Bennington Tram

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The tram Bennington was a tram network in and around the town of Bennington in US -Bundesstaat Vermont .

history

Bennington and Woodford Electric Railway (B&WER)

The history of B & WER goes back to 1855, when the government granted three New York businessmen a concession to build a railroad line from Bennington to Glastenbury in order to transport wood that was felled there. They founded the Bennington and Glastenbury Railroad, Mining and Manufacturing Company . Due to the difficult topographical conditions around Glastenbury Mountain, the route was not built. It was not until the beginning of the 1870s that the plan was taken up again and the route started. The route had gradients of up to 5%, the track width was 4 feet 8 inches (1422 mm), so it was slightly narrower than standard gauge. However, this was not an obstacle to the passage of the wagons. The route ran through County Street in Bennington and along the Roaring Branch, a small mountain stream, up the valley, through Woodford Hollow and in the valley of Bolles Brook to Glastenbury. In November 1873, the 14.44-kilometer line was completed after the first trains had run over a section in the previous month. In addition to transporting wood, passengers and mail were also transported to Glastenbury. After the logging had almost come to a standstill in 1888, the railway company ceased operations in March 1889, but left the tracks and sold the line to the Bennington and Rutland Railway .

On November 28, 1894, businessmen founded the Bennington and Woodford Electric Railway , which leased the line to Glastenbury. The new operator rehabilitated the line, replaced the rails, repaired some bridges and installed an electrical overhead line. On July 14, 1895, about 5.5 kilometers of the line went back into service, now as an electric tram. A casino was built at the end of the line and a hotel was built in Glastenbury. The train only runs every 30 minutes in summer, during the tourist season. The Bennington departure point was on County Street on the corner of North Street. It is not known whether the track width was changed to standard gauge when the line was renovated. An expansion of the route through the streets of Bennington in order to be able to carry out a year-round operation economically, the railway company was denied by the city. In 1896 a sawmill at the end of the railway line was converted into an event hall and the tramway extended its operations to that point at the beginning of the 1896 driving season, so that the entire route to Glastenbury was now used again. The trams now ran every 45 minutes and took an hour and a half for the entire route. Freight traffic was only carried out in the urban area of ​​Bennington by Bennington & Rutland with steam locomotives.

On October 5, 1898, heavy rain caused the Roaring Branch, next to which the railway ran, to overflow its banks and carried away the railway and numerous buildings along the route. A repair of the line could not be financed, so it was closed. Since the route was further destroyed in the subsequent floods, hardly anything is left of the railway. In the upper part of the route to the end point, the Long Trail Road is now on the railway line.

Bennington and Hoosick Valley Railway

The Bennington Electric Railway was founded like the B & WER on November 28, 1894. She acquired the Hoosick Railway in the summer of 1897 , which had opened a nine-kilometer long-distance tram from Hoosick Falls to Walloomsac in New York State in 1894 . On November 9, 1897, the two companies merged to form the Bennington and Hoosick Valley Railway . It was now planned to build a connection from Bennington to Walloomsac. On February 10, 1898, the section from Bennington to North Bennington was opened. The 8.5-kilometer route began at the intersection of Main Street and Branch Street in Bennington and ran through Main Street, Mill Street (now Bemont Avenue) and along what is now Route 67A to North Bennington, where it is near the train station Railway depot ended. On July 3, 1898, the line to Walloomsac was opened and the railways could now run from Bennington to Hoosick Falls.

Bennington and North Adams Street Railway

On December 8, 1902, the government granted the Bennington and North Adams Street Railway a concession to build a 18.5 kilometer tram route from Bennington via Pownal to North Adams, Massachusetts. However, due to lack of money, the company was initially not set up. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (NYNH) bought the concession on April 1, 1906, set up the company as a subsidiary and began building the line on July 2 of that year. It was opened on June 27, 1907. The line began at the junction of Main Street / Beech Street in Bennington, led from there a short distance through Beech Street and over its own railway body to Pownal, there through Church Street and further parallel to the Greenfield – Troy railway on its own railway body to North Adams in Massachusetts. The operation led the Berkshire Street Railway , a subsidiary of the NYNH. NYNH had also bought Bennington & Hoosick Valley, on which the Berkshire Street Railway now also ran. Partly continuous cars drove from North Adams to Hoosick Falls. A continuous saloon car also ran daily from Great Barrington to Bennington. Until 1912, trains to North Adams ran every 30 minutes, then every 60 minutes and from around 1920 every two hours. Hoosick Falls was initially driven every two hours and then every 90 minutes.

Vermont Company

On December 27, 1910, Bennington & North Adams was renamed the Vermont Company . It acquired the majority stake in Bennington & Hoosick Valley in January 1911 and was in turn leased to the Berkshire Street Railway on March 1, 1912. On December 31, 1922, this lease was canceled and the Vermont Company took over management of the line from the Massachusetts border to Hoosick Falls. The route from Bennington to Hoosick Falls was closed on May 31, 1927, between North Adams and Bennington on September 25, 1929. South of Bennington, the tram route is still in place and some of it is used for roadways.

literature

  • Robert C. Jones: Railroads of Vermont, Volume I. New England Press Inc., 1993. ISBN 1-881535-01-0 .