• Caboose near Quechee Gorge, Vermont

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England

Moderators: MEC407, NHN503

  by 3rdrail
 
A good friend of mine asked me if I knew anything about a caboose in Vermont as it's the location where he proposed to his wife twenty-five years ago in front of it coming home to Boston from a ski trip. I'm told that it was opposite a hotel, possibly off Rte. 4 near Queechee Gorge and that it was used as the Queechee Chamber of Commerce. Does anybody know the history of this caboose and if it still exists ? Thanks !
  by MikeVT
 
White River Junction maybe. Engine and caboose across from the Coolidge Hotel downtown.
  by jaymac
 
3rdrail-
Assuming, again, no delusions on my part, there was, at least a while ago, a buggy spotted at the restaurant-gift-shop area on the north side of Rt. 4, just east of the once railroad, now just road, bridge over the Gorge.
It's been a few years since I've been there, so it may also have been a few years since the buggy's been there, too.
My non-pro Google Earth doesn't resolve well enough to show if it was still there the last time the satellite shot the area.
  by Scooter
 
When Route 4 was rebuilt and widened, they used some portions of the right-of-way, not all of it. Mostly the bridge over the Gorge and approaches.
  by jaymac
 
Otto-
2(yup with qualifications)
The station at Quechee was generally referred to as Dewey's Mills in honor of a Quechee mill owner and proponent of the Woodstock.
In The Woodstock Railroad: 1863-1933, Edgar T. Mead writes: "Between White River Junction and Quechee, the roadbed lies mummified beneath layers of Route 4 asphalt. Beyond Quechee, it remains a lonesome pathway leading toward the twilight of steam-railway memories" (48).
Given how quickly Rt. 4 gains elevation west of WRJ, departures must have been a real show and pre-airbrake arrivals must have elevated everyone's pulse rate.