That Chief Engineer Melick built cheaply and poorly should not have come as any surprise as Melick had no formal training as a civil engineer and knew very little about railroading either. Indeed, he seemed much better suited in his role as a marketeer, than as a builder, of the RVRR project. Apparently, the allure of running a railroad was greater to Melick than any desire to master the key financial aspects of rail operations. To emphasize this point, in 1907, some 17 years after the railroad opened for business, the New Jersey Railroad Commissioners inspected the railroad and issued a report that was highly critical of the engineering of the RVRR. In part, the report stated: