Yes, it does.

It was quite common for communities to finance railroad construction, and in
some cases to bid to secure the service which would be offered. Although I
cannot quickly find anything about communities bidding against each other to
secure a route and stop, I find these references to municipal ownership.
Town records from the railroad construction era may well reveal a town's
degree of participation by underwriting construction. State legislation
authorized the support, sometimes on a town-by-town and project-by-project
basis.

From Jim Shaughnessey's "Delaware &Hudson":
p. 71, re construction of the Albany and Susquehanna: "In March [1852]  the
New York State legislature authorized the village of Binghamton to subscribe
to $50,000 worth of stock and to offer more than double that amount in other
forms of financial assistance."
P. 74: "After much agitation the lawmakers, in 1857, granted this permission
[to buy stock] to all the towns in the counties through which the A&S was
proposed to run, Many objections to town subscriptions were raised and even
the constitutionality of the law was contested, but the courts upheld the
bill... Late in 1867, stock subscritpions had been secured from twenty towns
and, with Binghamton's contribution, almost a million dollars were on
hand..."

From Edward A. Hagan's "Pride of the Valley" [Schoharie Valley railroads]:
P. 3 "The town of Schoharie was to bond itself for an amount of $30,000.00
and never received a dividend. It also gave to the Schoharie Valley Railroad
Company $20,000.00 in bonds given by the state for having an excess of
volunteers during the Civil War. The town of Middleburgh bonded itself to
the amount of $50,000.00. It yearly elected a railroad commissioner to look
after its interests. For a number of years the town benefited by a 3 per
cent dividend."

I believe some towns still held stock certificates or bonds late in the 20th
century, although I know not whether they were of any value by then. I
recall from the early 1970s there was some discussion at a Cobleskill town
board meeting about the town's railroad bonds however I forget just what the
discussion was - - perhaps finding them in an old safe or perhaps selling or
trying to sell them, or finding that they had been sold years before.

----- Original Message -----
From: "HistorianCindyA" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 12:31 AM
Subject: Railroads


> Does the below mean towns were bidding to see where the railroad would go?
The railroads putting tracts through the town with the higest bid?
>
> Batavia, Genesee County
> Progressive Batavian
> Friday December 10 1869
> Railroad Meeting.--There is to be a Railroad meeting at Pavilion Centre on
> Wednesday the 15th inst.  The people are becoming very much waked up about
> that Rochester and Pennsylvania road.  The contest is now which route will
> bid highest.  We wish our Pavillion friends success in their aspirations.
>
>
> --
> Cindy Amrhein
> Town of Alabama Historian
> in Genesee Co., NY
> Experience the Town of Alabama in Genesee County, NY.
> http://www2.pcom.net/cinjod/historian/
> APHNYS (Association of Public Historians of New York State)
> http://www.tier.net/aphnys
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> Your favorite stores, helpful shopping tools and great gift ideas.
Experience the convenience of buying online with Shop@Netscape!
http://shopnow.netscape.com/
>
> Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at
http://webmail.netscape.com/