St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-05-09
RAILROAD NEWS.
Special Meeting of Lake Road Stock
hoIders.--BOsfOn te Maine Loses Com
troll of the b. G. & M.

"a "PSSieii HISClHlS vi tiIS SlOShIiOiu-
ers of the ST. Johnsbury and Lake
Champlain railroad was held Satur-
day to vote on the question of can
ceiling the consolidated mortgage
bonds of April 1, 1884, and issuing
in their place 8 per cent bonds to an
amount not to exceed $40, 900 per
mile of road. There were present at
the meeting George c. Lord, Newton,
Mass, president of the Boston &
Maine railroad; H. Bissell, West Med
ford, Mass, Gen. Samuel c. Law
renee, Medford, Frank Jones, Ports
mouth, n. H., directors of B. &. M.
James T. Furber, general manager OF
the 3. & NJ; H. E. Folsom superin-
teifHeflt of the Passumpsic railroad,
and the following officers of the Lake
road, c. E. A. Bartlett, Boston, pres
ident; w. A. Stowell, superintendent,
F. w. Morse, secretary, S. c. Shurt-
left, director, all of Montpelier These
gentlemen represented SO, ,249 shares,
or nearly four-ffths of the capital
stock of the road. President Bart
lett presided and the following votes
were passed:
Voted, That upon the cancellation
of all bonds issued Hereunder the
directors are hereby authorized and
directed to cause the trustee under a
mortgage heretofore issued by it and
dated April 1, 1884, to be cancelled,
and to procure the Boston Safe De
post and Trust company trustee un-
der said mortgage to release all right
and title under the same and dis
change the same of record.
Voted, That upon the cancellation
of the bonds and mortgage ofApril 1,
1884, as already authorized by vote
of this day, the directors are author
lied to issue 5 per cent bonds of the
company to an amount not to eX-
ceed 5000 per mile of road as now
or hereinafter completed, to be secur-
ed by mortgage of all the franchises
and property of the company wheth-
er now owned or hereinafter acquir-
ed and to be used and applied in pay
ing and refunding its existing indebt-
edness and in repairing, refurnishing,
reconstructing, improving and ex-
tending its railroad; said bonds and
mortgage to be in the terms and ten
or shown by paper hereinto an
neXed and made part of this vote.
H. r. Mack, representing the
Hardwick Granite company, and w.
H. Farrand, representing the Buck
Lake Granite company, also of Hard
wick, appeared before the stock
holders and urged the necessity of
constructing a branch road of about
one and one-half miles from Hard
wick station towards the granite
quarries The railroad men said a
committee would be appointed to
visit Hardwick in about two weeks
and look the matter up. Our Hard
wick correspondent refers to the mat
ter more fully in another column
The financial statement of the road
for the - months ending June 80,
1888, showed gross earnings of
1865, 800; operating expenses, $780,
1O9 deficit, $24, 1873. Add interest
the total deficit was $69,3O7 for the
year. But it must not be forgotten
that the repairs on the road are
charged into operating expenses. AS
the repairs amounted to nearly as
much as the total deficit, if not more
the showing for the year is not bad
one at all. The vote passed on Sat
urday authorizes more improvements
on the plant which will probably be
soon carried out. Several bridges
will have to be rebuilt, a few more
miles of steel rail laid and depots
built at East Fairfield, Sheldon,
Highgate and East Highgate
Should the directors decide to fill in
the Pumpkin hill trestle and build an
iron bridge at the high trestle at
Walden nearly half a million dollars
could be spent in putting the road in
first class condition.
A final decision has been reached
by the supreme court of New Hamp-
shire over the ownership of the B. c.
& NJ railroad and the Boston &
Maine is elected and the directors of
the b. c. & M. take possession of
their road in 80 days. This is re-
garded as a victory for the Concord
road and it is intimated that this de-
cision will lead to the control of the
Northern road by the same corpora
ton The Northern railroad and it's
leased lines at present are operated
by the Boston & Maine under busi-
ness arrangement that may be termi-
mated by either party on 80 days
notice.
This decision was a great surprise
to the Boston & Maine folks and
may lead to some important chang
es in this locality. 1t would be very
easy for the Boston & Maine to
build track from SCOTS to Faby-
ans which would give them line of
their own from Newport or Swan
ton to Boston via st. Johnsbury,
North Conway and the Conway
branch of the Eastern road. 1t is
only about 20 miles from SCOTS to
Fabyans and as the road is already
surveyed and the grades easy it is
stated that connections between the
two points could be made in two
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