On 29 July 1910, the Harrisburg Telegraph announced the awarding of contracts for the construction of the Midland Pennsylvania Railroad along with expectations as to when the work would begin:
Contract Awarded
The Pinkerton Construction Company of Philadelphia has been awarded the contact for the construction work on the Midland Pennsylvania Railroad, which will run from Millersburg to Ashland. It is expected that the grading will be completed by the first of the year, and everything is being put into shape for the starting of the construction work.
Dodge and Day, of Philadelphia, the engineers who will make the survey, have taken up headquarters at Millersburg, and as soon as this work is completed the Pinkerton Company will start the actual construction work. All the instruments for the surveying have been received in Millersburg.
This will give Dauphin County a new railroad which will run through the rich agricultural region north of the Lykens Valley, and when completed will bring Millersburg and the upper end of the county into close touch with the towns in the western Schuylkill anthracite field.
The road will run from Millersburg to Ashland by way of Killinger, Berrysburg and Gratz. The territory from Asland to Millersburg lies in a valley between ranges of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the line extending from the Susquehanna River in the west to the heart of one of the most productive coal regions in the State will be forty-four miles in length. It will make connections with the Northern Central at Millersburg and with the Philadelphia and Reading and the Lehigh Valley at Ashland.
After leaving Ashland the line passes directly through Gordon, Taylorsville, Mabel, Weishample, Hegins, Valley View, Sacramento, Springville, Gratz, Berrysburg, Killinger, and Millersburg. It will drain a population of about 200,000 people.
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News article from Newspapers.com.