Hay All,
Sorry it did n't make it to the files, I figured out how to get it
here.
Larry
RAILWAY WAS BUILT THE HARD WAY BACK IN 1902
By John R. Adney
Thomson---When they built the Ashdale and Thomson Railway back in
1902-03, they did it the hard way---with pick and shovel, teams of
horses, hand scrapers and clamshell wagons.
Financed and constructed by the Chicago, Milwaukee and St.
Paul Railway Co., the Ashdale and Thomson consisted of 15.1 miles
of single-track, strandard-gauge steam railroad, extending from
Ashdale to Ebner, ILL
Ashdale, near Savanna, and Ebner, near Thomson were railroad
stations. Little remains of the buildings now.
Tim Rafferty, a colorful Irish teamster on Chicago's west side---
whose father had been a track foreman on the Chicago-Byron segment of
the main line when it was under construction in 1872-75, came west
just in time to go to work for the Ashdale and Thomson.
"A dollar a day for the team, plus their oats, and a dollar a day
plus board for myself," he said.
Rafferty worked an entire season and waited nearly another year for
his pay.
"As long as the railroad fed us and the horses, they said we didn't
need any money. We couldn't take time off to spend it anyway," he
said.
Grading and filling were done entirely with horses. The work was
hard, and many of the overworked animals were buried in the fill
along the right of way.
Several miles south of Ashdale, construction workers encountered a
wide, deep swamp. Hundreds of loads of rock and gravel were dumped
on the soggy ground, but the fill settled out of sight as fast as it
could be dumped.
Rafferty, recalling that his father had experienced the same
situation while building the Chicago-Byron line, suggested that
trees be cut and placed at right angles to the track, to make a kind
of mat. Dirt and gravel were dumped on top, and the mat sank into
the swamp until it hit a firm foundation. Then additional dirt,
gravel, and sand were added to bring the fill up to grade.
The idea worked again. Rafferty was promoted on the spot and placed
in charge of a track-laying crew.
Once, there was an exciting time. A locomotive, moving over a soft
fill, toppled into a deep ditch. The locomotive landed bottom side
up with only the driver sticking up out of the mud and water.
Scanty records of the Ashdale and Thomson give no clue as to whether
or not the locomotive was salvaged?..who knows? Perhaps it's still
out there.
George A. Thomson, for whom the village of Thomson was named, and
principal stockholder and director of the Ashdale and Thomson,
witnessed the driving of the last spike at Ebner, on July 10, 1903.
The only "hot shot" to pound the rails of the Ashdale and Thomson
was a steam locomotive and a string of flat cars that chugged over
the line to pick up surplus construction materials and equipment.
The Lillputian line was deeded to the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St.
Paul Railway Co. July 20 and consolidated into that
railroad's "river line" between Ashdale and East Moline.
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