Charlestown – Springfield Tram

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Charlestown NH – Springfield VT, as of 1999
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend
Route - straight ahead
 from Brattleboro
Station without passenger traffic
 0 Charlestown NH
   
 to Windsor
   
 1½ Klondike NH (formerly Springfield Junction)
   
 3½ Connecticut River
   
 5 Goulds Mill VT (formerly Goulds)
   
 9 Industrial connection
   
 10½ Springfield VT

The tram Charlestown - Springfield was a tram service in New Hampshire and Vermont ( United States ).

history

The Springfield Electric Railway was founded in Vermont in 1894, and the Springfield Electric Railway of New Hampshire in 1897 . The Vermont company leased the other company at an annual lease of one US dollar for 99 years. It opened on August 4, 1897 an approximately 10.5 kilometer long, standard-gauge electric tram, which began in Charlestown (New Hampshire) at the station on the Brattleboro – Windsor railway and led to Springfield . In Charlestown the train had a siding to the railroad.

In addition, the company acquired the Cheshire Bridge Co. in 1896 , which owned the bridge over the Connecticut River , over which the railway ran, and replaced the wooden bridge built in 1806 with a steel structure. Later, numerous freight connections were added in the urban area of ​​Springfield, so that the total track length amounted to 16.5 kilometers. In the 1909/1910 financial year, ST carried just under 100,000 passengers with nine existing railcars. Freight traffic was handled with small electric locomotives.

The Springfield Terminal Railway Company , founded in 1922, acquired the two railway companies called Springfield Electric Railway on January 1, 1923 and continued to operate the railway. The bridge over the river had to be completely rebuilt in 1930 because its capacity no longer met the requirements and it was damaged in a flood in 1929. Passenger traffic on the railway ceased in January 1947.

1949 bought Boston and Maine Corporation , the ST, the same in the subsidiary Co. Springfield Terminal was converted. The electrical operation ended on October 31, 1956. From this point on, diesel locomotives were used. About a mile of the Springfield line was closed in 1962. All traffic ended around 1980, but the route remained partially operational in order to continue to collect the bridge toll. After the bankruptcy of Boston & Maine in 1983, the entire company, including ST, went to Guilford Transportation . On June 14, 1984, the freight yard in Charlestown was closed and the facilities dismantled, but the line was still not officially closed. Since the wage level of the ST was relatively low, Guilford Transportation leased most of its railroad companies to the ST until 1987 in order to save labor costs. The result was several strikes. A rental of the Delaware and Hudson Railway to the ST Guilford Transportation was prohibited by the Interstate Commerce Commission . In 1991, the ST received permission to shut down its own line, which took place immediately. From 1994 onwards, Guilford dissolved the lease agreements again, as wage costs at ST had risen so sharply due to the many strikes that the subsidiaries could again be managed independently. ST continues to exist as the owner and lessor of railway vehicles.

Sources and further information

Individual evidence
  1. ↑ Mike Walker: Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. New England & Maritime Canada. SPV-Verlag, Dunkirk (GB), 1999.
  2. ^ A b Poor's Manual of Railroads, 44th Annual Number. Poor's Railroad Manual Co., 1911, p. 2565.
  3. ↑ a b New Hampshire Department of Transportation Information Sheet , June 27, 2001
  4. ^ ICC rejects Guilford Bid to lease D&H Railway . In: The Journal of Commerce . JOC Group, December 20, 1987, ISSN  1530-7557 (English, joc.com ).
literature
  • Robert M. Lindsell: The Rail Lines of Northern New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell, MA 2000, ISBN 0-942147-06-5 .
Web links