"It was started by the non-profit RR Museum of New England, the non-profit Empire State Railway Museum and private investors - not sure if all of those are still owners or not?"
A (very) brief history--
The always-for-profit Valley Railroad was originally a combined effort involving Gifford Warner (an Essex river excursion boat operator who had obtained a railroad charter from the state legislature about 1969), Stephen D. Bogen (who obtained a lease for the 21-mile line from the NYNH&H trustees in 1969, to prevent the track from being removed), Empire State Railway Museum (Bogen's leadership of that entity going back to at least 1961, and then the operation by ESRM at Middletown NY 1962-1966), Oliver O. Jensen (Editor and a founder of American Heritage Magazine, and another ESRM leader) and the Connecticut Valley Railroad Association (a group that evolved out of the Warehouse Point Trolley Museum's small steam operation program).
In short, Warner had the legal right to operate a railroad, Bogen and Jensen had some money, and some additional investors to sell stock to, ESRM had some volunteer personnel (mostly from eastern NY State) and some equipment (and Bogen had some of his own equipment- LIRR 44-ton GE and 2-8-0 #97), and CVRA had many local Connecticut volunteers.
The VRR opened on July 29, 1971, having spent about $42,000 to get to that point. By 1975, the railroad was carrying over 100,000 passengers per year, and had at least 4 full time paid staff. ESRM and CVRA (by then a full non-profit as CVRM) each had some shares of stock.
By 1980, ESRM had largely faded from the scene, except for some loans to VRR, and its equipment that was onsite, much of which was transferred about 1986 to CVRM/RMNE.
In 1995, CVRM (which had changed its name to Railroad Museum of New England) commenced a move to the Waterbury-Torrington Branch owned by Conn. DOT, and started operations in 1996. RMNE later sold its VRR stock shares back to VRR.
VRR is still a for-profit stock corporation, with the majority share ownership and operating control resting with Kevin Dodd and his family. As the older individual stockholders have died, their shares have generally been sold back to the company or to a few individual directors. VRR grosses in excess of $7 million annually, and also operates the connecting riverboat, plus another excursion boat line.
Howard P.
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File comment: Oliver Jensen in front of 103 at Unionville, NY 1962, ESRM excursion over M&NJ Railroad. 103 on M&NJ 1962 small.jpg [ 231.1 KiB | Viewed 7066 times ] |