White River Junction – Lennoxville railway line
The railway line White River Junction-Lennoxville is a single-track railway, Vermont ( United States ) and Quebec ( Canada ). It is 227 kilometers long and connects the cities of White River Junction , Wells River , St. Johnsbury , Newport and Lennoxville , among others . Only the section from White River Junction to Newport is still in operation and is operated by the Washington County Railroad in freight traffic. An occasional excursion train, the White River Flyer travels approximately seven kilometers from White River Junction to Norwich .
history
prehistory
As early as November 10, 1835, a concession to build a line from the border with Massachusetts through the valleys of the Connecticut River , Passumpsic River and Barton River to Canada was issued and the Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers Railroad (C&PR) was founded. However, due to lack of money, the company could not start building the railway. Even after the concession was renewed in 1843, the line was never built. It was only when the state decided on November 5, 1845 to split the concession into two sections, the border of which was to be in White River Junction, that enough money could be raised. The C&PR took over the northern part of the concession route from White River Junction to the Canadian border at Derby.
construction
Construction preparations began in 1846 and the first tracks were laid in mid-1848. In White River Junction, the Concord line, to which a track connection was being built, was already in operation at this time . On October 10, 1848, the first section from there to Bradford was opened. Wells River was reached on November 6, 1848, McIndoes in October 1850, and St. Johnsbury on November 28, 1850. The line to St. Johnsbury was officially opened on January 23, 1851. Since the Canadian government did not want to grant the railway company a concession for a route in their country, construction work stagnated at this point. On October 21, 1857, the line was extended to Barton, and in September 1859 the short stretch to Barton Landing (later Orleans) was added. On October 14, 1863, the first trains drove to Newport and only on May 1, 1867 was the Canadian border at North Derby reached.
In the meantime, in 1862, the Massawippi Valley Railway in Canada had received a concession to build a line from Lennoxville to the border at North Derby. The C&PR leased this railway company on July 1, 1870, the opening day of this line. In Lennoxville, the line only had a connection to the Montreal – Island Pond line of the Grand Trunk Railway, which was built in colonial gauge (1676 mm) . Since the trains were to go to Sherbrooke , the Grand Trunk built a third rail between Lennoxville and Sherbrooke and allowed the use of this section. Only a few years later, the Grand Trunk switched its entire route to standard gauge .
Further development
On January 1, 1887, the Boston and Lowell Railroad leased the line. In the same year, this company was in turn leased by the Boston and Maine Railroad , which now took over the management and integrated the route into its network as the Passumpsic Division . On January 9, 1926, operations at Boston & Maine ended north of Wells River. The Canadian Pacific Railway leased the section from there to Lennoxville, but in turn leased the northern part of the route between Newport and Lennoxville to the Quebec Central Railway .
As early as the early 1950s, buses replaced the passenger trains on the Quebec Central Railway between Newport and Sherbrooke. In the fall of 1965, when the express trains from Boston to Montreal were discontinued, passenger traffic on the rest of the route ended. In 1990 Quebec Central closed its route between Beebe Junction and Lennoxville, followed in 1996 by the section from Newport to Beebe Junction.
In 1983 Guilford Transportation had taken over Boston & Maine and with it the section between White River Junction and Wells River. In 1995 it stopped freight traffic between Wilder and Wells River, and in December 1998 also between White River Junction and Wilder. In late 1999, the state bought the line and from February 2000, the Vermont Railway operated the route as occasional service. The Canadian Pacific sold the middle section from Wells River to Newport in September 1996 to the Northern Vermont Railroad , which from May 2000 also operated the section from White River Junction. At the end of 2002, Northern Vermont filed for bankruptcy and the Washington County Railroad bought the route and started freight services again on January 10, 2003. A tourist train, the White River Flyer , operated by the Green Mountain Railroad , runs regularly on the White River Junction – Norwich section .
Route description
The line branches off at White River Junction from the Windsor – Burlington railway line and initially runs north on the west bank of the Connecticut River. It crosses the right tributaries of Connecticut, including the White River , Ompompanoosuc River , Waits River and Wells River . After 65 kilometers the Wells River junction is reached. There used to be a track triangle to the line to Concord . The station was developed as a wedge station, there was no platform at the connecting curve from the direction of White River Junction to Concord. From 1926 onwards, all Boston & Maine trains coming from White River Junction drove via this connecting curve to Woodsville , where the connections to the Canadian Pacific trains to the north existed. The line from Montpelier merged with the main line directly north of the Gleisdreieck. The trains on this line usually use the platform on the line to Concord and use the track of the main line for a few meters.
After Wells River, the route continues north along Connecticut. 17 kilometers further is Barnet , where the Passumpsic River flows into Connecticut, which comes here from the east. The railway line now leaves Connecticut and continues north into the Passumpsic valley. Shortly before the Inwood stop, a connecting line of the Connecticut River Development Company branched off from November 20, 1928 to 1967 to the dam of the Comerford Reservoir . Two switchbacks were necessary to overcome the difference in altitude to the top of the dam. The Passumpsic River was crossed on a steel bridge. In the 1970s, the route was still used for occasional excursions. The tracks are still in place today, only the bridge over the Passumpsic River has been dismantled. The main route also crosses the Passumpsic several times in this area.
At route km 97, St. Johnsbury station is reached, which is also used by the trains on the Lunenburg – Maquam line . The western branch of this route to Maquam has been closed. Behind Burke , the watershed between Passumpsic and Barton Rivers is the highest point on the route. From here it drops into the valley of the Barton River, which it follows further north. It runs along the west bank of Crystal Lake . Shortly before Newport, Lake Memphremagog is reached, the southern bay of which the route crosses several times. In Newport, the line to Farnham branches off, on which the express trains to Montreal ran until 1965. By the late 1930s there was also an express train that ran from Boston via White River Junction and Lennoxville to Montreal, after which you had to change trains in Newport.
In Newport, the track in the direction of Lennoxville is about one and a half kilometers to the connection with Columbia Forest Products . From there to Lennoxville, the line is closed and dismantled. At North Derby, the railway line crosses the state border into Canada. Immediately after that was the junction of the Beebe Junction – Stanstead railway line , which was designed as a triangular track. Along the Tomifobia River , the railway line reaches Lac Massawippi at Ayer's Cliff , on whose east bank it continues. The last section of the route leads through the valley of the Massawippi River to Lennoxville. The Inselbahnhof served all of the railway lines running through the city. The White River Junction line also ended on the western side of the track, which belonged to the Grand Trunk Railway and is now used by the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad . The eastern side of the track belongs to the Brookport – Mattawamkeag line of the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway .
passenger traffic
The timetable of September 28, 1913 provided a daily express train Boston – Montreal via Sherbrooke and a daily express Boston – Montreal via Richford. The train on Sherbrooke resulted from White River Junction coaches from New York. There was also a Boston – Newport train that ran on the former Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad and also delivered through cars to the Express via Sherbrooke in Newport. Various passenger trains also ran on weekdays. Two of the trains ran on the route Boston – Montreal and Boston – Québec via White River Junction and Sherbrooke, partly with through coaches to and from subsequent routes. Another train ran from Boston to Newport and had through cars from New York from White River Junction. Two additional trains ran between White River Junction and Norwich & Hanover, one of which came from Boston. A mixed train traveled the Barton – Newport route. The travel time between White River Junction and Newport varied between four and five hours.
According to the schedule of January 15, 1934, there was still a daily express train from New York and Boston to Montreal via Sherbrooke, as well as a daily and a weekday passenger train between White River Junction and Woodsville (Wells River). On the route between Wells River and Newport, which is now part of the Canadian Pacific, there was also a weekday passenger train and an express train that ran between Boston and Montreal. The travel time between White River Junction and Newport was now three hours 40 minutes for express trains. It took just under five hours with passenger trains.
The timetable of October 25, 1964 only provides for the daily express train Alouette from Boston and New York to Montreal, which no longer ran via Sherbrooke but via Richford. An express bus connects to this train on the Newport to Sherbrooke route.
Today passenger traffic on the former Connecticut & Passumpsic Rivers Railroad has been discontinued, the route is only served by freight traffic.
Accidents
The only fatal accident on the line occurred in December 1851, when the embankment at North Thetford, about 25 kilometers north of White River Junction, was eroded and a train derailed. Two people died in the process.
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 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mike Walker: Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. New England & Maritime Canada. SPV-Verlag, Dunkirk (GB), 2010.
- ↑ Mike Walker: Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. Quebec & Labrador. SPV-Verlag, Dunkirk (GB), 2010.
- ↑ SECOND OPERATING DISTRICT - PASSUMPSIC DIVISION - MAIN LINE. In: TrainWeb.org. Retrieved February 2, 2014 .
- ↑ Official Guide of the Railways, July 1932. Pages 93, 1203, 1215.
- ↑ Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Issued November 1913. Boston & Maine Railroad, Table 67/68. Pages 200f.
- ↑ Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Issued February 1934. Boston & Maine Railroad, Table 68. page 85.
- ↑ Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Issued February 1934. Canadian Pacific Railway, Table 3. Page 1092.
- ↑ Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Issued November 1964. Boston & Maine Railroad, Table 3. page 60.