They first worked as laborers and helped to build an aqueduct in the Catskill Mountains.
Later, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad hired the company to make various improvements on its line from Milburn to Summit, New Jersey, including raising the roadbed, widening the curves, and eliminating grade crossings.
The railroad, which originally was powered by steam locomotives, was leased in 1910 to the Scranton Railway and subsequently electrified.
[4] In 1908-11, Burke's construction company built the easternmost 2.5 miles—"Section 1"—of the Lackawanna Cut-Off, the Lackawanna Railroad's immense project intended to create a high-speed rail line across the hills of northern New Jersey.
[5][6] During this project, John Burke left the partnership and joined Hyde-McFarlan, a New York-based firm that was building Section 5 of the Cut-Off;[7] the firm was renamed Hyde, McFarlan & Burke.