from page 96 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD:

In less than a year, the new railroad had burrowed its blunt nose over the hills and hollows northeast of Aven, and on through town. Its construction had appeared briefly on Basin Street (East Main St), a shouting, brawling, drunken, working, heaving spider with many heads, and then gone on, dragging behind a straight and shining web of steel. Every day now, bigger and blacker engines brought ties and rails and spikes to throw out in front of a new railroad.