Waterbury – Stowe Tram
| Waterbury VT – Stowe VT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 19.26 km | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tracks: | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The tram Waterbury-Stowe was a Regional tramway operation in Vermont ( United States ). The route was 11.97 miles (19.26 kilometers) long and connected the cities of Waterbury and Stowe . The railway was in operation from 1897 to 1932.
history
As early as October 1865, a Mount Mansfield Railroad Company received a concession to build and operate a railway line from Waterbury via Stowe to Morrisville . The concession expired, was renewed on November 8, 1872 and expired again. Another concession was granted on November 10, 1888 for the same route. After that, construction should begin by 1894 and the section from Waterbury to Stowe should be completed within ten years. In 1894 the concession was expanded to include an electric operation and on November 27 of that year the Mount Mansfield Electric Railroad Company was founded. The now valid concession allowed the construction of the line to Morrisville, as well as the connection of various communities in this area, and it allowed steam and electrical operation.
Construction began on May 10, 1897, and on December 18 of the same year the line from Waterbury to Stowe was opened. The official opening ceremony took place on July 4th of the following year. The further construction to the north did not take place. According to a timetable from 1900, five trips in each direction were offered on working days and two on Sundays.
After the first few years brought some income to the railway company, the number of journeys fell rapidly at the end of the 1920s. The increase in private traffic and the relocation of freight traffic to the road required the expansion of State Road 100, which ran right next to the track except near the two terminus stations and in Waterbury Center. On April 4, 1932, the company applied for the closure of the line, which was quickly approved. The last railcars moved in on May 2, 1932. The tracks were dismantled and the line property sold to the state, which expanded the highway. For a year the railway company operated a bus line on the route, which was then also discontinued due to inefficiency. The company continued to exist until 1959 as a forwarding agency that transported goods by truck.
Route description
The route begins at Waterbury station, which was also used. It branches off the Windsor – Burlington railway line and leads through a cut in a large arc to Colbyville. From here to Lower Stowe, the route mostly followed State Road 100, on the east side of which it was located. North of Colbyville was a charging point at the Battery House. The largest engineering structure on the route was a 224-meter long yoke bridge in Waterbury Center. Here the railway line left the country road for a short time in order to meet it again over this bridge parallel to Hollow Road. There was a siding in front of the two bridgeheads. At the intersection of the main road with Moscow Road was the only turnout on the route where trains could meet. After Lower Stowe, the line left the main road and led across open space and along today's Depot Street, the name of which still reminds us of the railway, to the terminus in Stowe, which was right in front of the entrance to the car hall. Stowe also had the railway's own coal-fired power station, which provided the traction current.
vehicles
When the line opened, the railroad had three railcars (Tw 1–3) for passenger transport that had been built by the Wason Manufacturing Company in Springfield (Massachusetts) . There was also a freight railcar (Tw 4) and a snow plow. After just a few years, the freight railcar was also used as a work railcar for route maintenance. In 1914, the railway acquired another freight railcar (Tw 5), which was also used as a snow plow from this time on. At the beginning of the 1920s, railcar No. 2 was parked and used as a spare parts donor. The remaining vehicles were scrapped after the railway was closed.
Sources and further information
- Individual evidence
- ↑ Mike Walker: Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. New England & Maritime Canada. SPV-Verlag, Dunkirk (GB), 2010.
- ↑ Jones 1993, p. 125.
- literature
- Robert C. Jones: Railroads of Vermont, Volume II. New England Press Inc., 1993. ISBN 978-1881535027 .