Rutland Railroad In Color

From its own beginning, and well past the date of its demise, the Rutland Railroad has been and endless source of fascination for enthusiasts of New England railroading. Although gone for some forty years now, how could a relatively short (407 mile long) now-abandoned line that had 60% of its trackage in tiny Vermont, attract so much attention?

With a flurry of rebuilding the Rutland Railroad survived the Great Flood of 1927, then receivership, and the first labor strike in over 100 years of its operation in 1953. It reorganized, buying new diesel locomotives and steel boxcars on time payment plans from local banks, it gambled that scrap steel sold from abandoned trackage and steam locomotives would help pay for new equipment, it handily divested itself of horrendous losses in Passenger Service while averting action of the Vermont Public Service Board, and more. In short, it was a miracle that renewed itself on almost a daily basis. Not until another labor strike in 1960 did the Rutland Railroad run out of miracles.

Contents include a geographic tour of the railroad, diesel and steam equipment, major facilities and structures and a few pages of the Vermont Railway and Green Mountain Railroad.

Hardcover with dust jacket, 128 pages, 8.5 x 11 in., Color photographs with captions.

• New
• Hardcover
• Philip R. Jordan
• Morning Sun Books