Rutland Railroad Historical Society 2009
Proctor VT, May 01-02 2009
Florence, VT (Fowler, VT)
A fresh look at some of the rail, ties and ballast in the Florence area. I vaguely remember driving around this area when I was younger but it did not look as familar as it did years ago. Gone where the country store that stood in the area and widening of the road and trestle have long faded my memories here.

According to Esther Swift's Book of Vermont Place Names, the community of Pittsford Quarry's post office had been opened in 1882 and was named after the local quarry owner's daughter. "Florence".

As the yers passed the quarry changed hands and the new owner, Charles N. Fowler wanted the post office in his own name, therefore a new post office was established at Fowler in 1902.

The new post office handled the bulk of the mail received resulting in the closing of the Florence post office.

In 1912 the quarry was again sold and the townspeople requested the name be changed back to Florence.

This would explain why up until 1911 Nimke's Arrivals and Departures list the station as being Fowler and not Florence.

Up until 1911 according to Nimke's Arrivals & Departures, the Florence VT stop was known as Fowler VT. Located here was a large Marble Mill with the rail line inside the building. Two derricks would move up and down the railine loading and offloading marble blocks on to the rail cars. The smoke stack would have steam powered the equipment in the mill. The years have taken their toll on the stack and it appears that sooner or later the top half of the stack will fall.
At the base of the smoke stack you can still find the furnace where coal would have been used to provide the heat to power the boiler and steam equipment.
  The floor in front of the furnace with the base for one of the derricks centered in the shot. There are also four bases on which either some factory equipment stood at one time. The foundation for the building wall is visible behind the base for the derrick.
Close up look at one of the bases for the derricks.
There would have been two of these bases and some sort of power generator slung between them which provided the main power for the mill.
Proctor VT Sutherland Falls Marble Quarry, Proctor VT. This Quarry is probably around 300 feet deep and full of old rusty cars that were pushed over the edge. The trestle in the foreground is where the rail line would have extended into the quarry. You can still see the derrick and crane apparatus used to extract the marble nestled in the cut.

In the early 1800's marble depsists were discovered in Rutland and a large deposit of solid marble of high quality was found in West Rutland. Many small marble firms were established by the 1840's and only became profitable after the railroad's moved in.

When Rutland City was incorporated as a village the town was split off as West Rutland and Proctor. Proctor contained most of the marble quarries and was named for Senator Redfield Proctor.

Redfield Proctor was a Republican Governor of Vermont in 1878 to 1880. He later served as the US Secretary of War under Benjamin Harrison and then as a US Senator from Vermont. Proctor was a native of Proctorville and served in the American Civil War and participated in the Gettysburg Campaign. He later served as a manager for the Sutherland Falls Marble Company and became president of the Vermont Marble Company when the two companies merged. Two of Proctor's sons would later also become Vermont State Governors.

In the 1980's and 1990's the marble quarries closed and cost the area many jobs.

Another angle of of the Sutherland Falls Marble Quarry. When I was in my teens we often sought out these quarries to take a midnight swim. I don't recall ever using the Proctor quarry for those activities. The graffiti is an indication that some of the locals probably did though. Today the site is under lock and key and you need permission to visit the area in the interest of public safety.
A close up view of the trestle which had obviously got damaged and bent at some time, probably well after the quarry had been in use.
  Renovated Vermont Marble headquarters building on School St. School St. also renovated and a lot of the sharpness of the curve has been taken out through the years. The original headquarter building stood near the same location.
Up on High St. is another one of the former Marble Companies office buildings. In early years the ground space was covered in Marble blocks and I remember this always being a winter scene with the fine marble powder on the ground right up through the seventies.
The Vermont Marble Company Finishing plant lies parallel to the Rut land main line which is directly in front of the building. The parking lot was once the holding area for thousands of marble blocks waiting to be shipped or processed.
Around the School Street curve looking westward lies the Vermont Marble companies Machine Shop. A siding ran off the Rutland main line connected with the Clarendon & Pittsford along the backside of the building. Today the switch and part of the siding still remain but are not in use.
The Vermont Marble Cutting shop still remains in the north end of the yard. The marble works were a big part of the Rutland revenue and marble here was shipped worldwide.
Looking south towards the underpass which would have been just a bit north of the station. The Freight house would have been approximately where the small pine tree is at the end of the switch. Along the telephone poles is where the pedestrian walkway up to the marble bridge was. The mainline continues south and eventually crosses Otter Creek at Humphreys. There was a stopping at Humprey's up according to Nimke's Arrivals and Departures until 1910. Today only the farms and bridge remain there.
A closer look at the switch, pathway and underpass. The Freight house would have been on the right side of the track and the pathway on the left leads up to Main Street. If you look beneath the underpass you can see the remnants of what might have been the floodgates installed after the 1927 flood.
North side of the brush covered stone pedestrian stairway which was across from the former Proctor Station. Its a bit of a mystery to me where the path led to as there are no roads on the map there and the only thing that comes to mind is perhaps there was a marble company building in that area.
Head on view of what remains of the stone staircase across from the Station building. To the left goes towards the marble works and to the right would led to the pedestrian pathway up to Main Street.
A shot of the entire stairway structure looking northwest from just east of the main line.
Shot of the pathway grade up to the Iron Underpass. There would probably have another set of stairs at one time connecting up to Main Street. If you turned left you would have just a short walk to the marble bridge which crosses Otter Creek.
Looking back northward up the mainline to the switch that branched off to the Clarendon and Pittsford.
Some random shots of RRHS members milling around the Marble Works parking lot while we waited for the excursion train to make its appearance.
Jim Shaughnessy, author of the Rutland Road, talks to two brothers who grew up in the Proctor area.
A few shots of boarding and the arrival of the Vermont Rail Systems locomotive and Green Mountain railroad cars arriving in Proctor VT. The excursion was a short trip up the mainline to Florence where we were switched on to the Clarendon & Pittsford tracks and pushed back uphill to the OMYA plant. We spent the afternoon getting a grand tour of the OMYA plant before returning to the train for our trip back to Proctor.
Clarendon & Pittsford Engine House in Proctor VT. Today it is obviously used for a different purpose than what its former existence would have been. There were tracks leading up to the house. Their existence today is covered up by the fresh gravel yard although some of the ties still remain in piles in the yard.
Close up look at the front of the Proctor Engine House. If you look carefully you can still see the rails leading up to the doors.
South side door at the back of the Sutherland Falls Engine House in Proctor. This back extension on the building probably would have been added later in its history due to its cinder block construction.
The backside shed that was added on to the engine house.
To the south of the Engine House there is a Section House still standing in Proctor. Here you see the north face of the shed with the window being boarded up.
Front facade of the Section House in Proctor. There was a base for what was probably a small derrick in the foreground which would allow the workers to put a speedster on the rails.
What is left of the Call Box on the Section House. This is located on the south outside wall of the building.
Across the street the terrain rises and you can still find the rail bed which led to the Proctor Coal shed. You can still find some evidence of the coal works there and even some scattered pieces of coal lying around. Here Larry can be found hard at work doing some dentistry on an old rail tie. He was unable to do the extraction of the nail out of the tie, but promised to come by later on to get the circa 1925 dated nail. A few others vowed that they were going to beat him to it.
Rutland VT

The Howe Richardson Scale Company was nestled at the junction of the Bennington & Rutland, Bellows Falls Subdivision and the Main Line of the Rutland Railroad. It was one of the biggest heavy duty scale manufacturers in the world.

No longer in operation it's facilities and warehouses have been converted to accommodate several Rutland businesses and manufacturers.

 
Rutland from the hotel looking Northwest from the hotel located at the junction of Route 7 and Allen St. The yellow building in the foreground if I remember right was a package store.

Where the line of Omya cars end is the junction with the Mail Line branch of the Rutland. This shot is looking along the Bellows Falls Subdivision looking northwestward to the Howe Richardson Scale Company. The road crossing is Route 7 at the intersection of Park Ave.

Historically this line would have led to the freight house and station on the right side of the tracks where the backside of the Rutland Plaza shopping Centre now is located. Bridge crossing the tracks is the River Street bridge.

This is the Bellow's Falls subdivision track crossing Allen Street just to the east of Route 7 in Rutland. This track led to Eddy's Pond and North Clarendon and through the backside of what was known as Rutland's Industrial centre. When I lived there in the seventies this is where you would have found the 3M plant and Metromail, although they were put in long after the main business of the Rutland was gone.
From the third floor of the Comfort Inn on Allen Street in Rutland, looking northward to the South Station restaurant and what was once the roundhouse for the Electric Railway in Rutland. The Electric Railway ran I am told may have run as far west as Fair Haven and definitely ran to the hotel on Lake Bomosseen.
Dept of Agriculture building in Rutland next to the South Station restaurant and behind what is now a bookstore. When I lived in Rutland it was a huge beverage centre with one of the largest wine selections I've seen. At one time the building was used by the Rutland Electric Railway and I vaguely recall a grocery store there before the beverage centre.
Looking west from the hotel. The road that runs from right to left is Route 7. The racetrack of the fairgrounds lies past the highway and some of the fairground buildings are visible. Beyond the fairground you will find the main line and a couple of sidings.
Bellow's Falls subdivision branches to the left of the Howe buildings. The main line runs to the right of the buildings.
View of the two passenger cars that were used on the previous day for the excursion trip to Florence. Probably waiting for lift on a Vermont Rail Systems train back to Bellow's Falls. Also note the Irving gas tanks and yard to the left and the Howe buildings where the tracks divide.
The Howe buildings as they look today with the Bellows Falls subdivision on the left. Note all the different OMYA white cars in the yard. The tank type cars would be for slurry, the hoppers for the powdered product and the normal freight cars for the packaged powdered product which would be destined to bulk facility warehouses and eventual exportation.
 More Howe buildings to the left of the main line and the Irving yard to the right.
Mintzer Brothers warehouses on Strongs Ave. from the River Street Bridge.
Another view of the Mintzer Brothers warehouses looking southeastward towards North Clarendon.
OMYA is by far the biggest shipper in the Rutland yards today and most of the cars are transient awaiting their shipment south towards Bellows Falls.
Looking North from River Street Bridge at what is left of where the main Rutland yard stood.
Two shots of Gill's Delicatessen home of the world famous grinders. You can't go to Rutland without stopping in for at least one.
Ramunto's Pizza was another favorite fueling stop in the years I lived in Rutland.

The Delaware & Hudson bridge looking eastward across the Otter Creek. Following eastward the line merged in with the Rutland Main line and into the Rutland yard.

The second bridge to the south is the Clarendon & Pittsford crossing of the Otter Creek where the West Rutland Quarry marble would have been brought into the marble works on the east side of the Creek.

Rare view of the falls looking southward to Rutland neath the Rutland and Whitehall bridge of the Delaware and Hudson. Interestingly this view is not commonly seen or known by the locals who rarely venture from the new part of US4 to the north to where the old roadbed lies.
Another view of the falls.
The falls again with a closer look at the Rutland & Washington bridge.
A view of the western entrance of the Rutland & Washington bridge.

A parting shot of the RRHS group on the walking tours on the final day of the convention.

The two footings in the picture are where the Clarendon Pittsford would have crossed the old US3. US4 would have run parallel and to the right in the picture.

   
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