Rutland Road 2nd Edition By Jim Shaughnessy w/ dust jacket

The Rutland Road 2nd Edition By Jim Shaughnessy  

Hard Cover with dust jacket 

Copyright 1964, 1981

436 pages  indexed

Contents

chapter page

1. BURLINGTON — BOSTON OR BUST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Early railroad plans for connecting the Atlantic seaboard with the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Differences between Follett and Paine  Chartering of the Champlain & Connecticut and the Vermont Central 

Fight between the two roads for financing Infiltration of "spies" into each other's organizations 

Construction of the Champlain & Connecticut  Reorganization of Champlain & Connecticut into Rutland & Burlington Company The race for the mail contract

Opening of the line and attendant festivities >

First schedules Connections with other roads

2. BREAKTHROUGH AT BURLINGTON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Refusal of Vermont Central to connect at Burlington  Vermont Centrals connection with Vermont & Canada at Essex Junction, blocking the Rutland from a northern connection Entry of the Smiths in Vermont Central-Rutland fights Desperate plight of the Rutland for line-haul business  Court actions Vermont Central finally cooperates, but direct northern connection for the Rutland still far in the future.

3. THE HUNTED TRAPS THE HUNTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Reorganization of the Rutland and Burlington into the Rutland Railroad Company  Eastern and western connections > / f Connections with the new London Northern

Rutland threats to the Vermont Central's dominance of northern connections  Leasing of the Rutland by the Vermont Central.

4. MR. SMITH TAKES THE THROTTLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Recession and financial troubles for the Vermont Central.

 Connections to New York City More financial troubles  Reorganization of the Vermont Central into the Central Vermont Railroad D & H interest in the Rutland  Lease renewed  Still more financial troubles  Vermont Central control crumbles 

Delaware & Hudson stuck with the Rutland  Charles Clement takes over.

5. THE OLD AND LATE COMING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

The Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain story Inception and construction of Northern Railroad of New York

 Lake Champlain trestle to connect with Vermont & Canada / s 1 Steamboat opposition First refrigerator cars  Butter to Boston  Ships to Chicago Reorganization to form O&LC  Fenian War

Acquisition by the Vermont Central  The White Mountain Express Rail connections westward s Loss of traffic to the NYC & HR  Independent ownership returns 1Acquisition by the Rutland.

6. BRANCHING OUT . . . . . .. 75

Clement builds a strong Rutland f 1 s Acquisition of the Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain Trackage north through the Islands Southward extension to Chatham s The railroad wars The Bennington & Rutland  The Lebanon Springs Railroads.

7. YOUR MOVE, MR. VANDERBILT 101

Seward Webb, the Commodore's son-in-law, buys in / Percival makes a killing  The NE-HA-SE-NE comes to Vermont / s f The Rutland as Mr. Vanderbilt's pawn New equipment and prosperous times s s / The New Haven becomes an owner, too  The Panama Canal Act Prosperity goes with the ships.

8. UNCLE SAM TAKES OVER 125

The USRA The War takes its toll New power

Rehabilitation under the Transportation Act / Henry Ford's threat Industrial Revolution, but not on the Rutland Solid trains of milk Buses to Chatham A good quarter-century.

9. LONG MEET AT PROCTOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

The flood of '27 Milk wreck and narrow escape 

The Green Mountain Flyer saved Clarendon & Pittsford to the rescue Damage and reconstruction.

10. SAVE THE RUTLAND . . . . 147

The depression years   1 Decadence and ultimate receivership    Abandonment a possibility   Wage cuts under protest  1 "Save the Rutland" Club    Public support of reorganization    Shippers' pledges    Taxes forgiven    The Whippet    Strike threat F.D.R. says no  The War brings prosperity  1 Reorganization proposals  The Barlow plan   The Rutland Railway is born.

11. THE NEW ERA . . . . . . . 161

Caverly steps in Scrapping of steam and dieselization  New cars    Chatham branch abandonment    Passenger service dropped   1 Efficiency drive  Dividends paid . . . The future looks good.

12. REQUIEM . . .. . 185

Too much prosperity  Four years of profit Labor unrest    Adamant management Mounting costs and highway competition 1   Two divisions from three? The strike of 1960  year's reprieve    The strike of 1961    Negotiations futile    Application for abandonment s   ICC approval    Labor blocks abandonment.

13. EPILOGUE — A NEW ERA, BUT NOT FOR THE RUTLAND . . . . . . . 208

RUTLAND ALBUM  220

VERMONT ALBUM . . . . 330

GREEN MOUNTAIN ALBUM . . . . . 358

THE OBPA ALBUM . . . . . .382

ROSTER OF LOCOMOTIVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

 CHRONOLOGY OF THE RUTLAND RAILROAD . . . . . . . . 426

OPERATING RATIO 1900-1962 . . . . . . .428

POPULATION OF MAJOR TOWNS 1960 . . . . . . . . . . 430 

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

"The enterprise in which we are engaged, gentlemen, is one of great interest and importance not only to us, its stockholders, and the immediate region through which the road passes, but to the whole state of Vermont, to Boston, to all New England and New York. A country fertile in the productions of agriculture, and rich in minerals to an unparalleled extent is penetrated by this road and rendered accessible at all seasons of the year. By it the markets of the Atlantic are brought to our doors, and over it the trade and travel of the mighty West and Canada will find their outlet to all our great cities and towns."

Timothy Follett of Burlington, Vermont, was speaking, delivering his report as president to the first annual meeting of the stockholders of the Rutland & Burlington Railroad. It was not difficult for those present in the room to become infected by Follett's glowing optimism for on that January 12, 1848, the little city of Burlington was an isolated island in the vast frozen wasteland that stretched almost from the Atlantic shore to the Great Lakes. Walled off from the markets of Massachusetts and southern New England by the high escarpments of the Green Mountains, the trade of the Champlain valley was at most a seasonal thing, flourishing from May to November and dropping to a trickle with the first deep snows-of winter. To the west of Lake Champlain, northern New Yorkers were even more isolated.

Transportation, or the lack of it, had been a major problem ever since the first great influx of settlers following the War of 1812. The land was good along the valleys. The forested slopes would yield all the prime timber that could be cut, if it could reach the markets. Iron and marble lay in the hills for the taking, but the taking was a slow, laborious, and costly process. What trade there was in the Champlain valley was oriented to the accessible markets of Montreal and Quebec, a trade route altered somewhat when the opening of the Great Northern Canal between Whitehall and Troy began to siphon the riches of the valley down toward the Hudson and New York. But the magic promise of the Boston market beckoned. The Great Lakes trade was burgeoning, and the challenge was to join the two from the St. Lawrence River port of Ogdensburg across northern New York by the easy grades north of the Adirondacks, across the foot of Lake Champlain, and then somehow over the spine of Vermont to the Connecticut River valley.

The last was the challenge that stalled every plan for a grand canal through the 1820s, and there were many of them, inspired by the Great Northern and the "big ditch", the Erie. The most feasible of the canal surveys indicated that at least three hundred locks would be necessary to navigate Vermont, a situation to give pause even to the most dedicated canal promoter. It appeared that this promising land was doomed to lie in loneliness while progress passed it by along the Hudson and the Mohawk Rivers. The canal fever stayed alive, but the centers of capital exhibited an almost complete indifference. 

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