henry6 I ponderd the idea of how the name Rock Island came about...then dismissed it and threw the name in to see how many were paying attention anyway. But your attention give me crediblity.
I ponderd the idea of how the name Rock Island came about...then dismissed it and threw the name in to see how many were paying attention anyway. But your attention give me crediblity.
Black Hawk (translated by Antoine LeClaire) spoke of the Rock Island he knew of. Rock Island County was established in 1833. The village of Stephenson was founded as the county seat in 1836. Stephenson and another village merged and incorporated as Rock Island City in 1841.
Excerpt from The Railway Age, April 26, 1901
THE RUTLAND'S RECENT EXPANSION.
New railroad track aggregating 41 miles In length was laid in New England in 1900. Of this total, the Rutland road put down almost three-fourths. Including a branch jutting over into Canada, the new Rutland-Canadian division of the Rutland, which was recently finished, measures 47 miles of main line, the distance from Burlington, Vt., to Rouse's Point, N. Y., being 40.80 miles, and from Alburg Junction, Vt., to Noyan Junction, P.Q., 5.80 miles. This additional mileage brings the Rutland into a more important position in the field of traffic between the West and New England and New York than ever before.
The Rutland, formerly leased to the Central Vermont, became independent on May 7, 1896. Some two years and a half later the Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain, extending from Ogdensburg to Rouse's Point, N.Y., 118 miles, was bought outright, and subsequently the steamboats of the Ogdensburg Transit Company, which had previously been operated in connection with the Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain, were acquired. To operate these steamers a new corporation, called the Rutland Transit Company, was organized, and this company has now a fleet of eight ships plying between Ogdensburg and Chicago, touching at intermediate points.
The acquisition of these properties, as well as the diversion from the Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain to the Grand Trunk of traffic formerly routed over the Central Vermont, made advisable the construction of a new line from Burlington, then the northern terminus of the Rutland, to a connection with its Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain division at Rouse's Point. More recently yet the Quebec Southern, extending from Noyan Junction to Sorel on the Saint Lawrence, 88 miles, has come under the control of the Rutland. This road, connected with the Rutland by means of the branch from Alburg Junction to Noyan Junction, will give the Rutland access to Montreal by way of either the Canadian Pacific or the Grand Trunk from Iberville, but for the present through service between Burlington and Montreal is carried on as of old, via the Central Vermont and the Grand Trunk through Essex Junction, Saint Albans, Iberville and Saint Johns.
Construction of the line from Burlington to Rouse's Point, with the branch to Noyan, was effected through the auxiliary Rutland-Canadian Company. Before the building of the Rutland-Canadian the interchange of freight between the main line of the Rutland and the Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain was secured via the Central Vermont on the east side of Lake Champlain, or via the Delaware & Hudson on the West. The managers are abundantly satisfied with the economy resulting from the the building of the connecting road of their own. The road traverses the islands of Lake Champlain, and represents the highest standard of railway construction, the lake fills being all rock, the rails of 80-pound section, and the ballast of stone. About one-eighth of the line runs through the lake, and this has necessitated the building of three drawbridges. The crossing from the mainland at Colchester Point to Allen's Point, on South Hero Island, embankment and bridge, is 3 3/4 miles long. The maximum grade going north is 37 feet to the mile, and going south, or in the direction of the heaviest traffic, only 30 feet, and the maximum curvature is 1 degree 30 minutes. The estimated cost of the 40 miles of the Rutland-Canadian is $1,900,000.
Mention was made of Long Island as having a railroad. But not just the Long Island Rail Road. It also has:
Amtrak, two of the fourf tracks under the E. River and on through to over the Hell Gate Bridge to the Bonx.
New Yersey Tranist, a tenant on Amtrak, using Amtrak's sunnyside yard.
New York and Atlantic, freight hauler, tenant of Long Island Railroad
CXS, owner of one track over the Hell Gate Bridge and connectding with LIRR at Fresh Pond Jc.
Canadian Pacific and Providence and Worcester, tenants with trackage rights on CXS's line.
Cross Harbor Raliroad, car floats that connect NY&A an South Brooklyn at Bay Ridge with CSX and NS at Greenville, NJ.
South Brooklyn, a common carrier whose only customer is its owner, the New York City Transit Authority, once had a thriving friegjt business over streetcar, elelvated, and subway tracks, but now exists to redeuce shipping costs by being the terminating carrier for new car shipments.
The Subway system.
I know that the island of St. Kitts has a railroad and so does the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Trains has done short articles on the last two.
Lone Geep
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