The Portland daily press., 1876-01-19
PORTLAND AND OGDENsBURG
RAILROAD.
Annual. Reports and Election of Officers.

The annual meeting of the Portland and Og-
densburg Railroad Company was held yester-
| day morning at the new Office on Exchange
| street. T. G. Hersey, Esq, was chosen chair
man of the meeting.
The meeting opened with the reading Of the
following reports, which were accepted:
DIRECTORS REPORT.
The directors respectfully submit the
| following report of the progress of the
work on the line during the past year, to-
| gether with the report of the engineer,
| showing in detail the condition of the road
| bed, the amount of work done, bridges
built and buildings erected; and the finan-
| cial statement of the treasurer. Also a
| statement in form of letter, addressed to
| the president of this company, of great inn
portance as containing so full an endorse
ment of the fidelity with which the work
pany expended made by the consulting
| engineer of the company, Benjamin III.
| Latrobe, Esq, who, with the engineer,
made thorough examination of the road,
| from Bemis station through the Notch to
| Fabyan's, paying particular attention to
the bridges and trestles upon the line. The
| opinions and endorsement of so distin-
| guished an engineer and reliable gentle
man must insure the confidence of the gen.
eral public in the safety of the road and
the ultimate financial success of the enter
prise.
| At the time of the last annual report the
rails had been laid to Frankenstein three
miles beyond the Bemis station, eighty
four miles from Portland. Fromthis point
| to Fabyan's, distance of ten miles, the
| work was prosecuted under the constant
| attention of the directors, who were
| anxious to have the line opened in season
| for the earliest summer business. But al
| though their efforts were seconded by the
| unremitting eXertions of an earnest and
| faithful corps of engineers, and the person
| al supervision of the experienced and en-
| ergetic contractors, Messrs. Fuller and
| Harding yet, from the nature of the work,
the lateness of the season when the frost
left the ground, (enabling the contractors
to put in the foundations for bridges, &c.,
| and the difficulties attending the prosecu-
ton of work upon a mountain side, separ-
ated from the highway by an elevation of
several hundred feet of almost precipitous
incline, there were necessarily some de-
lays, and it was not till the seventh day of
August that the line through to Fabyan's
was opened for business.
The accomplishment of this great work
and the opening of this new and unrivalled
avenue to the heart of the mountains, was
| too late to secure the benefit of the early
| summer tourists as patrons of the road, or,
| what was of immeasurably more conse-
quence, as an advertising agency, through
which to reach the bulk of the summer
travel; yet the flow of business over the
mountain portion of the road was such as
to satisfy the anticipations of the most san
fInn 10 0 1o1 Il
the most acceptable route by which to
reach the objects of interest in the noun
tains, but that, in and of itself, it is to be
one of the objects of greatest interest and
affording the highest qualification to all adj
mirers of the grand and beautiful.
Upon the completion of the road to
Fabyan's, negotiations were opened with
the Boston, Concord and Montreal rail-
| road for joint occupation of the road Of
that company from Fabyan's round to
Dalton, to the point where the line of this
company will cross the line of the Boston,
Concord and Montreal railroad; your
directors not having the means at COM
mand to put in the intervening link of
seventeen miles, and feeling that the pres
ent through traffic would hardly justify
any great sacrifice in procuring money on
the bonds of this company for that pur-
POSC3 IL SduloldClOly COulll NC
secured with that company for such joint
use of its road.
Pending these negotiations, your
directors, urged on by the solicitations Of
the managers of the Vermont division of
the line, who had completed their grading
to the Connecticut river, and recognizing
the importance to the business interests of
Portland of securing, at the earliest season
possible, direct connection with the trad
ing communities through which the line in
Vermont was located, determined to build
the two and half miles of road from
SCOTS Mills in Dalton-the point of con-
nection or crossing of this road and the
Boston, Concord and Montreal-to juno
ton with the Vermont division, at their
terminus, on the west bank of the Connect
icut river in Lunenburg. On the first day
of September work was accordingly begun
at various points on this section, and COM
pleted so that by using the pile structure
over the Connecticut, a temporary
arrangement having been effected with the
Boston, Concord and Montreal railroad
companies for hauling your trains over
the short section of its road between
Fabyan's and SCOTS Mills, on the 22d day
of December the first through train passed
from Portland to johnson in Vermont, a
distance of one hundred and ninety miles.
The execution of the work upon the
mountain division in the time actually Oc-
cupied in its construction, and its compar-
! atively small cost, is complete vindica-
ton of the judgment of your engineers,
| formed and expressed to you some years
ago, and an unanswerable reply to those
who, inexperienced in railroad construc-
| ton through mountain regions, consider
ed the project of building railroad
| through the Notch of the White Noun
tains absurd, because impracticable at any
cost, doubling or trebling that estimated
by your engineer. And your Directors
express the hope, that the practical veri-
fication of the correctness of the earlier
| investigations of the engineer and opinions
of those originally favoring the enterprise,
in this demonstration of the feasibility Of a
| road through the Notch at a moderate
cost, and the subsequent cumulative proof
of the ease and economy with which up
| grades are worked, will convince the
stockholders that the impossible" having
been accomplished, their interests will be
best served by united action on their part
to secure the building of the short gap re-
naming to be filled while it may be done
at cost much below that originally esti-
mated 1t is true that a temporary ar
rangement, in contract form, has been
made with the Boston, Concord and Mon
treal Railroad Company. But as it is yet
an experiment how the two companies can
jointly do their business over this piece
of road, and as the Boston Concord and
Montreal Company were unwilling to ex-
tend the time of notice under which they
can terminate the contract, beyond six
months, it would seem to be the part of
wisdom to put in the hands of the directors
the means of completing that section of
road whenever in their judgment the action
of the other company should render it ex-
pedient.
At the special meeting of the stock
holders, held on the 10th day of March
last, the directors were authorized to unite
with the Western division in joint mort
gage and the issue of joint consolidated
bonds; also to unite in contract for con-
solidating the management of the whole
line of road. That duty has been per-
formed, and your directors are assured
that by means of such bonds the Western
division will be enabled to complete its
road by July next, while the interests Of
this road and the bondholders holding
prior securities are fully protected; the
contract for consolidating the management
containing a provision that six Of the
eleven managers who will constitute the
| hoard of mana oement shall ha chOsnr