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"The Switch Tender" Speaks

How Did This Site Come To Be?
       Ever since my undergraduate days I have collected photos, maps, and other information about the M&WR and the B&C. In recent years, a small group of similarly interested people, most of them scale model railroaders, have exchanged information more or less regularly by email. Some in this group have built entire layouts featuring scenes from the M&WR or B&C, while others are still planning, but a common theme in most of these emails is the ongoing quest for historical accuracy. I (Irv Thomae) decided to register the domain name "mwrrr.org", and set up this website, so that others with data or memories to share - people of whom we may have been completely unaware - can join in these discussions.

       If this site works as hoped, much of the credit should go to my colleague and friend Marion Bates, who has provided server space and installed the "phpBB" forum software for us. Discussions are indexed by category (M&WR, B&C), by general focus, and by topic, and will remain on view as long as we like. Unless deleted, all messages are automatically entered into a database which supports full text searches. Even if you remember only a few words from a year-old discussion on this site, you should easily be able to find it.

Why "mwrrr.org"?
      To those who remember the post-merger days, when the "MWR" herald had long since disappeared, it may seem that this site should feature the B&C. But though less prosperous, the M&WR was in fact the senior member of the family, and its independent life spanned many more decades than the years under the B&C flag. So since this is all about "looking back" anyway, why shouldn't we look back to the days when "Montpelier & Wells River" was at least as well known as "Barre & Chelsea"?

Why Are the Forums Organized by Town?
       In my student days at a large urban university, when recreating the Vermont countryside in miniature seemed a more achievable goal than actually living in or near it, what first attracted me to these particular roads was their scenery. With my first actual visits to M&WR territory, I also began to appreciate the wealth of industrial architecture in this region, such as warehouses that have no square corners (the better to fit the available space), "round" stone sheds, and the forests of derrick booms and guy ropes that once made South Ryegate and parts of Barre look as if Gulliver had just escaped. But it was when I joined a local historical society, and got involved in taking oral histories, that at last I began to appreciate how thoroughly these railroads were interwoven with the complex fabric of everyday life. Small towns certainly were more self-sufficient in the 1920's, 30's, and 40's than today, but they depended on the railroads to take their products to market and bring back the supplies that could not be made or grown locally. The towns fed these railroads, and these railroads fed the towns. That was probably true of short lines and branch lines throughout the USA, but back then, every state and every region had subtle flavorings of their own.

       Because I now understand that the full story of the M&WR and the B&C is inseparable from the stories of their towns, I hope to encourage residents, historians, and folklorists from each of them to join in our conversations. Over time, the result can be both better data for more accurate models, and a richer assortment of vignettes that can bring to life the times and places that our models represent.
So, whether your primary interest is in one of these railroads, or in one of their towns, please join us and share some of your stories.

Irv Thomae
aka "The Switch Tender"