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30 Street is where the USPS Parcel Post facility is located along with a spur on the line. Was that were passenger cars ended?Backshophoss wrote:NYC's W30th street Branch,passenger trains went only to 30th street,only freight and express went farther south.
gokeefe wrote:I find it interesting that it is so uncommon for Amtrak to restore service on any route or segment that was discontinued in the pre-war era. This topic has seen quite robust discussion and the only comparable to Rockland is the Ethan Allen Express to Rutland.
The Rockland extension truly is a unique event for Amtrak. Interesting to consider all of this as efforts move forward on reactivation.
Ridgefielder wrote:New York-Rutland service in the old days ran Troy-Johnsonville-Hoosic Jct-North Bennington on the B&M, then headed north on the Rutland. If the B&M passenger main between Troy and Johnsonville were still intact, that would have been the logical route for a resuscitated Rutland train. However that line has been gone for ~50 years. That leaves no choice but to use the D&H.
Ridgefielder wrote:In a way it makes sense when you consider the nature of the pre- vs post-WW2 train-offs.
The service that was discontinued in the 1920's and 30's was mostly marginal branch-line stuff that couldn't compete with automobiles even given the modest-- by modern standards-- road improvements of the time. Think, for instance, of the dozens of southern New England services that the NYNH&H replaced with buses after WW1.
The post-war train-offs of the '50s and '60s, on the other hand, were primarily driven by competition from airlines and the interstate highway network.
Ridgefielder wrote:New York-Rutland service in the old days ran Troy-Johnsonville-Hoosic Jct-North Bennington on the B&M, then headed north on the Rutland. If the B&M passenger main between Troy and Johnsonville were still intact, that would have been the logical route for a resuscitated Rutland train. However that line has been gone for ~50 years. That leaves no choice but to use the D&H.
Ridgefielder wrote:Boston-Rockland, on the other hand, is a straight-out restoration of what was once, a very long time ago, a premier summer service. The great historian Samuel Eliot Morison (1887 - 1976), in his history of Mount Desert Island, wrote about taking that very train as a boy on his way to his family's summer house on the Maine coast in the 1890's.
shadyjay wrote:Ridgefielder wrote:New York-Rutland service in the old days ran Troy-Johnsonville-Hoosic Jct-North Bennington on the B&M, then headed north on the Rutland. If the B&M passenger main between Troy and Johnsonville were still intact, that would have been the logical route for a resuscitated Rutland train. However that line has been gone for ~50 years. That leaves no choice but to use the D&H.
One of the [still proposed?] plans for the Ethan Allen was to send it via the B&M to Hoosick Jct, then north, hitting North Bennington and Manchester, then continuing on to Rutland. It would better serve more of Vermont, especially the Rt 7 corridor, and once you get to Rutland, it would be a straight shot right to Burlington, eliminating what will most likely be a change-direction scenario when the existing route of the Ethan Allen gets extended to Burlington, a la the Vermonter's former Palmer shuffle. The only difference is that Rutland is a station stop. The VTR/ex-RUT line from Hoosick north to Rutland needs some work, with the B&M line most likely needing quite a bit of work.
gokeefe wrote:Ridgefielder wrote:New York-Rutland service in the old days ran Troy-Johnsonville-Hoosic Jct-North Bennington on the B&M, then headed north on the Rutland. If the B&M passenger main between Troy and Johnsonville were still intact, that would have been the logical route for a resuscitated Rutland train. However that line has been gone for ~50 years. That leaves no choice but to use the D&H.
Thanks for this note. I had never realized that the B&M had more than one route out of Troy. I am of course familiar with the crazy quilt route network in New Hampshire but apparently the same tendencies applied on the western end as well.
gokeefe wrote:Ridgefielder wrote:Boston-Rockland, on the other hand, is a straight-out restoration of what was once, a very long time ago, a premier summer service. The great historian Samuel Eliot Morison (1887 - 1976), in his history of Mount Desert Island, wrote about taking that very train as a boy on his way to his family's summer house on the Maine coast in the 1890's.
Interesting ... did he specify arriving in Rockland? If so do you recall if he also mentioned where he was coming from? There really isn't a lot of material out there on the Rockland Express which ran from Grand Central. Most people probably don't even realize that the Bar Harbor Express had a parallel service originating from NYG.
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