Leicester – Ticonderoga railway line

Leicester VT – Ticonderoga NY
Society:	most recently Rutland
Route length:	23½ km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from Bellows Falls 0 Leicester VT (formerly Leicester Junction) to Burlington 5 Whiting VT 9½ Shoreham VT (formerly East Shoreham) Lemon Fair River 13 Orwell VT 17½ Houghs Crossing VT 21½ Larrabee's Point VT Lake Champlain , VT / NY border from Troy 23½ Ticonderoga NY ( Amtrak , formerly Fort Ticonderoga) to Rouses Point

The Leicester – Ticonderoga railway was a railway line in Vermont and New York ( United States ). It was about 14 miles long and connected the cities of Leicester , Whiting , Shoreham and Ticonderoga , among others . The line has been completely shut down and the tracks have been dismantled.

history

The Addison Railroad Company was founded in 1867 to build a railroad from the main route of the Rutland Railroad to Fort Ticonderoga across Lake Champlain . Construction began on November 5, 1870. The Rutland leased this railway company before it opened and also ran the business, which opened on December 1, 1871. Initially the trains drove beyond Fort Ticonderoga to Port Henry , but only until 1874. Freight cars were handed over to the Delaware and Hudson Railroad in Ticonderoga.

Between Larrabee's Point and Fort Ticonderoga, the train crossed Lake Champlain on the Great Eastern Drawbridge , which was composed of a yoke bridge , swing bridge and pontoon bridge . The complicated wooden construction had to be declared unsafe in 1917. Locomotives and passenger cars were no longer allowed to cross the rotating pontoon bridge; they now pushed the freight cars over it, which were picked up by a locomotive on the other side. On March 20, 1918, three freight wagons fell into the ice of the lake when part of the Joch Bridge collapsed. The bridge was repaired because federal funds were available for reasons of the ongoing First World War. On July 28, 1920, however, part of the Jochbrücke collapsed under a locomotive, which damaged the bridge so badly that it could not be repaired. In addition, the war was over and the federal government was no longer interested in the railway infrastructure. Since after the opening of a Rutland route to Rouses Point in 1901, through traffic on the route had almost come to a standstill, and only regional traffic in the direction of Leicester took place, repairing the dilapidated bridge seemed too expensive anyway. The section from Larrabee's Point to Fort Ticonderoga was officially closed in May 1923.

At the beginning of 1951, regular tourist traffic was discontinued, and mixed trains only ran when required. On May 21, 1951, all traffic between Orwell and Larrabee's Point ended and this section was closed. In 1953 the Rutland also closed the section from Whiting to Orwell. A strike on September 25, 1961 also led to the cessation of freight traffic on the remaining section. Four days earlier, a spectacular transport of a 12-meter-wide grain store from Whiting to Leicester Junction had been completed, which had taken 20 days and for which several cuts in the railway line had to be expanded with targeted blasts. The grain store belonged to the only remaining freight customer on the railway line, and was moved to Leicester Junction at the railway company's expense in order to be able to shut down the ailing line without losing the customer. On September 18, 1962, the line from Leicester Junction to Whiting was officially closed and the tracks were dismantled as a result.

Route description

The line begins at Leicester station and branches off the main Rutland line in a triangular track. It leads westward, not in a river valley, but winding over a ridge through Whiting, Shoreham and Orwell. Several smaller streams had to be crossed, the most noticeable river crossing along the route was that over the Lemon Fair River in East Shoreham. The covered bridge was restored in 1984 by the Shoreham Historical Society and has been preserved in good condition. The most striking structure on the route, however, was the already described wooden bridge over Lake Champlain. No components of this bridge have survived, but the railroad embankments on both sides are still there.

Accidents

In December 1879, a locomotive derailed and fell down an embankment. All three people who were on the locomotive died. At that time, derailments were the order of the day, due to the inadequate maintenance of the Central Vermont Railroad , which Rutland had leased for several years and which operated at times. The line speed had been limited to 15 miles per hour. It wasn't until the beginning of the 1890s that the line was rehabilitated and the speed could be increased to 20 miles again.

Sources and further information

Individual evidence

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

literature

• Robert C. Jones: Railroads of Vermont, Volume I. New England Press Inc., Shelburne, VT 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 .

Web links

• private site on the railway line with many photos (English)