Greenfield – Troy railway line
The Greenfield – Troy railway is a railway line in Massachusetts , Vermont and New York ( United States ). It is about 138 kilometers long and connects among others the cities of Greenfield (Massachusetts) , Pownal (Vermont) , Johnsonville (New York) and Troy (New York) . The route belongs to the Pan Am Railways , which only operate goods traffic on it. Between North Pownal and Hoosick, trains have only been using the parallel North Pownal – Rotterdam Junction railway since 1980 . The Johnsonville to Troy section has been closed and dismantled.
history
prehistory
In the 1840s, plans were made to extend the already operating Fitchburg Railroad towards Vermont and New York. The Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad (VT&MA) was formed and began building from Fitchburg. She reached Greenfield in 1851. From here a stretch should be driven towards the Hudson River . For this purpose, the Troy and Boston Railroad (T&B) was founded in New York in 1849 , the Southern Vermont Railroad in Vermont in 1848 and the Troy and Greenfield Railroad in Massachusetts in 1850 , which were to build the line in their respective states. The management should ultimately be the responsibility of Troy & Boston. In 1851 the Troy Union Railroad (TUR) was also established, which was supposed to connect all routes in the city of Troy. The planned route was to cross the Hoosac Range , an extension of the Green Mountains , drive through the southwest corner of Vermont and then over Eagle Bridge to Troy on the Hudson River. Crossing the mountain range turned out to be a difficult undertaking. An above-ground route was out of the question due to the topological conditions, so that a 7.64 kilometer long tunnel, the Hoosac Tunnel , had to be dug.
construction
Construction soon began and on March 10, 1852, the first trains ran from Troy towards Hoosick Falls, initially from a temporary terminus on Hoosick Street in Troy. Officially, the line went to Hoosick Junction and on to Vermont on August 1, 1852 in operation. On February 22, 1854, Union Station , the city's new central station, was opened in Troy and the route there was extended. The section from Hoosick Street to Union Station belonged to the TUR, which in turn belonged to a third of the T&B. In 1855, the preparatory work for the tunnel began. The route in the direction of Greenfield was not built any further because tunneling stagnated. The next section of the line went into operation in April 1859, so that the trains from Troy could now run to North Adams at the west portal of the tunnel.
Later, tracks were also laid from the east. On January 1, 1868, the section from Greenfield to Shelburne Falls went into operation. Initially, VT&MA ran operations on this section, as the completion of the tunnel was still a long way off. In 1868 only a third of the tunnel was excavated. The route was extended on November 16, 1868 to the eastern tunnel portal, the Hoosac Tunnel station, so that now only the tunnel was missing. It was not until February 9, 1875 that the longest railway tunnel in North America to date outside the Rocky Mountains went into operation. Scheduled traffic was not started until 1876.
Operation and partial shutdown
Work on expanding the line from Greenfield to two tracks soon began. From 1879, however, there was a competitive situation. The Boston, Hoosac Tunnel and Western Railway (BHT & W) had built its own route from Rotterdam Junction over Eagle Bridge towards the Hoosac Tunnel. It ran parallel to the T&B route and passed under it in Hoosac Falls. Initially, this company's trains only ran to North Pownal, but in 1880 the company moved a second track from there to the Vermont / Massachusetts border, and agreed with T&B that both companies would cover the route from North Adams to North Pownal could use together as a double-track line. In the meantime, the line from Greenfield to North Adams had been double-tracked by the T&B, in the Hoosac Tunnel only in 1881. The competitive situation between the two companies, however, became increasingly grotesque. The Fitchburg Railroad, having an interest in having their trains head west, eventually acquired both companies in 1887 and put an end to the arguments. The two routes were now driven from North Pownal to Johnsonville in one-way traffic.
Later the Boston and Maine Railroad took over the Fitchburg and with it the railway line. They electrified the route through the tunnel from Hoosac Tunnel station to North Adams. The overhead line operation began on May 27, 1911. With the switch to diesel locomotives, electrical operation could be given up on August 24, 1946. The second track was dismantled in 1957, initially in the tunnel, and later at other points along the line; today only the section between Shelburne Falls and Buckland is double-track. In January 1958, passenger traffic between Williamstown and Troy ended, and from December 1, 1958 on the rest of the route.
After the TUR was shut down in 1963, through traffic on the line ended and the freight yard on Hoosick Street became the terminus, as before 1854. As a branch line, however, the line was unprofitable and in the summer of 1971 the Boston & Maine stopped the freight traffic between Johnsonville and Troy and closed the section. In 1980 one-way traffic on the parallel North Pownal – Rotterdam Junction railway also ended . One of the two tracks was dismantled, that of the former Troy & Boston between North Pownal and Hoosick and that of BHT & W between Hoosick and Johnsonville, so that only a single-track line is available. The original Greenfield – Troy route between North Pownal and Hoosick and west of Johnsonville has now been closed. After the bankruptcy of Boston & Maine, Pan Am Railways now operate freight traffic on the remaining route. In 2008, the line was incorporated into the Pan Am Southern joint venture between Pan Am Railways and Norfolk Southern to provide the latter with efficient access to the Boston metropolitan area.
Route description
The line begins at Greenfield Station and heads north from the Springfield – East Northfield line . She circles the city in an arc to lead south to the Deerfield River . The route then runs uphill along this river in a westerly direction. After 15 kilometers, Shelburne Junction is reached, where the route of the former New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad joins. This had acquired a right of use from there to Shelburne Falls. At Shelburne Falls Station is the museum of the former Shelburne Falls – Colrain tram that started here. This is where the only two-track section of the line, around five kilometers long, begins today. Further along the Deerfield River, the railway line reaches the Hoosac Tunnel station after just under 50 kilometers.
After the tunnel, the route turns into the valley of the Hoosic River, which it will follow to Johnsonville. On the way the route passes the southwest corner of Vermont. The North Pownal – Rotterdam Junction railway line begins on the western border, in North Pownal, and runs parallel to Johnsonville, often within sight. In Hoosick Falls, the parallel route runs along the riverbank, while the route described here crosses the river and the parallel route on a long steel mesh viaduct. The lines only meet again briefly at Eagle Bridge station, which has been a hub since it opened in 1852. The route here turns from a more north-westerly direction towards the south-west. The parallel lines meet again in Johnsonville. Today the track changes from the route to Troy to the route in the direction of Rotterdam Junction and the dismantled section of the route begins. The route is still well preserved and is used in the urban area of Troy between Northern Drive and Middleburgh Street as a cycle path under the name "Uncle Sam Bikeway". South of Middleburgh Street was the Boston & Maine freight yard, which is now largely built over or used as a parking lot. From Hoosick Street to the former Troy Union Station near Fulton Street, nothing can be seen of the railway line; it has been completely built over. A large part of the Union Station site is also used as a parking lot.
Engineering structures
- see main article Hoosac tunnel
In addition to the well-known Hoosac Tunnel, the route had some striking bridges over the Deerfield River and Hoosic River, as well as several over their tributaries.
Sources and further information
- Individual evidence
- ↑ Mike Walker: Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. New England & Maritime Canada. SPV-Verlag, Dunkirk (GB), 2010.
- ↑ Outline of Boston & Maine History on kinglyheirs.com
- literature
- Robert C. Jones: Railroads of Vermont, Volume II. New England Press Inc., Shelburne, VT 1993. ISBN 978-1881535027 .
- Ronald D. Karr: The Rail Lines of Southern New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell, MA 1995, ISBN 0-942147-02-2 .