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The Original W&Q and WW&F: 1894-1933 / Re: The Franklin, Somerset & Kennebec Railway (FS&K)
« on: January 28, 2010, 10:03:40 AM »
Some thought on the FS&K.
In reading what Dana said regarding the efforts of Atwood and the FS&K it focuses my attention on an alternative perspective that I’ve been kicking around in my head for a while. This is not a “definite” truth in my mind, but instead a plausible theory based on common practices of the time that many rail fans do not consider.
As much as I hate to think of it this way, I’m not convinced that the FS&K was ever anything more than a scheme to shake down the Maine Central. These schemes were quite common in New England during the railroad building boom from 1870- 1890 except most of them were done in southern New England, and they were done about ten years earlier than this particular course of events. (So Attwood and the FS&K may have been too late to the game to succeed) The idea was to propose a railroad that created a threat to an already established line and to get them to buy out the backers of the proposed “threat” in order to make it go away. This worked well if the established line was wealthy, and had some small amount of competition to worry about. Usually the people being paid off were the big investors from other places while the local investors were all taken for a ride after being whipped into a frenzy of railroad fever by the schemers. So unlike the local investors that got sucked into these things, the people behind these scheme could not care less if the line ever was built. They just wanted to blackmail the dominant local railroad into a buy-out, and then they would walk away with a bunch of cash in their pockets, preferably with as little up-front investment as possible.
I agree that Attwood was a smart guy. I also think that the FS&K and the creation of the proposed 2 foot gauge system may have just been a scheme to threaten MCRR and get them to pay off the backers of the FS&K to make the “problem” go away. As two foot enthusiasts, we tend to look at this whole thing as a fond “what if”, and as a serious effort. We never stop to think that this was possibly just a big shake down.
Look at this scenario. The original plan was to get the Maine Central’s attention by creating a two foot gauge through-rout that made their lines irrelevant by diverting much of the Franklin county traffic away from the standard gauge. In those days the 2 foot gauge would have been a great prize for a Canadian Pacific, or some other large railroad to take over once it was completed. This would be very much in the minds of the Maine Central’s management. At first the plan succeeded in getting their attention but the plan was soon out flanked. (Legally) Then, Atwood began to build the line but not all the way. He did not heavily invest in railroad equipment like locomotives or a bunch of cars. He did just enough to keep the pressure on the Maine Central. He was able to overcome some of the legal issues regarding the connection in Farmington but the Maine Central kept the pressure on him too and made the project more difficult and costly. Attwood had to up the ante. Many people forget that as the FS&K evolved, it took on several increasingly desperate phases. The first and most well known plan was to simply connect the WW&F with the SR&RL, which was the only plan that made any real sense. As the scheme began to unravel, Attwood and his investors began to look elsewhere to keep the appearance of the threat up. They looked first at connections with the line from Rumford, and later at connections with the Somerset through the proposed Maine Midland RR instead of the WW&F connection. All of these could appear like increasingly desperate attempts to get the MCRR to bite on a buy-out, and as an attempt to re-route the Franklin county traffic to any line but the MCRR. None of these other plans made any sense as an operational railroad with the exception of the original plan of connecting the narrow gauge lines. Eventually, all came to an end as nothing made any sense anymore and the financial backers in Philadelphia(?) and Attwood decided to move on to better prospects. Who knows, perhaps they were in fact paid off in some way. The financial backers for this project have never really been that clear to me though it appears that there were some big shots involved possibly from Phiadelphia?
Has anyone done any real research on who these backers were and what other things they had invested in?
In reading what Dana said regarding the efforts of Atwood and the FS&K it focuses my attention on an alternative perspective that I’ve been kicking around in my head for a while. This is not a “definite” truth in my mind, but instead a plausible theory based on common practices of the time that many rail fans do not consider.
As much as I hate to think of it this way, I’m not convinced that the FS&K was ever anything more than a scheme to shake down the Maine Central. These schemes were quite common in New England during the railroad building boom from 1870- 1890 except most of them were done in southern New England, and they were done about ten years earlier than this particular course of events. (So Attwood and the FS&K may have been too late to the game to succeed) The idea was to propose a railroad that created a threat to an already established line and to get them to buy out the backers of the proposed “threat” in order to make it go away. This worked well if the established line was wealthy, and had some small amount of competition to worry about. Usually the people being paid off were the big investors from other places while the local investors were all taken for a ride after being whipped into a frenzy of railroad fever by the schemers. So unlike the local investors that got sucked into these things, the people behind these scheme could not care less if the line ever was built. They just wanted to blackmail the dominant local railroad into a buy-out, and then they would walk away with a bunch of cash in their pockets, preferably with as little up-front investment as possible.
I agree that Attwood was a smart guy. I also think that the FS&K and the creation of the proposed 2 foot gauge system may have just been a scheme to threaten MCRR and get them to pay off the backers of the FS&K to make the “problem” go away. As two foot enthusiasts, we tend to look at this whole thing as a fond “what if”, and as a serious effort. We never stop to think that this was possibly just a big shake down.
Look at this scenario. The original plan was to get the Maine Central’s attention by creating a two foot gauge through-rout that made their lines irrelevant by diverting much of the Franklin county traffic away from the standard gauge. In those days the 2 foot gauge would have been a great prize for a Canadian Pacific, or some other large railroad to take over once it was completed. This would be very much in the minds of the Maine Central’s management. At first the plan succeeded in getting their attention but the plan was soon out flanked. (Legally) Then, Atwood began to build the line but not all the way. He did not heavily invest in railroad equipment like locomotives or a bunch of cars. He did just enough to keep the pressure on the Maine Central. He was able to overcome some of the legal issues regarding the connection in Farmington but the Maine Central kept the pressure on him too and made the project more difficult and costly. Attwood had to up the ante. Many people forget that as the FS&K evolved, it took on several increasingly desperate phases. The first and most well known plan was to simply connect the WW&F with the SR&RL, which was the only plan that made any real sense. As the scheme began to unravel, Attwood and his investors began to look elsewhere to keep the appearance of the threat up. They looked first at connections with the line from Rumford, and later at connections with the Somerset through the proposed Maine Midland RR instead of the WW&F connection. All of these could appear like increasingly desperate attempts to get the MCRR to bite on a buy-out, and as an attempt to re-route the Franklin county traffic to any line but the MCRR. None of these other plans made any sense as an operational railroad with the exception of the original plan of connecting the narrow gauge lines. Eventually, all came to an end as nothing made any sense anymore and the financial backers in Philadelphia(?) and Attwood decided to move on to better prospects. Who knows, perhaps they were in fact paid off in some way. The financial backers for this project have never really been that clear to me though it appears that there were some big shots involved possibly from Phiadelphia?
Has anyone done any real research on who these backers were and what other things they had invested in?