awaiting us at the ticket office. We could hardly wait! In 1965, the Green Mountain Rail- road was granted permission to operate the old Rutland main line from Bellows Falls to Rutland for freight and passen- ger service. The GMR employee timetable of June 1, 1965, was a four page affair and listed only the four pas- senger trains from Riverside to Chester. However, if you were astute enough to discover the fine print in the museum brochure, you would have found that tickets were available on the daily freight train to Rutland. An ill-timed illness kept one friend from going, but my other friend, Paul Strauss, and I hit the road and arrived at Riverside in the afternoon of August 31, 1967. We spent most of the remain- ing hours of that afternoon crawling over and photographing the equipment now arranged in its new home just north of Bellows Falls, including a very derelict Norfolk & Western Class A No. 1218. In between visiting old friends such as Norwood & St. Lawrence 2-6-0 No. 20, and Illinois Central 2-8-0 No. 790 that came from an aborted plan for steam operation at Tupper Lake, N.Y., we watched the comings and goings of the last two daily passenger trains to Chester.
Just before the last trip, I spoke to the engineer of No. 89, the sprightly lit- tle 2-6-0 of Canadian National her- itage. He asked how we liked the new location and we responded with excite- ment about our cab rides two days hence. He told us to enjoy our freight trip to Rutland the next day and went back to his work. That would be our first and only conversation with F. Nel- son Blount, founder of Steamtown. As we sat in the cab of the 1218, the
last train of the day prepared to leave. I raced to grab a shot amidst ties and dirt piles left from construction of the new display site. The shot came a touch early but would prove to be worth more than the rest taken on the whole trip. Later that evening, we caught up with former Rutland RS-1 No. 405 and its wooden caboose crossing the Connecti- cut River to tie up for the night at the North Walpole roundhouse. After din- ner at the Miss Bellows Falls Diner, we hit the sack for the early morning de- parture of the freight train for Rutland. Mounting the steps of the old wooden Rutland offset cupola caboose the next morning, we quickly sought the prime vantage point — a cupola seat. Another railfan and soon to be good friend, Bri- an Whiton, was there ahead of us, so we grabbed the seats on the other side. The sky was blue and cloudless, slightly cool. Alco RS-1 No. 405 tied on and in time-honored fashion the mark- ers were hung on the rear end. Then, in walked a grim-faced man, conductor Hawkes. He put his grip away then
46 DECEMBER 2013 •
RAILFAN.COM
TOP: Author Ken Hojnacki plays engineer in the cab of N&W 1218. Who in 1967 would have thought this engine would ever run again? Of course, it went on to have a second career in the Norfolk Southern Steam Program in 1987. ABOVE: Engineer Clyde Sessions is at the throttle of ex-Canadian National No. 89 on September 2, 1967, as the group prepared for our cab rides on the regular passenger run to Chester. KEN HOJNACKI PHOTOS
looked up at us and said: “You can sit anywhere you want but not there. That’s my seat.”
So, down we came and up the line our entourage went. Brian, Paul and I end- ed up sharing the two remaining cupola seats the rest of the day. We couldn’t figure out if Fred Hawkes was always that surly or if it was just us. Our first stop was at Chester where we picked up our first car. After check- ing in at the depot, we headed north again. At Gassetts, the engine cut off the train on the main line and disap- peared for about a half hour. We wan- dered about while we waited and I learned when the crew returned with
several cars that one of the Green Mountain’s top revenue customers, a talc mine, was the source of the loads they picked up.
At Summit, we stopped again to
speak to the folks setting up the lunch for a special train to be run that day for the attendees of the NRHS national convention in not-so-nearby Albany, N.Y. The rest of the way up to Rutland, it seemed we stopped at every crossing with a house or store nearby and Con- ductor Hawkes would get off and disap- pear inside.
It was some time before we learned
the reason for the somber disposition of the crew and the frequent stops. After
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