Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1905-08-04

The narrow gauge Brattleboro e. White |
hall railroad is no more 1t Is now the |
standard gauge West River railroad. The |
transformation was made Sunday in ac- |
cordance with plans announced last week, |
with the exception of about a mile, north |
Of Jamaica, which was changed Monday |
forenoon The work was done without |
incident worthy of note, under the eff |
cient direction of w. p. Elrod of st. |
AIUans, general roadmaster of the Cen
trail Vermont Railway company. Hun
dreds of people along the line of the road
planned to witness the changing of the
gauge, but they were prevented from doing
so by heavy rain Rain began falling Sat
urday afternoon and continued without
intermssion through Monday forenoon 1t
fell in torrents during a large part of
Sunday, drenchng the 400 laborers who
performed the work, but there could be
no thought of postponing 1t. The
water made the tools and materials
slippery and hard to handle, otherwise
there is no question but that the job would
have been completed by o'clock Sunday
afternoon.
A special train from New London ar
rived in Brattleboro at $50 Saturday
evening, bringing about so section men,
and at $50 a special from Farnham, p O.,
arrived with about $50 men, the two
trains having picked up all the men who
could be spared from their regular work.
The train from Farnham was 12-coach
special, bringing men, tools and pro-
visions, the tools and provisions alone
occupying three cars Extra rails spikes,
frogs, switches, ETC., had been distributed
during the week. The passenger train
on the narrow gauge road made its regu-
lar trip to South Londonderry Saturday
night and returned Immediately to Brat
tleboro On its arrival two special narrow
gauge trains were made up to distribute
the men over the line. One of them left
oh mir other
two later After leaving their human
cargoes these two trains returned to Brat
tleboro, leaving the road free of all rolling
stock.
The men were divided into four gangs
of about 100 men each, in charge of COM
petent foremen. One gang was stationed
at West Dummerston, to which point
third rail was laid a few years ago, two
gangs were left at Townshend and the
fourth started in at South Londonderry.
At dawn of day, between and o'clock,
the order was given to proceed, and from
then until dark was the busiest day ever
known on the Bratteboro & Whitehall
line. Ties of the proper length already
had been placed but it was necessary to
take up both rails, making 60 miles OF
rails that had to be moved The men
at South Londonderry worked south to
meet those from Townshend, and the
others at Townshend worked south to
meet the West Dummerston force. When
darkness put an end to the work the two
divisions on the southern section had met,
but the men on the northern section were
about a mile apart.
In the SO miles of road between Brat
tleboro and South Londonderry there are
295 curves and 81 bridges, not including
open culverts. 1t was necessary to
change the degree of nearly all the
curves, many of them being reduced
from Al degrees to % degrees, necessitat-
ing the cutting off of many feet of rail to
meet the change in length of curves. On
all curves of IS degrees or over double
guard rails were placed.
During the forenoon Sunday West
River special, the first broad gauge train
over the road, left Brattleboro with a
company of Central Vermont and West
River railroad officials and followed the
men to Jamaica, returning at night 1t
was in charge of conductor E. M. Hayes
of New London, Engineer B. L. Gates Of
South Londonderry and Fireman Charles
Underhill of New London end had for
passengers G. c. Jones, general manager,
of ST. Adams, w. e. Mullins, superintend-
ent of transportation, of st. Adams, j.
NJ. Morrison, engineer and superintendent
of structures, of st. Adams, w. II.
Sample, road foreman of engines, Of St.
Adams, E. D. NASH assistant superin-
tendent, of New London, ]. H. Burke,
station agent, of Brattleboro, e. l..
Cousins, engineer, of Toronto, Ont, ]. w.
WardlaW, secretary TO Ine general Hldnd-
ger, F. Allen Ross, secretary to the
superintendent of transportation, and /.
]. Heaphy of Brattleboro.
Other officials who were on the ground
were Division Roadmasters ]. p. Benny
of Palmer, Mass, F. LeClair of Farnham,
P. O., B. Bull and John Kelseo of Mont
pelier and NJ. H. Vincent of St. Adams.
On account of the little stretch of I'M
finished road north of Jamaica the regu-
lar train south Monday morning had to
start from Jamaica instead of South Lon
donderry. This train, the first regular
train over the new road, was in charge
of Conductor w. j. Anderson, Engineer
A. w. Shattuck and Fireman Joseph La
Forest all of Brattleboro. The passen-
ger train Monday night covered the entire
route and since then traffic has been con-
Quoted on schedule time.
While any locomotive or car can be
used on the new road the regular equip
ment consists of one passenger locomo-
tive, two freight locomotives, two regular
passenger coaches, one combination mail,
baggage and passenger coach and one
combination baggage and passenger coach.
They have been used on the Central YER
mont and New London Northern roads,
but are in good condition. The locomo-
tives are powerfully built, the two freight
locomotives being of the mogul type of
three sets of main drive wheels. The pas
senger locomotive is No. Al and the freight