Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-12-29
THE RUTLAND WINS.
A PRETTY FIGHT OF CONSTRUCTION
GANGS NEAR ROUSES POINT.

Central Vermont Attempts to Block Build
ing Operations of Rutiand-Canadian
Company mt Bridge Across Lake-Tactics
of Construction Gangs Peculiar.
! As told in the REGISTER few
weeks ago. when the Rutland and
and Central Vermont railways were con
structed fifty years ago they had the
worst kind of fight for the favor of Bos-
ton capitalists and Boston connections.
1t seems that enmity then aroused be-
tween the roads has been passed down
the years to the present generation, for
certain it is that when The two highways
have been managed Independently they
have hepn at daggcr's point
A Rouscs Point dispatch tells the latest.
in which the Rutland appears to have
come out very much in the lead. At nine
o'clock Sunday morning the Grand
Trunk. or Central Vermont. people A.
tempted to throw n bridge from the west
end Of their half of the bridge over to the
shore. hoping to cut across Just ahead Of
the Rutland company. which had just be-
gun to extend their half Of the bridge to-
wards the east shore Of the lake BY
dextrous manipulation on the part of the
local force here aud the bridge men
brought from mp the line as far as Malone
about thirty Rutland men outwitted and
outmarpuvred forty or fifty Grand Trunk
men gathering in one of their best mogul
engines and sending them back at one
o'clock Monday morning discouraged and
defeated
The Q. & L. G. bridge gang under
Foremant G. F. Flint began last week
Monday morning to build the extension
towards the Aburgh shore from point
800 feet west Of the extreme eastern end
of the O s. T.. C. half of the h idge, the
company owning to within few feet of
the draw. within a week the gang had
built about $50 feet of bridg on part of
which they had laid the rails.
Having worked all the week without
molestatiOn from the Grand Trunk or c.
" people il was supposed that things
were safe 10 he left Saturday evening for
two or three days, and the gangs dis
persed to their homes for Sunday and
Christmas. But on Sunday morning at
s o'clock as Station Agent Barney stepped
out of his home he saw the C. V. con-
struction tram on the bridge and hasten
ed down. Meeting Section Foreman
Crowley he found that the C. V. people
had begun to build an extension from the
end of their half of the bridge few feet
west of the draw toward point on the
Fort Montgomery reservation shore from
which the Grand Trunk has the right by
an old charter to throw a bridge across
the lake.
The object was to build across the
point where the Ogdensburg & Lake
Champlain extension would soon go IN
its eastward bearing, thus effectively cut
ting that road off from its extension, for
1t is contrary to law for one railway
track to cross another on bridge form
ing diamond over the water.
At once the heavy Ogdensburg & Lake
Champlain shifting engine 3l7 was sent
over and it pushed the lighter Central
! Vermont engine back with Its construc
: ton train and pile driver and stood firm
ly where the Central Vermont extension
: was to begin and greatly impeded the
work, compelling the Central Vermont
bridge gangs, who were present from st
Alhans and New London. to carry their
tmbers past 1t, all of which greatly i'm
peded the work.
However, a very heavy engine was sent
for to st. Albaus by special telephone
e wire laid for the purpose, 1t is believed,
Z and when she came at noon she showed
: the shifter back on the Ogdensburg &
: Lake Champlain track several rods and
t anchored herself there with chains and
e spikes. The track was torn up behind
+. her so that the Ogdensburg & Lake
: Chamn'..A y. .up,o would smash their Owr
$ trc: lie work if tlrv should push hel
Y b .ck. The Ogdenshurs & Lake Champ
i lain people then sent ihr'e f thcir bes,
G engines down from the yard aud round
+ house and by quick deft work released
d the Central Vermont engine, hitched tC
G her by a chain. her stIfl shackle having
been pulled against this emergency, ant
O drew her with her brakes set and steam
Il reversed by her fireman, who staid will
d her, in triumph TO the roundhouse, wher,
d she was held until midnight. Meanwhile
d it Jared badly with the Central Vernon
: gang. Their structure settled in a foo
e and half, almost letting their pile dive
It into the lake, which is 25 feet deep at th
e place.
d Whether in the confusion of the con
flict an o. 81 l.. G. man dropped railroad
d spike into the gearing none Of them viii
d tell, although they admit the possibilit.
.s of such mistake with wink of the eye
rt At any rate the pile driver quit work a
id dark and was taken away, the gang re
v. naming until midnight doing what the
e. could. The o. & i. q. men stayed wit
them until morning, but by daybreak no
vestige of the Central Vermonts neN
extension could be seen, while a numbe
u, of their men were out in skiffs savin
iy timbers which the o. & L. C. peopl
N N think may have fioated up the river fror