New London Northern Railroad

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The New London Northern Railroad (NLNR) is a former railroad company based in Connecticut , Massachusetts and Vermont ( United States ). It existed as an independent company until 1951.

history

Track construction

The company was founded in May 1847 as New London, Willimantic and Springfield Railroad . It was intended to build a standard gauge railway line from New London to Springfield . Since the destination of the railway was changed shortly afterwards, and now Palmer should be the northern end point, the company was renamed in May 1848 accordingly in New London, Willimantic and Palmer Railroad . The railway construction began in the same year and in September 1850 the line to Palmer was completed.

The New London Northern Railroad was founded on May 31, 1860 and acquired New London, Willimantic and Palmer, which had gone bankrupt two years earlier on April 1, 1861. It is now intended to create a continuous rail link from New London (Connecticut) to Vermont. The northern continuation to Amherst (33 km) was the Amherst, Belchertown and Palmer Railroad , which was annexed to the New London Northern in May 1864.

The NLNR closed the gap from Amherst to Miller's Falls on its own and opened the section in 1867, increasing the total length of the route to about 161 kilometers. In addition, the NLNR leased the Ware River Railroad from 1868, which wanted to build a branch line from Palmer to Winchendon and opened rail operations to Gilbertville in 1870 . From April 1, 1873, however, the Boston and Albany Railroad took over this lease and the management of this branch line.

Further development

The NLNR itself was leased for 20 years on December 1, 1871 by the Vermont Central Railroad , which was reorganized into Central Vermont Railroad (CV) in 1873.

The Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad operated a branch in Miller's Falls from their east-west running main line to Brattleboro . This branch line had already been leased by CV at the beginning of 1871, which now enabled continuous traffic from New London to Brattleboro. The NLNR finally bought the branch line to Brattleboro on May 1, 1880. The total length of the New London – Brattleboro railway is 195 kilometers.

In February 1880, the NLNR leased the Brattleboro and Whitehall Railroad (later West River Railroad ), which built a narrow-gauge railway from Brattleboro to South Londonderry . This lease was transferred to CV on December 1, 1891. On the same day, CV extended the lease with the NLNR to 99 years.

Two short branch lines to Fitchville ( Gibbs – Fitchville railway ) and Palmertown ( Montville – Palmertown railway ) went into operation in 1880 and 1899, respectively.

The final merger with the CV took place in 1951. In the meantime, the Canadian National Railway (CN) had taken over the CV. After the CN decided to outsource its routes in the USA, the Grand Trunk Corporation also took over the route to New London. Today the New London – Brattleboro line is owned by the New England Central Railroad ; the two branches to Palmertown and Fitchville have been closed since the 1980s.

Sources and further information

literature
  • George H. Drury: The Historical Guide to North American Railroads 2nd Ed. Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha, WI 2000, ISBN 0-89024-356-5
  • Robert C. Jones: The Central Vermont Railway. (6 volumes) Sundance Press, Silverton CO, 1981/82.
  • Robert C. Jones: Railroads of Vermont, Volume II. New England Press Inc., 1993. ISBN 978-1881535027
Web links