V&T line relocation and more

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The former V&T by 1890 was nowhere near alone in relocating and
straightening out kinks and grades where possible on their lines to move
goods, services and people quicker and less expensively from point A to B.
Only when a study like this pops up do we occasionally see excellent
documentation for what was where and when the changes were made.

Noteworthy was the Southern Railway which did exactly the same thing for
its Washington, DC to Atlanta mainline between 1901 and 1918 or
thereabouts. In many cases, it is easy to still see today without much of a
guide like this video footage just observed is not available. Others are
not as obvious but they are there nonetheless. The B&O was noteworthy doing
it under PRR control in the early 1900s on its OML between Baltimore and
Point of Rocks, the Metropolitan Branch was done between the 1880s and
1928, the PRR between Baltimore and Philly, today's NE corridor of Amtrak
also in the early 1900s, the RF&P, and the list can be endless.

More intriguing are places where lines were planned and at least partially
built, but never completed mostly for financial reasons like the B&O's
Valley RR of Virginia between Lexington & Salem, Southern Railway's work
done around Chattanooga, the so-called Titanic RR of Southern New England
that was halted because its leader just happened to be on Titanic. The most
famous, or perhaps infamous such episode was, of course, the South Penn
where the Pennsy and NY Central made their little hissy fit until J.P.
Morgan was able to persuade better intelligence to the parties of the first
and second parts to make peace and not piecemeal of each other.

The small portion of the old V&T r-o-w shown must be just a snippet of the
type of work done in the early years and over the years and whenever I can
find such books that outline such changes in regions close to me, I like to
go chase the area and see for myself, without trespassing of course.

Always remember to obtain permission before entering a property.

Bob Cohen
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