There has been considerable discussion on the Yahoo VRS and Rutland site the past few days about the Green Mountain Railroad discontinuing its GREEN MOUNTAIN FLYER excursions out of Bellows Falls, VT. Though the Trains Around Vermont website has not yet been revised to reflect the change, a telephone call to the Green Mountain RR passenger department this morning confirmed that the railroad is discontinuing regular Bellows Falls passenger operations. The reason given: that the railroad has decided to concentrate on its excursion passenger service out of White River Jct.

Thus, it appears as though a 45-year tradition of regular excursion runs out of the Bellows Falls area has come to and end. F. Nelson Blount (Steamtown and Green Mountain RR founder) began operating his original Steamtown excursions out of the Riverside location two miles north of the village of Bellows Falls way back in 1964!

Not a shock, as Bellows Falls passenger ops were cut back dramatically. Times are changing on the VRS. The retirement of the wooden Rutland stock, the rise of the WRJ passenger program and the liklihood of increased Amtrak service all point to a different VRS than we have seen.

Over the years, they have tried multiple new passenger markets. WRJ and Burlington seem to make the most business sense.

One of the great things about the VRS is the willingness to try something new. Look at the radical changes reopening interchange at Hoosick Jct brought.

It is a freight- first company with a vibrant passenger department. I can't think of another common carrier like them.

Rob

I am hopeful about the WRJ operation. The town is still the home for the future Vermont Railroad Museum according to this website...
http://cvrr.railfan.net/glorydays/pages/allaboard.html

...which has been announced and planned for years, but no ground has broken. They have restored the B&M 4-4-0 and Caboose, and the David Woodbury coach is there now too, if I recall correctly. Tragically one of the two roundhouses in town burned down a couple years ago, and a third across the river in New Hampshire was very decrepit the last I knew. A freight house restaurant in WRJ went up for sale a year or two ago. I could imagine the Green Mountain ride being incorporated into a museum operation somehow, perhaps in complement ala Strasburg/RRMPA.

If they keep waiting to get going, all the available New England wood passenger cars around will become mushroom mulch before preservation. They have had some success with Glory Days of the Railroad, it would be nice to see the event evolve even bigger into a full time museum.

I was over in WRJ a month or so ago, and what seemed interesting to me is that it SEEMS like they are at least going to try to save the sheels of what was left of the CV Roundhouse. Everything had been cleaned out and the walls were still standing. I would IMAGINE that a simple clean-up would have involved just bulldozing what was left.

It's all speculation on my part, but it would be nice if I'm right. EVen after the fire and destruction, that CV worm is still hanging proud on that building shell after all these years.

Just a couple of comments on White River Jct. activities. The proposed Vermont Railroad Museum reorganized as the New England Transportatioin Museum and Institute (NETIM) a number of years ago. I sat on the NETIM Board for several years and am very familiar with its goals. NETIM hoped to establish a railroad campus style museum invloving sites on both sides of the Connecticut River (White River Jct., VT and Lebanon, NH)--a great educational idea to portray the rich transporation history of the area. Unfortunately, NETIM produced a lot of dreaming and little action. It did open a samll but nice museum displaying transportation artifacts in the White River Jct. railroad station which lasted for several years, but that exhibit folded when the building's owner decided to raise the rent because he had another tenant who wanted the space and was willing to pay more for it. Ironically, the new tenant was the Vermont Rail System which had recently established its new White River Flyer excursion operation in town. The VRS gift shop now occupies the former museum space. The excursions and the museum probably should have complimented each other--but it didn't work out that way. I don't know what the current status of NETIM is, but their web site hasn't been updated since 2007 and I haven't had any luck contacting NETIM people that I know. As far as a museum for White River Jct. goes, its probably a pipe dream. They've been discussing the idea for thirty-odd years now, and haven't been able to come up with any major funding for anything.

I certainly wish the VRS well with its new emphasis on the White River Flyer, but I wonder if it is really a business "model" for them. An eyewitness rider reports on the VRS and Rutland site of visits last Summer with only 12 and 17 passengers riding the days he was there, and its well-known locally that VRS laid-off its on-board passenger representative (on-board color person dressed as a "conductor") and had the train's official conductor leave the locomotive cab to collect tickets because of poor ridership. While things may appear to be great for passenger operations on the VRS in the future, those who wish to enjoy them should do so while they can. The economic downturn has hit the VRS badly, and during the past few days they've laid off a reported 33 employees--including most of the full-time passenger department employees. One long-time passenger department employee who was laid off was told "we'll hire you back in three months if we're still around".

The Glory Days of the Railroad festival seems to have evolved into a city-sponsored community event, rather than an organizing fundraiser for some future museum. VRS seems to be a co-sponsor.
http://www.glorydaysoftherailroad.org/

There still might be an opportunity for a rail museum to evolve from the event's call for volunteers. VRS might cultivate a volunteer group to help run its trains, for instance. The group then needs a facility, hopefully one that can quickly offer displays, and perhaps a place to store and restore equipment.

They had the vision - now I hope someone who is good at making things happens steps in with the enthusiasm to kick start the project once again. Many museum groups began in fits and starts.

Early IRM members watched in dismay as the leader of the Central Electric Railfans Association refused to save streetcars and interurbans offered to them in the 1940s. Saving Indiana RR car 65 was an independent effort and led to other acquisitions later.