JBlaisdell wrote: It's funny to think how well P&W has done with trackage that was previously owned by NH, who couldn't seem to make a profit from any of it.
For the record (for those who stumble onto this thread), the line was ALWAYS owned by the P&W. The NYNH&H had simply leased the line. When PC took over the NYNH&H, the P&W people successfully argued that their lease did not automatically carry over and returned to independant operation.
The P&W of today is the same corporation as the one that first opened the line in the 1840s.
IIRC, the real value of the P&W, and the driver motivating the P&W to achieve independance from the PC in the early 1970's, was the real estate owned by the railroad. And, that hasn't changed to this day --the value is in the land owned and developed by the land development arm of the corporation controlling the P&W. The P&W has never, to my knowledge, provided good financial returns and has relied upon lots of government aid including, most recently, $196 million ($145m. Federal/$51m. RI) for improvements. Makes you wonder what the New Haven would have been able to do with that kind of government support