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| Breakfast: | Breakfast served at hotel before departure for Lincoln | | Morning: | FIELD TRIP:Travel to the Green Mountain Railroad station in Bellows Falls, VT. Here we will meet with a local historian and tour a couple of their stock cars in the yard.
The first railroad to operate at this location was called the Champlain & Connecticut River Railroad Co. in Nov. 1843. It later became known as the Rutland & Burlington Railroad Co. Construction on the “Island” at Bellows Falls began in Feb.1847. The rails were laid from Bellows Falls to Burlington in April 1849. Service between Bellows Falls and Burlington began in Dec. 1849.
The original two-story station was built with native bricks from the brickyard of a local gentleman name Sanford Granger from Saxtons River in 1851. The station was destroyed in a spectacular fire in late Nov.1923 and was replaced soon after by the Rutland Railroad Co. to the present structure seen today.
| | Lunch: | A lovely lunch is served at the Historic Hotel Coolidge.
The Central Vermont Railway laid the first rails in early 1847 and, by the following year, the line stretched 25 miles north to Bethel. On June 26, 1848, Vermont's first passenger train began service between White River Junction and Bethel, and by 1849, the line extended 90 miles north to Burlington and 15 miles south to Windsor. The success of the Central Vermont from Burlington to Windsor prompted the rapid addition of other lines to this area, and soon White River became the most important junction in Northern New England.
Colonel Sam Nutt, a successful riverboat captain, recognized the need created by the railways for first-class hotel accommodations in White River Junction. In 1849, he retired from the river, purchased the Grafton House in Enfield, NH (some 20 miles to the east), had it transported to White River Junction, and after a period of reconstruction, opened the Junction House.
Named Hotel Coolidge in honor of Colonel John Calvin Coolidge. The father of President Calvin Coolidge, Colonel Coolidge was a frequent guest of the hotel, and his picture still hangs in the lobby, sternly surveying passersby. President Coolidge himself stayed on the first floor in Parlor Room A, preferring by reason of superstition to occupy an unnumbered room.
| | Afternoon: | PRESENTATION: Travel to Lincoln, NH where we visit members of the Flying Yankee Restoration Group for a presentation on their magnificent train.
The mission of the group is to enable present and future generations to celebrate a unique piece of American technology - to understand how it was developed in response to a national and regional need, and how its technology continues to be innovative and world class, even today.
They hope to enable youngsters, parents, neighbors, and guests from all over the world to again understand and experience the enormous impact that railroading has had on northern New England.
They hope to reawaken them to the richness of our small, downtown centers that were generated by railroading, and enable them to experience first-hand what "quality-of-life" has meant for generations in northern New England;
And finally they hope to allow people to read, experience and reconsider the impact railroads have had on America, particularly northern New England's culture and history.
Travel to the hotel for check into the resort | | Dinner: | This evening we board the Café Lafayette Dinner Train for an experience you will long remember. The "Granite Eagle", originally built for the Missouri-Pacific Railroad, operating from St. Louis Missouri to San Antonio Texas in the mid 1950's on the "Texas Eagle". She was then acquired by the Illinois RR and run on train #1, "The City of New Orleans". The unusual dome car was purchased in Pittsburgh Kansas in the late fall of 1995. It was brought across the United States by rail and restored in the engine house of the Hobo Railroad during the winter of 1996. Leslie, Lance and their two chefs, Doug Trulson and Scott Buckland along with a friend Tom Sabourn, made the impossible happen; taking only six months to rebuild exterior steel, design and restore the interior, install new windows, and give this magnificent car a royal blue and white paint job, then renaming her the "Granite Eagle". | |