Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1898-11-04
Railroad Changes ner.sbou,s.


Changes on the railroad man of som,
consequence are possible result of tb,
purchase by Vanderbilt interests of IN,
Rutland railroad. Immediately followin,
Is the Introduction in the Vermont leoisla
lure of bill incorporating the project n
sne new owners of the Rutland road (,
Duild an extension from Burlington TO All
burg, VT, near the Canadian line. there r.
connect with the Canada Atlantic and IN,
Ogdensburg aud Lake Champlain. Tn,
Canada Atlantic extends to Ottawa. Ont
ana controls lines to a point on Lake Hin
ron, and through this road the Rutland
could possibly make alliance with
the Canadian Pacific and thus. will
the Fitchburg, which, through the Cbes
hire road, now extends to Bellows Falls
connecting with the Rutland, another
transcontinental route would be opened
from Boston to Canada and the Pacific. n
Is significant of such intentions that two
Oh the new purchasers of the Rutland rep.
resent Fitchburg interests.
There are other possibilities for the Rut-
land. With the Bennington and Rutland
ana the recently abandoned Lebanon
Springs road, which extends to Chatham.
NJ =, there connecting with the Harlem
branch of the New York Central. a direct
line would be opened between Canada and
New York city which would affect the Del
aware and Hudson's business over its New
York and Canada line running on the west
shore of Lake Champlain to Rouse's
Point, and thence over the Grand Trunk To
Montreal. The New York Central already
has the Hudson Canal company's system
pretty well surrounded; the investment
WOlll0 he pnmnlnta with ha Dpt1 NJ L.
Bennington and Lebanon Springs lines in
possession of the Central, along with the
proposed extension of the Rutland to the
Canada line.
Thus the Rutland purchase is thought
to foreshadow the fall of the Hudson Ca
nal company's roads into the Vanderbilt
system. But as the United States Investor
has pointed out, it is Dr. Seward Webb
and other Vanderbilt relatives and not the
New York Central which has bought the
Rutland. Presumably this is for the pur-
pose of selling out to the Central at a
profit, but if the latter will not buy, an
eight-mile extension of the Lebanon
Springs road to the State Line station of
the Housatonic, now a part of the New
Haven system, would provide ample way
into New York city over the New Haven
road, which would doubtless welcome such
a Vermont and Canada feeder as the Rut-
land and Bennington roads would form.
Eight or 10 years ago the Delaware and
Hudson Canal company was an overshad-
owing figure in the railway movements of
northwestern New England. 1t was
deemed possible that it would come to
monopolize steam transportation west of
the Connecticut river as the Boston g.
Maine had east of the river. Its stock
paid seven per cent and left large accu-
mulating surplus, and the market quota
ton ranged above $50. Now the road is
paying five pei cent, and its stock is down
to 1O2. 1t now sells the Rutland road, and
on Saturday it announced the abandon
ment of the Delaware and Hudson canal
aud of the gravity railroad, forming the
original basis of its transportation system.
The company's balance sheet of Dec 81
last entered valuation of $500, 900 for
the canal alone, TO say nothing of the
boats and the gravity railroad. Its surplus
at the same time was IS, 1858 This
surplus consequently vanishes with the adj
mission that the canal is burden instead
of an asset