Why Was the “Fabled Rutland Milk” Called FABLED?

I, Penney Vanderbilt, named it.

Not only have I written a blog about it, and mentioned it in other blogs, BUT my blog header shows a picture of it passing through the Troy Union Railroad.

So what does “fabled” mean? “famous, especially by reputation”.  Synonyms include: celebrated, renowned, famed, famous, well known

An alternate definition is MYTHICAL: People never believed it was still running.

Now for some facts:

Milk trains were disappearing. The attitude was USE TRUCKS.

The Rutland was disappearing. Well it did; but even their branch to Chatham got cut forcing the trip through Troy.

Any trip through was slow. Can you spell “street running”?

Rutland equipment was old and obsolete. Check out the “rider car”. Even the locomotive was “first generation” diesel.

Look at a map: It started out as far North as you can get in New York State; rolled through Vermont; and went all the way to New York City.

Even Uncle Sam was trying to kill it: Vermont milk could not go to New York City because it was a different “Milk Shed”

The Green Mountain Gateway even used “fabled” to describe the whole railroad:

“The Rutland Railroad was a fabled system located in the New England area. Based out of Rutland, Vermont the railroad is best remembered for the large amount of milk and dairy products it moved over its system and its classic forest green and yellow livery. The railroad finally succumbed to a long battle of money troubles in the early 1960s when a strike collapsed any hope of the Rutland staying solvent as it shutdown operations in 1961.”

Even AMAZON uses the term “FABLED” to describe the Rutland itself (and “pitch a patch“)

“The Rutland Railroad was a fabled system located in the New England area. Based out of Rutland, Vermont the railroad is best remembered for the large amount of milk and dairy products it moved over its system and its classic forest green and yellow livery. The railroad finally succumbed to a long battle of money troubles in the early 1960s when a strike collapsed any hope of the Rutland Railroad staying solvent as it shutdown operations in 1961. Today, happily, much of the former Rutland Railroad system is still operated by successor Green Mountain Railroad, which hauls both freight and excursion passenger service over the line, much to the delight of the thousands of passengers which arrive annually to ride aboard its popular trains.”

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