Hardwick and Woodbury Railroad

Hardwick VT-Woodbury VT
Route length:	14.2 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from Lunenburg Hardwick VT Lamoille River 0.0 Granite Junction VT after Maquam Turning triangle (for snow plow) 1.9 Industrial connection 8th Burnham Hill Turning triangle (Foster's Summit) Hairpin (no operating point) Connection Fletcher Granite Co. 14.2 Connection Woodbury Granite Co.

The Hardwick and Woodbury Railroad was a railway company in Vermont ( United States ). It was founded on March 16, 1895 and in the following year built an approximately 12.3 kilometer route to Woodbury and the granite quarries there.

History of the route

The line joined a 1.9 kilometer long industrial connection of the St. Johnsbury and Lake Champlain Railroad opened in 1892, which branched off west of Hardwick at a point from the main line, which was then referred to as Granite Junction . Hardwick & Woodbury leased this industrial connection.

The standard-gauge line was opened in autumn 1897. A hairpin was necessary to overcome the height difference between Woodbury and the terminus at the quarry. The mainline reloading station was in Hardwick. A right of use was agreed with St. Johnsbury & Lake Champlain for the almost three kilometer long Granite Junction – Hardwick section. In 1911 the railway company had three locomotives and 46 flat freight cars at its disposal. Below that was a special wagon for transporting bulky granite blocks.

There was passenger traffic on the route with a mixed train that ran on weekdays . The train needed three hours for the entire route, as wagons had to be shunted at every quarry siding on the journey. The hardly used passenger traffic was stopped in 1921.

After granite mining in Woodbury had largely ceased in 1934, the line was taken out of service on October 17 of that year, officially closed in 1937 and mined in August 1940. The leased industrial connection in Hardwick was returned to St. Johnsbury & Lake Champlain, from which it was served until the 1970s.

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 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mike Walker: Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. New England & Maritime Canada. SPV-Verlag, Dunkirk (GB), 2010.
2. ^ Poor's Manual of Railroads, 44th Annual Number. Poor's Railroad Manual Co., 1911, 42.
3. ↑ Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Issued November 1913. Hardwick & Woodbury Railroad. Page 210.