Lunenburg – Maquam railway line

Lunenburg VT - Maquam VT
Route length:	193.7 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from Portland 0.0 Lunenburg VT 3.7 Gilman VT (formerly Fitzdale) 6.8 East Concord VT 11.3 Miles Pond VT 16.7 North Concord VT (formerly Essex) after Steven's 22.5 Concord VT (formerly West Concord) 28.5 East St. Johnsbury VT Moose River (2 ×) Passumpsic River from Lennoxville 35.4 St. Johnsbury VT to White River Junction Sleepers River Interstate 91 53.9 Danville VT 59.3 West Danville VT 61.6 Joe's Pond VT 67.1 Walden VT 73.8 Dow VT Lamoille River 80.1 Greensboro Bend VT 85.3 East Hardwick VT Lamoille River (2 ×) 91.3 Hardwick VT Lamoille River by Woodbury (Granite Junction) Lamoille River (2 ×) 101.4 Wolcott VT Lamoille River Wild Branch River Lamoille River 114.1 Morrisville VT Lamoille River 118.4 Hyde Park VT Lamoille River 126.1 Johnson VT ? East Cambridge VT 138.8 Cambridge Junction VT to Burlington Lamoille River 146.1 Fletcher VT 154.9 East Fairfield VT 161.6 Fairfield VT 169.1 Sheldon VT Missisquoi River Connection to St. Albans St. Albans – Richford route 171.5 Sheldon Junction VT to Longueuil 176.1 East Highgate VT 181.7 Highgate VT Interstate 89 Connection to Fonda Jct. and Saint-Jean Fonda Jct. – Iberville route 187.9 East Swanton VT St. Albans tram Missisquoi River Connection to Rouses Point Essex Jct.-Rouses Point route 190.1 Swanton VT from Ogdensburg 193.7 Maquam VT

The railway Lunenburg Maquam is a railway line in Vermont ( United States ). It is 193.7 kilometers long and connects the cities of Lunenburg , St. Johnsbury , Hardwick , Morrisville , Swanton and Maquam , among others . Only the section from Lunenburg to St. Johnsbury is still in operation and is operated irregularly by the Twin State Railroad in freight traffic.

history

prehistory

In the 1860s, entrepreneurs planned to build a rail line from Portland, Maine to Ogdensburg, New York . In Maine and New Hampshire, the Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad was founded, which began in 1869 with the construction of the Portland – Lunenburg railway line . In Vermont, three railway companies were founded from 1864 to 1867 with the aim of building sections of the line in the state. The Essex County Railroad received the concession for the section from Lunenburg to St. Johnsbury in 1864. The Montpelier and St. Johnsbury Railroad wanted to connect their eponymous routes and the Lamoille Valley Railroad wanted a branch route from the Montpelier & St. Johnsbury in West Danville to Swanton. Soon, Montpelier & St. Johnsbury announced their plan to continue building from West Danville to Montpelier as the city of Montpelier showed no interest in the project.

construction

Construction began on Christmas Eve 1867 in St. Johnsbury and six days later in Swanton. At the end of October 1870, an industrial connection was opened in St. Johnsbury, which was to be the first one and a half kilometer section of the route towards Maquam. On January 1, 1872, the first section of the route from St. Johnsbury via Danville to Hardwick went through Montpelier & St. Johnsbury and the Lamoille Valley in operation. At the end of January 1872, Essex County opened the section of the route from St. Johnsbury to Concord. In the west Wolcott was reached in October 1872 and Morrisville on December 31 of the same year, where further construction was initially interrupted. Instead, construction was continued on the eastern section of the route. In September 1875 the border at Lunenburg was reached, up to which the Portland railway line was opened at the end of the year.

Now it went on in the west too. From the end of 1874 the line to Johnson was in operation and on June 29, 1877 the railway reached Cambridge Junction, where the Burlington – Cambridge Junction railway was completed on the same day . Scheduled operations with continuous trains from St. Johnsbury to Burlington began three days later. On July 30 of the same year, the section from Cambridge Junction to Swanton finally went into operation. The last section to Maquam followed in the spring of 1880. A hotel was built in Maquam and there was a transition to ferry boats to Plattsburgh. On July 1, 1880, the St. Johnsbury and Lake Champlain Railroad (StJ & LC) took over the entire railway line from the three predecessor companies.

Further development

In 1887 the Boston and Maine Railroad leased the line, but the operation continued to run by StJ & LC. The lease was terminated in 1925. In 1912 the StJ & LC sold the section from Lunenburg to St. Johnsbury to the Maine Central Railroad , which Portland & Ogdensburg had taken over. The continuous operation was discontinued, from now on had to be changed in St. Johnsbury. Regular passenger traffic to Maquam only existed in summer from the beginning of the 20th century, at other times the trains ended in Swanton. The Swanton – Maquam section was closed in 1917.

The railway line was damaged in a flood in November 1927, the bridge over the Passumpsic River in St. Johnsbury and the section from Morrisville to Cambridge Junction could only be reopened on February 15, 1928. Many other bridges also had to be replaced. In 1948, the St. Johnsbury and Lamoille County Railroad took over the StJ & LC. In 1956 it ceased passenger services between St. Johnsbury and Swanton. In 1958 this also ended between Lunenburg and St. Johnsbury. Around 1967 the section between East Swanton and Swanton was closed. All traffic west of St. Johnsbury ended on September 15, 1972 by order of the authorities due to poor track conditions and closure plans were announced. The line was closed in November, but just a few days later another train derailed and operations ceased. The state then bought the line in December 1973 and leased it to new owners who resumed operations under the same name, St. Johnsbury and Lamoille County Railroad , initially only from Morrisville to East Swanton. Only in mid-August 1974 was traffic between St. Johnsbury and Morrisville resumed after necessary repairs. In October 1976 the government leased the line to the Vermont Northern Railroad and from January 1, 1978 to the Lamoille Valley Railroad .

In June 1984 a bridge at Sheldon was damaged by a derailment, which led to the cessation of operations between Johnson and East Swanton. Since 1980, the section between Highgate and East Swanton had only been used for parking cars. The line was repaired, but regular freight traffic was no longer possible. Also in 1984, the Lamoille Valley founded the Twin State Railroad , which leased the section from St. Johnsbury to Lunenburg and on to Whitefield (New Hampshire) and operated from June 26, 1985. In the summer of 1985, the Lamoille Valley began offering excursion trains to tourists between Joes Pond, and occasionally from St. Johnsbury, and Morrisville.

Around the end of 1988 operations between Morrisville and Johnson ended, and in the fall of 1994 between St. Johnsbury and Morrisville. Although the closure of the route from Morrisville to Swanton was approved in 1996 and should be completed on October 18 of that year, the railway company withdrew the application, but did not resume operations. The lease was terminated on February 19, 1998 and since then the line west of St. Johnsbury has been in the hands of the state, which closed the line in 2004, dismantled the tracks and partially laid a bridle path and footpath on it. Scheduled freight traffic between Lunenburg and St. Johnsbury ended on October 1, 1999, but the route is still used for occasional journeys by the Twin State Railroad.

Route description

The line forms the western continuation of the Portland – Lunenburg railway line . It begins at the bridge over the Connecticut River , which is the state border between New Hampshire and Vermont. Along the Connecticut River it leads west through Gilman, where it leaves the valley and continues northwest to Miles Pond. It runs on the north bank of Miles Pond and shortly afterwards reaches the Moose River at North Concord . Along this river, parallel to US Highway 2 , the route now leads winding downhill to the valley of the Passumpsic River, which is crossed at St. Johnsbury. The St. Johnsbury junction station on the White River Junction – Lennoxville railway line used to be an important transfer point towards Montréal. Through coaches were also handed over here from Portland and White Mountains to Canada.

The route leaves St. Johnsbury westwards and begins the ascent into the Green Mountains, which had to be crossed between St. Johnsbury and Danville. In order to avoid steep stretches, the route had to be artificially lengthened with serpentine curves. There are only ten kilometers as the crow flies between St. Johnsbury and Danville stations, but trains traveled a distance of 18.5 kilometers. In West Danville, the railway line reaches the Joe Brook Valley . Past Joes Pond, the train now leads uphill again in a north-westerly direction. At Greensboro Bend, the route makes a tight 180 ° curve and descends into the valley of the Lamoille River.

It follows this via Hardwick and Morrisville west to Cambridge Junction. Here the railway crosses the Lamoille for the last time and now leads out of the valley northwards to Fairfield and Sheldon. In Sheldon the Missisquoi River is crossed, which the railway now follows westwards again. This river is crossed again in Swanton and the route continues westward to Maquam on the banks of Lake Champlain . In Sheldon, East Swanton and Swanton other railway lines are crossed at the same level, of which only the main line Essex Junction-Rouses Point is in operation today. In East Swanton there were connecting curves that were used as planned in freight traffic from around 1967 when the bridge over the Missisquoi near Swanton was closed.

Many bridges along the way were originally covered wooden bridges. Only one of these covered bridges remains at Wolcott, most of them were destroyed by floods over time and replaced by steel structures.

Accidents

On July 31, 1885, a mixed train pulled by two locomotives in the direction of Maquam, west of St. Johnsbury , crashed into a creek bed after a downpour made the creek swell so much that it washed away the bridge. Since the passenger car drove at the end of the train as usual, only the locomotive crews were injured.

A head-on collision west of Greensboro between a mixed train and a freight train occurred on May 5, 1944. The Greensboro dispatcher had forgotten to notify the mixed train staff of the intersection with the unscheduled freight train in Greensboro. The stoker of the mixed train was killed in the accident.

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. ↑ http://www.trainweb.org/nhrra/Mileage-Charts/BM-RR/StJ-LC.htm
3. ↑ Official Guide of the Railways, June 1941. Page 65.

literature

• Robert C. Jones: Railroads of Vermont, Volume II. New England Press Inc., Shelburne, VT 1993. ISBN 978-1881535027 .
• Robert M. Lindsell: The Rail Lines of Northern New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell, MA 2000, ISBN 0-942147-06-5 .