Bethel Granite Railway
| Bethel Granite Ry., As of 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 8.67 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dual track : | - | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Bethel Granite Railway (BGRY) is a former railway company in Vermont ( United States ). It was founded in 1904 as a subsidiary of the Central Vermont Railway (CV) and built a 8.67 kilometer long standard-gauge railway line, which branched off from the main line of the CV in Bethel and tied a granite quarry in the northeast of the city.
history
The railway to Ellis Quarry was opened on November 20, 1905 and was only used to transport the granite to Bethel station. Passenger traffic did not take place. The company was initially run by CV. In 1906 a train drove over the end of the track in the hairpin and fell down the slope. Nobody was injured. In 1911 a 140 meter long branch to Woodbury Quarry was opened.
After the line had to be rehabilitated, the CV leased it in 1924 to the Woodbury Granite Company . The operation then led the White River Railroad , whose route also branched off from the CV main line in Bethel. However, the traffic continued to decline. The line was officially closed on June 18, 1937, after the last trains had already run on November 28, 1933.
Route description
The route threaded east from the Bethel train station and led to a hairpin. From there it went uphill north through the woods above Bethel to the quarry, which Interstate 89 passes today . The steepest section of the route, with a 3.7% gradient, was just before the junction to Woodbury Quarry at around kilometer 8.
Sources and further reading
- Individual evidence
- ↑ 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., 1993. ISBN 1-881535-01-0 .
- Robert M. Lindsell: The Rail Lines of Northern New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell MA, 2000.