drone video My Town, Island Pond, VT

[ckf]

Here's a video of the village of Island Pond, Vermont. I live about two miles from the village. Here's a little info from Wiki.

Island Pond became an important railroad center in 1853 when the Grand Trunk Railway established international connections between Montreal, Quebec, and Portland, Maine. The half-way point in the Portland-Montreal railroad line, this town became a booming railroad center with a roundhouse, shops, and all the facilities associated with train operations. In 1923 the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada was bankrupt and taken over by the Canadian government and operated as the Canadian National Railways. With the Canadian government directing the railroad, political considerations soon outweighed the economics of the railroad; commerce was displaced from the port of Portland to the Canadian ports of Halifax and St. John. The importance of the Portland line then began a decline which was never to be reversed. Island Pond's days as a major railroad town were over by the late 1950s due to the elimination of steam locomotives. By 1960 passenger train service to Portland had ended, and three years later the diesel locomotive shop was closed. In 1966 the roundhouse closed, and barely a skeleton staff of people worked in Island Pond. Canadian National continued to operate freight service to Portland until 1988; the following year the line was sold to a short line operator, the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad, which provides service to this day.

 

 

[dz246]

Nice vid ckf  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but also.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

[SVT MXZ XRS]

Still waiting for the crash footage

[dz246]

5 minutes ago, SVT Renegade XRS said:

Still waiting for the crash footage

x2

[$poorsledder$]

When we did our sledding in Vermont, Island Pond was always a stop.  Always amazed by the amount of sleds and the food businesses filled with people.

I was never personally bothered by Officer Teddy but I can remember him walking around ticketing sledders for loud pipes. I remember seeing a small detour sign at the rail crossing coming into town one day and almost blowing through it only to find out later Teddy was at the other end handing out citations.  You guys miss him?

[ckf]

16 minutes ago, $poorsledder$ said:

When we did our sledding in Vermont, Island Pond was always a stop.  Always amazed by the amount of sleds and the food businesses filled with people.

I was never personally bothered by Officer Teddy but I can remember him walking around ticketing sledders for loud pipes. I remember seeing a small detour sign at the rail crossing coming into town one day and almost blowing through it only to find out later Teddy was at the other end handing out citations.  You guys miss him?

Teddy was gone by the time we moved here. But no, he is not missed. I never had a problem with Teddy, but my father inlaw wasn't his biggest fan, LOL.

[Edmo]

So how did you end up in that town CKF? I always wondered what kind of business was there to keep that place going. I guess I’m just used to the hustle and bustle of a bigger area. Never seems like much going on in your pics.  

[Highmark]

Very Nice.   We are at least a week or two behind you with our fall foliage color.  

[ckf]

10 minutes ago, Edmo said:

So how did you end up in that town CKF? I always wondered what kind of business was there to keep that place going. I guess I’m just used to the hustle and bustle of a bigger area. Never seems like much going on in your pics.  

We moved here to be closer to Nicole's family. She spent over 20 years near my family, it was her turn   It's a tourist area that attracts mostly Connecticut and western Massachusetts tourists. Summer is the busiest season with two fairly large campgrounds in the area. Weekends during the winter can be busy if the snow is good. I wouldn't want to be in a tourism / restaurant / service business here though, I don't think there would be enough local business to keep you going during the off-season. Last winter there was one restaurant open in town. By this summer we had three. I don't expect to see more than one survive the winter unless the owners want to throw a bunch of money at it to keep it going  

[Cold War]

15 minutes ago, ckf said:

We moved here to be closer to Nicole's family. She spent over 20 years near my family, it was her turn   It's a tourist area that attracts mostly Connecticut and western Massachusetts tourists. Summer is the busiest season with two fairly large campgrounds in the area. Weekends during the winter can be busy if the snow is good. I wouldn't want to be in a tourism / restaurant / service business here though, I don't think there would be enough local business to keep you going during the off-season. Last winter there was one restaurant open in town. By this summer we had three. I don't expect to see more than one survive the winter unless the owners want to throw a bunch of money at it to keep it going  

What do you do for work?

[Edmo]

9 minutes ago, ckf said:

We moved here to be closer to Nicole's family. She spent over 20 years near my family, it was her turn   It's a tourist area that attracts mostly Connecticut and western Massachusetts tourists. Summer is the busiest season with two fairly large campgrounds in the area. Weekends during the winter can be busy if the snow is good. I wouldn't want to be in a tourism / restaurant / service business here though, I don't think there would be enough local business to keep you going during the off-season. Last winter there was one restaurant open in town. By this summer we had three. I don't expect to see more than one survive the winter unless the owners want to throw a bunch of money at it to keep it going  

I understand what you’re saying. The businesses up by where I ride are in the same boat, and everything is for sale it seems. You really have to rock in the busy times to make it through the lean times. 1 crappy summer or low snow winter and they’re in trouble.

 

[ckf]

15 minutes ago, Cold War said:

What do you do for work?

I used to be in the canoe and kayak business in NH before I moved here. Now it's mostly building / hosting websites and photography. Rob has been a big help teaching me both. This year he has been showing me a lot of the local villages and lakes/ponds to photograph that sold well for him before he retired.

15 minutes ago, Edmo said:

I understand what you’re saying. The businesses up by where I ride are in the same boat, and everything is for sale it seems. You really have to rock in the busy times to make it through the lean times. 1 crappy summer or low snow winter and they’re in trouble.

Exactly. We used to rent snowmobiles for a winter business when I was in NH. When the snow was good it was a nice steady income to get us through the winter. During the low snow years it sucked. The only ones that made out during those winters was the insurance company, LOL. At least we always had the summers to make the cash. I can only think of one summer in the 15 years that I did it that it seemed to rain every weekend. And when it didn't rain the river was to high to put the rental canoes and kayaks out. That year was pretty lean with just the sales side to keep us going.