Report of the Hoosac Tunnel and Troy and Greenfield Railroad, by the Joint Standing Committee of 1866.

SENATE……
……No. 59.
REPORT ON THE HOOSAC TUNNEL AND TROY AND GREENFIELD RAILROAD, BY THE JOINT STANDING COMMITTEE OF 1866.
BOSTON: WRIGHT & POTTER, STATE PRINTERS, No. 4 Spring Lane. 1867.
Hon. Joseph A. Pond, President of the Senate .
Sir:—I herewith transmit to the legislature the Report of the Joint Standing Committee of 1866 on the Hoosac Tunnel and Troy and Greenfield Railroad.
I am very respectfully Your obedient servant,
TAPPAN WENTWORTH, Chairman .
The Joint Standing Committee of 1866 on the Hoosac Tunnel and the Troy and Greenfield Railroad, authorized to visit the tunnel and railroad, examine into the condition and progress of the work, and to report fully the result of such examination respectfully
REPORT:
That since the adjournment of the legislature the Committee in a body visited the tunnel and railroad in June, and again in October, and they continued their examination of the condition and progress of the work by sub-committees in the months of July, August, September, November and December; (one of the examinations being exclusively devoted to the operations on the railroad which were commenced late in October;) the others to the tunnel and the various structures and mechanical operations connected therewith, including an examination of the existing contracts, and an inquiry into the general organization adopted to carry out the laws and purposes of the State in regard to the enterprise.
The Committee have also examined the records and the doings of the directors of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad from the organization of the corporation until the surrender of the railroad to the State, and have made extracts from the records to show the financial condition of the corporation, its dealings with the contractors for constructing the road and tunnel, and also the embarrassed condition of the contractors and corporation from 1855 to 1861, which finally led to the practical abandonment of the contract on the part of Messrs. H. Haupt & Company, and the surrender of the road to the State under the mortgages which had been given to secure the loan advanced by the Commonwealth in aid of the road and tunnel. These extracts from the records, with extracts from some of the laws passed upon the subject of the railroad and tunnel, together with remarks of the Committee upon the legislation of the State, the doings of the directors, and their efforts and those of the contractors to prosecute the enterprise being too long for the body of this Report, will be found in the Appendix at A. And a synopsis of the action and condition of the corporation at the time of, and previous to the surrender of the road, and the relation of the contractors to the corporation and to the State, will be stated before entering upon the particular description of the condition and progress of the work the present year, as observed by the Committee.