Fonda Junction – Iberville railway line

Fonda Junction VT– Iberville QC
Route length:	56 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from Essex Junction 0 Fonda Junction VT (formerly Swanton Junction) to Rouses Point Missisquoi River Connection quarry Connection to Lunenburg 3 East Swanton VT Lunenburg – Maquam route Connection from Lunenburg 10 Highgate Springs VT Vermont ( USA ) / Québec ( Canada ) 18th St. Armand QC from Sorel from Philipsburg 27 Stanbridge QC Rivière aux Brochets 32 Des Rivières QC 43 Saint-Alexandre QC from Waterloo 56 Iberville QC Saint-Hyacinthe – Noyan Jct route. to Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu

The railway junction Fonda Iberville is a railway line in Vermont ( United States ) and Quebec ( Canada ). It is 56 kilometers long and connects the cities of Swanton , Saint-Armand , Stanbridge and Iberville , among others . Except for a short freight connection at Fonda Junction, the line has been closed.

history

The Vermont Central Railroad had built a line to Rouses Point in 1851 to carry trains to Montreal . However, the connection was a detour and therefore unsatisfactory. So the Montreal and Vermont Junction Railway was founded in Canada and a branch was built that branched off the Vermont-Central main line at Swanton Junction (now Fonda Junction) and headed north on a more direct route. In Iberville, it joined an existing route on the Stanstead, Shefford and Chambly Railroad , which was bought by Vermont Central. The new connection went into operation on November 18, 1864. From then on, the Vermont Central trains went to Montreal on this route and the detour via Rouses Point was omitted.

Local traffic along the route was sparse. The route was intended to be a shortcut and was therefore largely straightforward, regardless of the location of the places near the route. Stanbridge station, for example, is three kilometers from the nearest larger settlement, Bedford . Parts of the through traffic also ceased from 1897, when a further line from the main line of the railway company, which had meanwhile been reorganized into Central Vermont Railway (CV), was opened northwards by the Canada Atlantic Railway , which could also be used by the CV. In 1946 all express trains to Montreal were diverted via this route and passenger traffic on the route known as the St. Armand Subdivision was discontinued. Freight traffic on the Canadian section of the route ended in 1952, and between East Swanton and Highgate Springs in 1956. In East Swanton crossed the railway line of the St. Johnsbury and Lamoille County Railroad , on which cars were regularly passed. After a bridge in Swanton could no longer be used on this route, the company let its trains run between East Swanton and Fonda Junction and handed them over to CV instead of Swanton in Fonda Junction. This traffic ended in 1980 and finally in 2004 the section from a quarry south of East Swanton to the East Swanton junction station was officially closed. The short stretch to the quarry has been served by the New England Central Railroad since 1995 , after it took over the CV.

Route description

The line branches off at Fonda Junction from the Essex Junction – Rouses Point railway line and heads north. It crosses the Missisquoi River and after about two kilometers the tracks end today at the quarry loading station. Shortly thereafter, the route reaches the East Swanton junction station, where there were connecting curves from both directions on the crossing route to the east. The route continues north to Highgate Springs on Lake Champlain . From a point north of East Swanton to the level of Rock River Bay, the route was used for the construction of Interstate 89 . The disused railway line continues in a north-easterly direction across the Canadian border and after a few kilometers reaches Saint-Armand. Here it turns to the north and shortly afterwards to the northwest and continues in a straight line. Due to the agricultural use of the route area after the closure, the railway line is hardly recognizable today. The route has only been preserved in sections. The Stanbridge hub was primarily used as a transfer station in the direction of Philipsburg, Bedford and Farnham. The Stanbridge Station settlement that developed around the station still bears witness to the former railway system. The line joins the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu – Waterloo railway line, opened in 1858, a few kilometers east of Iberville . The few local trains mostly continued on this route to Saint-Jean.

Sources and further information

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mike Walker: Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. New England & Maritime Canada. SPV-Verlag, Dunkirk (GB), 2010.
2. ↑ Mike Walker: Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. Quebec & Labrador + Newfoundland. SPV-Verlag, Dunkirk (GB), 2010.

literature

• Robert C. Jones: Railroads of Vermont, Volume I. New England Press Inc., 1993. ISBN 1-881535-01-0 .
• Robert M. Lindsell: The Rail Lines of Northern New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell, MA 2000, ISBN 0-942147-06-5 .