Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1906 — C. I. & E. RAILROAD MAY YET COME. [ARTICLE]

C. I. & E. RAILROAD MAY YET COME.

Proposed Road Passes Through Medaryville and Wheatfeld.

CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT LET And Work On South End of Line Will Soon Begin, According to Indiannpolls Papers. Saturday’s Indianapolis papers contained lengthy mention of the proposed Chicago, Indianapolis and Evansville railroad which has been surveyed from Tolleston, lnd., where the great steel trust is going to put in an immense iron works, through Wheatfield, Medary ville and other Indiana cities to the Ohio river. In brief, the plan contemplates tbe construction of a main line from Chicago to Evansville, with branches from Crownpoint to Toleston, from Logansport to South Bend and from Boonville to Owensboro, Ky. The main line will penetrate Warrick and Pike counties, where the company owns 60,000 acres of coal land; Martin county, where the company owns 10,000 acres of good ore land, and Monroe and Lawrence conn* ties where the company haß vast interests in the ooitio limestone regions. The coal, ore and stone properties have been acquired by tbe company recently. Experts are now at work in these mineral fields ascertaining the value and extent of their hidden resources. Starting from Blue Island, the proposed line of the road passes through Crownpoint, Leroy, Wheatfield, Medaryville, Pulaski, Anoca Junction, Walton, Russiaville, Kempton, Sheridan, Efuletown and New Augusta, The main line does not pass through Logansport, but that city ft reached by a loop four miles long. It was impossible, the promoters say, to enter Logansport with the main line and preserve the threetenths grade, which is desired above everything else in order that heavy hauls may be made with the modern type of locomotives. . The Indianapolis Sentinel, in part, says of the road: Within a short time representatives of the Chicago, Indianapolis and Evansville Railroad will appear before tbe Indianapolis Board of Works to ask permission to lay tracks across various streets of the city. The new railroad was incorporated last September and is intended to run from Evansville through the coal and stone districts of Southern Indiana to Indianapolis and Chicago. The Evansville - Indianapolis line is to be first constructed. It is said the distance from Indianapolis to Evansville will be reduced sixteen miles. The railroad distance from Indianapolis to Chicago is to be reduoed nine miles. Tho Carter Construction Company has the contract for constructing the road. It is asserted that the company ia to be entirely independent and will not be a part of tbe Wabash system, as prevoiusly reported. At Tolleston, where the United States Steel Corporation plans to establish a huge 10,000,000 plant the road will have a principal northern terminal. The Indianapolis terminal will be at Washington and Missouri-sts., where ground for a station* has already been purchased. The promoters assert that most of the right-of-way has been secured and that construction will commence early in 1907. A branch of the road will enter Indiauapolis from the main line at Tibbs-ave. and twelfth-st. With deep water at both the southern ana northern terminals of their road, the think they will be able to conduct a carrying business that will prove immenselv profitable. Eighteen hnndred feet of water front has been obtained at Evansville for docks and wharves, it is stated. With its three-tenths maximum grade and a maximum ourvature of only three degrees, the company expects to be able to haul 3,500 tons with the modern type locomotive, as against 1,800 or ' 2,000 tons hauled by any other .I ':'.

company. Tbe new road will make the distance from Evansville to Indianapolis 164 miles, and from Indianapolis to Chicago 175 miles. Fast passenger trains are to run from this city to Chicago, in four and a half hours. The promoters say the road will be first-class in every particular, with eighty pounds steel rails, white oak ties, rock and gravel ballast, and equipment that will be perfectly modern in every respect. The promoters of the company plan to operate branches from Crown Point to Toleston, from Logansport to South Bend and from Booneville to Owensburg, Ky. The main line will penetrate Warren and Pike counties where the company owns 60,000 acres of coal land; Martin, Monroe and Lawrenoe, where big quarries exist.