by Cosmo
Noel Weaver wrote:Believe it or not, Noel, I agree with you 100% and then some.FLRailFan1 wrote:A premature abandonment IMHO was the New Haven's midland Route that went from Hartford to Willimantic. Penn Central, wanted to tear up the route, but Ella Grasso (who I knew) didn't want it done, but one night, PC ripped up the line.If all of the above survived to more recent times I ask where do you think the freight business would come from to insure the survival of these particular routes? The simple issue is that the freight business that kept these lines in operation is no longer there, it is simply gone, industries closed, shippers and receivers of freight are gone but the maintenance, taxes and other costs would still be around. Without the Poughkeepsie Bridge the Maybrook Line had very little business, the O & W was a gone goose many years before its finale in 1957 and the Midland had grades, little business and other operating problems and with the mergers it was certainly not needed.
I think if the New Haven was not included in the PC, I think the Maybrook line and the Midline route would be active. At least ion my (model RR world) it is. The HRR, has Maybrook, The CSO/NEC has the Midland...and the New Haven (which is in my world) survived and bought the B&M, Maine Central, the O&W and parts of the Erie, L&NE and the M&NJ.
Let's face it, without Metro-North and Amtrak there would be much less railroad mileage in Southern Connecticut and especially Connecticut. I think it is possible that there might be more abandonments in Southern New England down the road.
Noel Weaver
The Midland was the less competitive E/W route, but it was all the NH had to the North and West. When PC got it, it was an albatross to them and they already had the B&A. "Why keep it?"
Also, the aforementioned Poughkepsie - Highland bridge was a HUGE maintenance cost for them, and to try to upgrade it further for even heavier loads than what was seen by the 1950's would have been both problematic and costly. By the 1970's, there was just no money left in the route and only the connections with the EL and CNJ were keeping it going (the CNJ may even have been gone by then, not sure.) But the EL traffic wasn't paying for the cost of keeping the line open, or if it was, only just barely.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love it if the line were still going, and the Air Line too for that matter, but there was nothing "premature" about it. The line just ran it's time out.
"It belongs in a MUSEUM!"
-Indiana Jones
-Indiana Jones