The legislation of 1859 did not meet the exigencies of the corporation, and application for assistance was again made. To relieve still further the difficulties of the company, the Act of 1860, chapter 202, was passed, in which it was provided that the undelivered portion of the loan of two million of dollars, authorized by chapter 226 of the Acts of 1854, amounting to one million seven hundred and seventy thousand dollars, should be apportioned between the railroad and tunnel, and for the construction of each respectively, and six hundred and fifty thousand dollars was set apart for the completion of the unfinished portion of the railroad, extending from its eastern terminus, near Greenfield, to within half a mile of the eastern end of the Hoosac Tunnel, and one million one hundred and twenty thousand dollars to the completion of the tunnel. The Act provided for the execution to the Commonwealth of such further bond and mortgage as the attorney-general should prescribe, and that such bond and mortgage, as well as all bonds, mortgages or other assurances heretofore made to the Commonwealth by said company, should have priority and be preferred before any and all attachments or levies on execution heretofore or hereafter made. The Act further provided that payments hereafter to be made for work done upon the road and tunnel, should be so made upon estimates of a State engineer, whose appointment and duties were prescribed in the Act. Such estimates were to be based upon a "width of road-bed, at grade, of fifteen feet on embankments, seventeen and a half feet in side cots, and twenty feet in through cuts; in the heading of the tunnel, upon dimensions fourteen feet wide and six feet high in the middle, and in the finished excavation of the tunnel, of fourteen feet wide and eighteen feet high in the middle." And the deliveries of scrip were to be at the rate of fifty dollars for each lineal foot of tunnel, divided between heading and full-sized tunnel, in the proportion of thirty dollars for each lineal foot of heading, and twenty dollars per lineal foot for the remaining excavation, and of six hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the whole of the graduation, masonry, bridging and superstructure of the road east of the tunnel. The weight of the rails was fixed at not less than fifty-six pounds to the lineal yard; the capital stock of the corporation at two millions and a half dollars, including all shares before issued.
By the eighth section of the Act the corporation was authorized to purchase the entire road franchise, stock, bonds, and other property or the Southern Vermont Railroad Company, together with its lease to the Troy and Boston Railroad Company, and subject to its provisions, for the sum of two hundred thousand dollars. This Act repealed all prior legislation inconsistent with its provisions, with a saving of the security which the Commonwealth had, by virtue of its mortgage on the franchise, railroad and property of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company, and was approved April 4, 1860.
1860, July 3. A committee was appointed to execute the mortgage to the Commonwealth required by chapter 202, of the Acts of 1860.
1861, July 30. The directors voted that Mr. Haupt be a committee to appear before the council in reference to the withholding the scrip now due the road; and January 16, 1862, it was voted that Mr. Haupt be authorized to act as the agent and representative of the company in any relation that the company may be brought before the present legislature or any committee thereof.
Previous to the vote of July, 1861, suspicion was excited that Messrs. H. Haupt & Co. were not performing their work in a manner conformable to the requirements of the statute, and it was deemed imprudent to make any further advance of scrip under the Act of 1859, until the work was examined and the condition of the corporation better understood. An inquiry was instituted, a new State engineer appointed, and an investigation of the proceedings of the contractors and corporation was had. The facts disclosed in the examination induced the governor and council to withhold the issue of any more scrip, under the last mentioned law, and the legislature by chapter 156 of the Acts of 1862, passed April 28, assumed the duty of completing the road and tunnel.
The first section of the Act is as follows:—
"The governor, with the advice of the council, is hereby authorized and directed to appoint three able, impartial and skilful commissioners, to investigate the subject of finishing the Troy and Greenfield Railroad, and of tunneling the Hoosac Mountain, whose duty it shall be to report to the governor and council, what in their judgment, will be the most economical, practical and advantageous method of completing said road and tunnel; the estimated cost of fitting the same for use; the time within which the tunnel can be completed, and what contracts can be effected and with what parties for completing said tunnel and road and the probable cost of the same; the probable pecuniary value of the road and tunnel when completed; the sources and amount of traffic and income, and all other facts, in their opinion, useful to assist the governor and council in determining the best method of securing a continuous railroad communication between Troy and Greenfield."
By the second section the Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company was authorized to surrender to the State the property mortgaged.
By the third section the commissioners were authorized to audit and allow all just claims for labor, service, materials and land damages incurred between April 6, 1860 and July 12, 1861, in carrying on the work, and to procure the release and discharge of all attachments and liens upon said materials. $175,000 was appropriated to pay the claimants under the approval of the governor and council.
By the fourth section the commissioners were authorized to use or run that portion of the road east of the mountain or lease the same to the "Vermont and Massachusetts," the "Fitchburg," the "Troy and Boston Railway Company," or either of them, until the completion of the tunnel.