Barre – Graniteville railway line
| Barre VT – Graniteville VT | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | approx. 5 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The railway Barre Graniteville is a single-track railway, Vermont ( United States ). It is about five kilometers long and connects the city of Barre to the places Websterville and Graniteville , as well as numerous granite quarries. The route is operated by the Washington County Railroad in freight traffic.
history
When the Central Vermont Railroad began building a line into the granite mining area south of Barre in 1887 , the Montpelier and Wells River Railroad also wanted to connect to the quarries. The route was established in early 1888. Due to the steep rise in terrain south of Barre, a steep stretch of 264 feet per mile (about 5%) had to be built alongside a hairpin . The railway line has long been considered the steepest adhesion railway east of the Mississippi. On April 9, 1888, the Barre Railroad was founded. A total of 32 kilometers of routes were laid with the sidings. On December 18, 1888, the main track to Graniteville was opened along with about ten kilometers of sidings. In March 1889 the other connections were also completed. In mid-June 1889, the railway company took up passenger traffic to Graniteville. A timetable from January 1893 saw two pairs of trains going to Langdon's (Graniteville) and another to Websterville on Mondays to Fridays, on Saturdays four trains went in each direction to Graniteville and on Sundays operations were idle.
In 1893 Montpelier & Wells River leased the route. The management continued to be incumbent on the Barre Railroad. By the end of 1896, a further eleven kilometers of sidings had been built. A total of 76 individual quarries and 83 loading cranes for granite have now been served. By this time, the railway had carried 29,200 wagonloads of granite and 118,000 passengers, mostly the quarry workers but also day trippers. In 1913, the Barre and Chelsea Railroad took over the line. In 1922 it stopped passenger traffic. In 1957 the Montpelier and Barre Railroad took over the route and since 1981 the Washington County Railroad has operated goods traffic to Graniteville .
Route description
The route begins at Barre station and initially heads south through the city. Along the steeply rising Quarry Hill Road, the railway line reaches the hairpin after about two kilometers. The end of the track is on Sterling Hill Road. The uphill branch of the hairpin runs in a large curve eastwards to Websterville. At Websterville station, the first sidings to the quarries connect, one of which is still served. The actual route to Graniteville leaves the station westwards again, so the trains going through to Graniteville used the station as a second hairpin. The route leads southwest through the forest to Graniteville, where the passenger terminal was located. Further connections, which have now been closed, connected this station with the surrounding quarries. For a while, a ring around Millstone Hill was created over the various sidings, but the eastern connection between Websterville and Graniteville has been shut down and partly no longer exists due to the granite quarrying.
Sources and further information
- literature
- Robert C. Jones: Railroads of Vermont. Volume 2. New England Press Inc., Shelburne VT 1993, ISBN 1-881535-03-7 .
- Robert M. Lindsell: The Rail Lines of Northern New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell, MA 2000, ISBN 0-942147-06-5 .
- Individual evidence