Rutland Railway
The Rutland Railway (until 1950 Rutland Railroad ) (RUT) was a railway company in Vermont , Massachusetts and New York ( United States ) and in Québec ( Canada ). It existed, including its direct predecessor companies, from 1843 to 1963.
history
Construction of the main line and further expansion
The state of Vermont was still completely without a railroad in the early 1840s, although it was more densely populated than, for example, Maine , which had had rail transport since 1836. Some railroad companies planned a route along the state's eastern border in the Connecticut River valley . However, this route did not open up the larger cities of Vermont, Rutland , Burlington and the capital Montpelier . Montpelier was to be opened up by the Vermont Central Railroad (VCR), founded in 1841 , which planned a route from the Connecticut River valley via Montpelier to Burlington.
To connect Rutland and other cities further south, the Champlain and Connecticut River Railroad was founded on November 1, 1843 . They wanted to build, largely parallel to the VCR, a route from the west bank of the Connecticut River via Rutland to Burlington. Even before the opening of the first railroad in Vermont, the company was reorganized on November 6, 1847 after financial problems in Rutland and Burlington Railroad . On March 28, 1867, the railway company was renamed again and from that day on it operated as Rutland Railroad .
In May 1847, the railway company began building the 192-kilometer standard-gauge Bellows Falls – Burlington line . It was not until June 1849 that the first section from Bellows Falls to Chester went into provisional operation, the rest of the route followed on December 18, 1849. On December 24, regular operations began. The railway had only narrowly won the race to Burlington - the VCR reached Lake Champlain on December 31st. The trains went through Bellows Falls on the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad to Boston, a trip from Burlington to Boston then cost six US dollars.
Since Rutland & Burlington was never really lucrative, the company looked for additional sources of income. She therefore leased the Vermont Valley Railroad , which had built the southern continuation of the Rutland route beyond Bellows Falls to Brattleboro . This route was an important transit route from the New York area to the province of Québec and was therefore ideal for adding to the finances. The contract came into effect on June 1, 1865 and ran for ten years. On January 23, 1871, Rutland took over management of the VVR, but at the same time leased it to the VCR. On April 5, 1877, however, the contract with the Vermont Valley Railroad was dissolved and control of the route was handed over to the Connecticut River Railroad .
The Whitehall and Plattsburgh Railroad , whose route led from Plattsburgh to Ausable , could be leased from September 26, 1870. This route had no connection to the Rutland main line and was sold to the New York and Canada Railroad in 1873 . On December 1, 1870, Rutland also leased the Brattleboro – Grout's Corner (now Millers Falls ) route on the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad for 15 years, thus expanding its sphere of influence to Massachusetts. This route was sold to the New London Northern Railroad on May 1, 1880 . From December 7, 1870, the Addison Railroad , founded as a subsidiary on November 2, 1867, was leased for 99 years, the planned route at Whiting branched off from the Rutland main line and led to Fort Ticonderoga . This line went into operation on December 1, 1871.
The VCR, from 1873 Central Vermont Railroad (CV), was able to lease the Rutland Railroad for 20 years from January 1, 1871, the contract was extended until May 7, 1896, but then dissolved. On January 23, 1871, the Rutland in turn leased the Montreal and Plattsburgh Railroad , whose route ran on the west bank of Lake Champlain along from Plattsburgh to the Canadian border.
In November 1898, the Rutland Canadian Railroad was founded in Vermont , and on July 10, 1899 the Rutland and Noyan Railroad in Quebec. The two companies extended the Rutland main line north through the middle of Lake Champlain to Noyan Junction in Canada and Rouses Point in New York. The route crossed the islands in the lake. For this purpose, a nearly five-kilometer-long dam was built through the lake between Colchester Point, a headland north of Burlington, and Grand Isle , which was interrupted by bridges in several places in order to allow further shipping. The line went into operation in 1899. On January 15, 1901, the Rutland Railroad bought both companies.
In the same year, Rutland also acquired other railway companies. These were the Bennington and Rutland Railway on July 30th, the Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain Railroad on September 27th and the Chatham and Lebanon Valley Railroad on December 21st. The Addison Railroad was also dissolved this year and integrated into the Rutland Railroad. As a result, the main route of the Rutland extended to 550 kilometers and ran from Chatham via Rutland, Burlington and Alburgh to Ogdensburg .
The end of the Rutland Railroad
In January 1905, the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad acquired the majority of the shares in the Rutland Railroad. However, she sold half of the shares on June 30, 1911 to the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad . After several derailments in 1918 and 1920, the ailing Jochbrücke over Lake Champlain near Fort Ticonderoga was shut down and demolished on July 28, 1920 . The trains now ended on the east bank at Larrabees Point.
After the Great Depression in 1929, the volume of traffic on the Rutland network decreased so much that in 1934 the Alburgh – Noyan Junction line, and thus the only Rutland line in Canada, was closed. and Rutland filed for bankruptcy on May 5, 1938. Nevertheless, operations could continue for the time being. Around 1940 passenger traffic ended south of Bennington .
In 1950 it was reorganized into the Rutland Railway after the volume of traffic had continued to decline. On May 21, 1951, the Orwell – Larrabees Point section of the former branch to Fort Ticonderoga was closed, on which there was still passenger traffic until the end. Passenger traffic on the rest of this branch line was also stopped on that day. In 1953 the Whiting – Orwell section was closed. In December 1952, the Rutland Railway shut down the Bennington – Chatham line; instead, from May 20, 1953, a right of use for the White Creek – Troy – Chatham route with the Boston and Maine Railroad and the Boston and Albany Railroad was agreed. On the occasion of a strike on June 26, 1953, all passenger traffic on the Rutland was stopped and not resumed. In addition, the Rutland steam locomotives were replaced by diesel locomotives by March 1955.
In 1961 the remaining section of the former Addison Railroad to Whiting was shut down. Another strike began on September 25, 1961, after which operations did not resume. On May 20, 1963, the Rutland Railway came to an end. The main line was closed from Burlington to Norwood . The Green Mountain Railroad (GMRC) drove between Rutland and Bellows Falls from 1964 . The Norwood – Ogdensburg section was taken over by the New York and Ogdensburg Railway (NYOG), the section from Bennington and White Creek to Burlington was acquired by the Vermont Railway , which later bought the GMRC and on April 9, 2002 also the NYOG.
Tourist trains, namely the Champlain Valley Flyer and the Green Mountain Flyer , run regularly on the Burlington – Charlotte and Chester – Bellows Falls sections . There are also special trains on the other routes.
Traction vehicles
The Rutland steam locomotives had different series, most recently locomotives with the axle sequences 1'D (Consolidation), 1'D1 '( Mikado ), 2'C (Ten Wheeler), 2'C1' ( Pacific ), 2'D1 '( Mountain ), 1C (Mogul) as well as C and D shunting locomotives in use. The Mountains were scrapped in 1955 as the last steam locomotives.
In 1951 and 1952 16 diesel locomotives were procured, nine ALCO RS-3 , six ALCO RS-1 and a GE 70 tonner .
attachment
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jim Shaughnessy: The Rutland Road. 2nd Edition. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse 1997, ISBN 0-8156-0469-6 , pp. 436 ( Google Books ). , The route is no longer included in the 1934 timetable, see Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Issued February 1934. Rutland Railroad. Pages 139-141.
- ↑ The route is no longer included in the 1941 timetable, see Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Issued June 1941. Rutland Railroad. Pages 133-135.
- ↑ Railweb.ch , Addison Railroad History Society ( Memento of the original from March 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Timeline of the Rutland
- ↑ a b Complete list of steam engines
literature
- George H. Drury: The Historical Guide to North American Railroads. 2nd edition. Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha WI 2000, ISBN 0-89024-356-5 .
- Robert C. Jones: Railroads of Vermont. Volume 2. New England Press Inc., Shelburne VT 1993, ISBN 1-881535-03-7 .
- Jim Shaughnessy: The Rutland Road. Howell-North Books, Berkeley CA 1964 (2nd Edition: Syracuse University Press, Syracuse NY 1997, ISBN 0-8156-0469-6 ).
Web links
(all in English)