rc has the next question. He answered correctly with Kate Shelly. Sure, I also know the story about the disaster avoided, but rc, go ahead and recount the rescue. And ask the next question.
C&NW's bridge across the Des Moines River washed out in a flood in 1881. Kate Shelley was the daughter of the local section foreman. She crawled over the partially washed out bridge to flag down the Chicago Express. C&NW later gave her a job as the local agent. After she died in the teens the new steel bridge, still in use by UP, was named in her honor.
On to the next question. Two railroads shared a bridge near an international border. After one of the railroads was abandoned, the other created a detour route that crossed the border twice so it wouldn't be stuck maintaining the bridge on its own. Both railroads, and the detour route.
Is this detour route in use today?
DeggestyAs I recall, some other roads had baggage lounge cars--and there was no traffic through them on the part of people who just wander around on board a train.
B&O's Cincinnatian and other trains had a baggage snack bar lounge at the front of the coache section to serve those who didn't want to use the diner.
All of the track involved is still there, and the host road still owns it. When the detouring railroad was sold in the 1990s, the detour rights were given up.
Giant hints... The detouring railroad and its host road are mentioned in a recent post on the other thread - and the reason for the detour appeared recently in "Classic Trains."
Is the border with Canada and the USA tracks in Miinnasota?
Border is with Canada. USA tracks are in two states.
Minnesota one and N. Dekota the other?
daveklepper Minnesota one and N. Dekota the other?
Bit further east.
There was a picture of the bridge in a recent issue of Classic Trains.
OK, so I was wrong. The picture of the bridge was in the September issue of Trains, not Classic Trains.
It's got to involve CASO, right?
One of the Canadian railroads is involved. The entire detour was less than 12 miles long.
Was the railroad that was abandoned the Rutland?
Rgds IGN
narig01 Was the railroad that was abandoned the Rutland? Rgds IGN
It was. Now fill in the detour blanks.
IGN gets the next question for the partial answer. When the Rutland was abandoned, the Central Vermont chose to discontinue operation over the bridge and trestle between Rouses Pint NY and Alburgh VT. Instead CV's Rouses Point Sub operated from East Alburgh VT to Cantic QC and back to Rouses Point via the CN's former Canada Atlantic and Rouses Point lines. The operation was made a little more difficult since there was no connecting track in the SE corner of the crossing at Cantic. Traffic had dwindled to practically nothing by the late 1980s, so the rights over CN were not included in the sale of the Central Vermont to RailTex's New England Central in 1995.
I'm not sure what happened to my reply.
My guess was St Albans, Vt - Alburgh, Vt - Lacolle, Quebec - Rouses Point, NY. That was from looking at what remains today. (Mostly rusty rails).
In digging around the internet, I see that Wanswheel, Dave Klepper and you(rcdye) had a lively discussion last December on Central Vermont passenger trains.
I'll try to get a question posted tonite.
The IGN
A trivia question.
Congressman Oakes Ames had a steamship named after him while serving in congress. Name the railroad it was operated for and the two ports it served.
The "Oakes Ames" was a sidewheel steamer built in Burlington VT in 1868 for the Rutland Railroad for carferry operation between Burlington VT and Plattsburgh NY, where a connection was made with the Montreal and Plattsburgh, a Delaware and Hudson predecessor. Capable of carrying 14 36 ft freight cars, it was loaded through the bow from a float at the foot of Maple St, near the present Vermont Railway yard. It operated the route until 1871, when the combination of D&H disinterest and slightly improved relations with the Vermont Central/Vermont and Canada made the seasonal ferry operation less attractive. Sold to the Champlain Transportation Company, it was rebuilt as the line steamer "Champlain II" which was wrecked on Split Rock Mountain, near Westport NY, in 1875.
Champlain Transportation is still in business as Lake Champlain Transportaion, running among others a seasonal route from Burlington to Port Kent NY (where the "Ames" stopped, but not to transfer cars) and from Grand Isle VT to Cumberland Head near Plattsburgh. The original Montral and Plattsburgh line was replaced by the current route via Rouses Point in the 1880s.
I saw several sites on the Champlain II and the Oakes Ames while looking for the previous question. Thought it would make a question. The wreck has become a dive site in Lake Champlain.
This is what I'd found.
http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00098800/00009/4j
http://www.lcmm.org/shipwrecks_history/uhp/champlain_ii.htm
http://www.waterfrontdiving.com/champlainIIHistory.shtml
rcdyre your question.
The Rutland finally completed its dream of a route to Canada in 1901 after it bought the Ogdensburgh and Lake Champlain and built the Rutland-Canadian up through the Champlain Islands. Shortly after the route's completion the Rutland fell under the control of a large railroad system. Name the system and the man responsible for this, who was formerly president of the Wagner Palace Car Company.
This would be the New York Central, of course, who acquired 'just enough' stock from William Seward Webb et al. Webb of course had bought control of the Rutland from the Clement interests in order to further his chances, or so he thought, at the Vermont governorship by being a local railroad president.
I had thought this was going to have something to do with the Mohawk and Malone/St.L&A approach to Montreal that became the Adirondack Division of such recent interest to railfans and trail advocates, but apparently it doesn't...
You are of course correct. Dr Webb also had his estate in Shelburne VT, that is now covered by the Shelburne Museum, the Morgan Horse Association and Shelburne Farms. I'll leave to you the tangled "Webb" of the M&M, StL&A/A&StL, RW&O and incursions by the D&H.
Wizlish, you're up.
Let's try a new one...
After this regional railroad was abandoned, a segment was left in place to connect two international routes belonging to the same, much larger, railroad. The connecting segment remained into the 1970s, when the eastermost of the two international routes was itself abandoned. The westernmost remains today.
This one has sat for a week. Time to move on.
I was looking for the remnant of the Rutland between NYC's Massena line and the Adirondack Division at Malone. It was retained for NYC and later PC use until the section of the Adirondack Division north of Malone was abandoned around 1970.
New question: To accommodate some of its own trains on tracks shared by a different line, this interurban put flaps on the edges of some of the station platforms.
The interurban is the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin, which had flaps on high-level platforms east of Bellwood to allow clearance for freight trains. The high-level platforms were for service operated by the Chicago Rapid Transit Co.
CSSHEGEWISCH The interurban is the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin, which had flaps on high-level platforms east of Bellwood to allow clearance for freight trains. The high-level platforms were for service operated by the Chicago Rapid Transit Co.
And the freight train crews required at least three men - the motorman, a guy on the front with a pole to flip the flaps up, and a guy on the caboose steps to flip 'em back down. Near as I can tell from photos they were more or less 2x10s with hinged brackets. In a few photos you can see that the crew didn't always get all of them flipped back.
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