L-40-345 c__-- M E M 0 R A N D U M ------

Washington, D. c. July 12, 1940

TO Director, Bureau of Wage and Service Records

FROM The General Counsel

SUBJECT West River Railroad Company (Abandonment)

The Approved List of Employers contains the name West Ri ver Railroad Company (J. G. Ashley ~ss ee ) with service creditable aft er April 1, 19 , and the name West River Railroad Company with service creditable from May 30, 1930 to March 31, 1933.

In a decision of January 15, 1936 , Finance Docket No. 11011, the Interstat e Corrunerce Corrunission granted t o t he West Ri ver Railroad Company and James G. Ashley, Lessee, per miss ion to abandon the ent ire line of the railroad. Although operat i ons over the major portion of the line were abandoned in 1934, correspondence between J. G. Ashley, the lessee of the railroad, and the Corrunission's Bureau of Statist i c s indicates that Mr. Ashley continued operations of a part of t he rail­ r oad at least unt il Decemb er 31, 1937, and t he powers of attorney and concurrences of West River Railr oad Company, under which Mr. Ashl ey appar ent l y operated, wer e not cancelled unt i l March 1938. Ownership of t he r ai l r oad pa ssed to the State of Ver mo nt during 1936 , and for a time thereafter it was leased t o Presby-Leland Quarrie s, but apparent l y operations by Ashley over the r educed trackage continued in the same manner as under his original l ease. It also appears from corr espondence of the Bureau of Statistics with Vermont White Gr anite Quarries, Inc. , that thi s Company purcha sed the r emaini ng t r ackage f r om the State of Vermont i n March 1938 and thereaft er oper ated i t for the purpose of t ranspor t ing pr oducts of i t s granite quarry to a main line; t his Company seems t o have performed some i ntrast ate corrunon or cont ract carriage over the line , but t her e i s no substant i al indi cati on t ha t i t has ever been a common carrier i n i nter state cor.unerce and i n any event the l ine was completely abandoned i n Mar ch 1939 . The Tarif f Section of the Interstate Comme r ce Commi ssi on' s Bur eau of Traffic cannot l ocate the tari ffs of the West River Railroad Company , presumably becau se of a misfi ling ; in its card index, however, t h er e i s a notation, "li ne abandoned and f ile closed-­ see memor andum dated July 27, 1938 i n Tar iff File ."

I t appear s f r om t he foregoing mater i al t hat t he railr oad in quest ion was operat ed by a Mr . Ashley at least until Dec embe r 31 , 1937 , and pr obably until March 1938, at which time i ts concurrences and powers -2- Memorandum to Director, Bureau of Wage and Service Records

of attorney were cancelled. Probably the tariffs on file were never cancelled by the owners of the railroad or by the lessee but were merely declared inoperative by the Bureau of Traffic, although this is not entirely clear from the available evidence, In any event, it seems that the tariffs could have had no effect after March 1938, at which time both ownership and operations of the railroad line were assumed by Vermont White Granite Quarries, Inc. Accordingly, in my opinion, We st River Railroad Company (J. G. Ashley, Lessee) ceased to be a 11 carrier employer" within the meaning of the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts in March 1938. Compare Regulations, Section 202.11, 202.12.

There are no indications that the individual Ashley thereaf ter performed any services in connection with railroad transportation under the control of a "carrier employer. 11 Nor are there any indications that the West River Railroad Company engaged in any business operations after it r elinquished its ownership of tho road. Consequently, any service with the lessee , in connection with this line of railroad, through the month of March 1938 is creditable under the Acts, but thereafter service to Ashley or any other party in connection with this line of r ailroad is not creditable ; t here appears t o be no r eason for r econsi dering i n this connection the earlier conclusion, indicated on the Approved List of Employers, that service to Wost River Railroad Company is creditable only to March 31, 1938.

Lester P. Schoene General Counsel