The New York herald., 1921-12-25
RAILWAY WORKERS
MANAGE OWN ROAD
Station Agent and Conductor
Get Possession of the Bath
and Hammondsport.
ON VERGE OF DISSOLUTION
Once Prosperous Branch of the
Erie Is Undergoing an
Experiment.

Special Dispatch 70 THE NEW YORK HnEALp.
HAMMoNpsPoRr, n. Y, Dec. 24.--It
is not the good fortune of many station
agents and train conductors TO step
overnight into the jobs of managers and
operators of a railroad that at one time
was asserted to be the most profitable
stretch of mileage in the United States.
That, however, was the recent experience
OF W. G. Aber station agent. and Leon
Jaycox. conductor. on the Bath and
Hammondsport Railroad in the Finger
Lakes region of central New York.
The line is a subsidiary OF the Erie
system. II is but eight or nine miles in
length and connects Hammondsport at
the head OF Lake Keuka with the main
line roads at Bath. Messrs. Aber and
Jaycox have been employed on it for
years and probably never thought of
assuming the responsibility for It's op-
Grafton until some country ed;tcr year
or so ago made the comment that If the
Erie would turn the road over TO one or
both of them they could restore its wan
ing prestige and finances.
Before the adoption of the Eighteenth
Amendment and the enactment of the
Volstead laws the Bath and Hammonds-
port Railroad carried thousands of tons
Of grapes from the 10000 acres of vine
yards that grace the lillsides surround
ing Lake Keuka. When the grapes were
not in their original form they still trav-
eled on the 3. & II. in the form of spark
ling talking water from the Pleasant
Valley and Urbana cellars. Keuka Vine
yards were claimed 10 be the only ones
in America growing grapes that would
make champagne approximating in flavor
that of the famous French district of
that name. and the cellars referred to
often held millions of bottles of this
seductive beverage.
Aided by Airplane Business.
AS the airplaae business conducted by
Glenn IL. Curtiss at Hammondsport
gained prominence and the number OF
its employees ran up into the thou-
sands the business of the Bath and
Hammondsport gained further impetus,
both of passengers and freight. Per-
haps tho management grew a bit chesty
over the very comforting appearance of
the profit and loss pages of the ledgers:
II you wanted 10 enter or leave Ham
mondsport in those days you either
rode on the Bath and Hammondsport.
YOU walked OF you hired horse and
wagon. If you wanted to ship anything
you were in the same fix. 1t was the
Bath and Hammondsport or nothing.
There were no regular bus lines and
none OF the local shippers owned motor
trucks. If they had owned them the
roads between Bath and IIammonds-
port were not conducive to economical
transportation until the State road was
put through a few years ago Perhaps
as a consequences train schedules and
stops were so arranged as 10 give
maximum of discomfort for any one
desiring to leave or approach Ham.
mondsport over anything but the Erie.
and even connections with the parent
line were nothing TO brag about.
With the completion OF the State road
automobiles and buses began to cut into
the passenger traffic of the Bath and
Hanlmondsport at a surprising rate.
Soon there were buses running that
connected with trains on both the Erie
and the Lackawanna al Bath. and when
the demands of the war for quick deliv.
cries of airplanes and motors from the
Curtiss factory forced the company to
develop a line OF motor trucks another
deep cut was made into the revenues of
the railroad.
With the signing of the armistice and
the coming Of prohibition the business
OF the i. and II. faded TO less than the
provcrbial shadow of its former dimen-
sions. and with the raising of railroad
wages TO a point where the brakeman
who made two sixteen mile trips n day
drawing down checks of approximately
$500 a month the appearance OF the profit
and loss page provided no joyful pride
for the management nor for stock
holders.