Railroad repair shops at Beech Grove are ofie of the largest industries in or around Indianapolis, A total of 2,000 men, most of them, skilled work at the shops. The average monthly pay roll is $310,000. hen the shops were .built in 1907, Beech Grove was laid out. Many of the town's inhabitants work for the Big Four, but many others Jive in Indianapolis. Each evening at 4:30 the workmen swarm out of the gates in automobiles like bees leaving a hive. More than 300 autos have been counted at times, parked near the shops. The Beech Grove shops are the Second largest in the country, and the most modern in the world, Big Four officials say. They are the main repair plant of the Big Four system. Here engines, passenger cars and freight ears can be built from the ground up, though most of the work is repairing.

Ix*comotives Repaired . From sixty-five to seventy-five loci motives are repaired each month at the plant. There are traveling cran s in the buildings which can pick a giant locomotive, capable of tugging a mile of freight cars over a hill, right up and lift it over the tops of its mates. Some 300 freight cars go through the shops each month for repairs. About thirty of the 602 passenger cars owned by the Big Four are put in first class shape each month, also. The indoor floor space covers about eighteen acres, or a section of'land nearly as big as four city blocks in Indianapolis. Another 100 acres are being held in reserve for additions And there are miles and miles of tracks. Interesting Trip To an outsider, a trip through the shops is most interesting. Travelling on a straight line he has to walk 8680 feet to go through the building that’s more than a mile and a half. On the inside can be seen engines all tom up. Steel saws cut iron bars as swiftly as in a wood saw mill. Scrap iron gathered from all over the system is melted down Into iron bars, and soon bedoraes bolts or draw bars. Everythings is In a deafening roar, as the engines b&d cars are put in shape for the jToad again. Giant maheinery that awes a JtkOvice is handled with ease and l&ill by the grimy workman. There tea crane which picks up scrap iron by a magnet instead of a hook. There $3 the twenty-ton steam hammer which shakes the neighborhood when ft goes to work, which can be so ltdjusted that it will come down fun force .on an egg and only crack (he shell. And there are many other Interesting machines.

Beech Grove Transportation Servant for Fourteen Years jj Population Has Grown 1 9 000% During H This Period of Service X Beech Grove Traction Cos. “The Little Road That Serves in a Big Way”

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Booch Grove town board (left to right): Chairman Willard Tieen, W. S Newcomer and L.. L. Dukes

Haven for Sick anu f njured

The railroad officials are planning an exposition for some time in October, when Indianapolis business men will be shown through the shops to get first-hand information on how one of their biggest industries operates.

Compliments of the Kroger Grocery and Baking Cos.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Town Board Members

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St. Francis Hospital

ANNEXATION IS SEEN Citizen Points to Tactics hi Previous Tear. Annexation of Beech Grove to Indianapolis la a thing of the near fu-

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ture, is she opinion of one leading citizen of the town. “It Is inevitable,” he said. “Indianapolis reaches to within five blocks of our corporation line now. They had to go farther than that to take in University Heights, and I remember when there was a long stretch of woods between Irvington and the rest of the city, after Irvington was taken in.” When we get started advertising our town and let Indianapolis really know what a fine suburb we have here the city council will wake up and take us in.” Bess than 60 cents in silver was in circulation for each person in the United tSates July 1.

Citizens State Bank 4% on Savings General Banking, Insurance and Safety Deposit Boxes Beech Grove, Ind.

A v Real Sporting Goods Store Football & Basketball ,<j Guns & Ammunition ( Golf & Tennis W Wheel Toys 9ffihl /flNf TENTS —Liberal reM/tj duction on several tnuf/ ifir'ey lines to be discontinued Smith - Hassler - Sturm Cos. 219-221 Massachusetts Ave. 116 E. Ohio St.

Shirley Bros. Cos. FUNERAL DIRECTORS \ ' - 3 ' - ~~' S - Five Establishments in Indianapolis , 1 Main Offices 944 and 946 N. Illinois St. Phones, Circle 1918 and 1919 24 Hour Ambulance Service

CROSSING IS DANGEROUS Elimination of the dangerous thirteen track crossing of the Big Four railroad on Sherman Dr., is the ambition of Beech Grove -residents. The road crosses at Nigger Hill yards. The question will be up to the public service as the crossingsjies outside both Indianapolis and Beech Grove. The tracks branch out from the hump of an elevation 500 feet south of the road used in switching. It has been suggested the hump could be moved up north of the crossing, leaving only the one switch and the two main lines, which could be guarded by .a watchman.

See BERT WILHELM for Homes in the Holy Name Parish Beech Grove E-Z Payments Phone, Drexel 1386-R-3