Washington County Railroad (Vermont)

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The Washington County Railroad (WACR) is a regional railway company in Vermont ( United States ). It was first created as Barre and Chelsea Railroad (BC) on September 18, 1913 from the merger of the East Barre and Chelsea Railroad and the Barre Railroad . Their track network amounted to more than 40 kilometers, was used exclusively for freight traffic and had a connection to the Montpelier and Wells River Railroad (M&WR) in Barre .

The entire capital of BC belonged to the Vermont Valley Railroad , which was under the control of the Boston and Maine Railroad from 1925 . From January 1, 1926, the management of the railway, which had previously been located at the Vermont Valley Railroad, became independent.

In January 1945 the BC bought the Montpelier & Wells River Railroad, so that the rail network increased to about 110 kilometers. Passenger traffic ended in the mid-1950s, freight traffic between Barre Junction and Wells River in 1957. This section of the route was then closed. The remainder of the company operated as Montpelier and Barre Railroad from that point on . In the same year, the parallel Montpelier Junction – Barre line was bought by the Central Vermont Railway . Track connections were installed, the trains now only ran on one route, namely north of the Vermont Shopping Center on the Central Vermont route and south of it on the Montpelier & Barre route. The parallel tracks were shut down. After this company received approval in 1980 to shut down the line, the State of Vermont bought the facilities and handed them over to the newly formed Washington County Railroad , which began operations in 1981.

In 2000, the Vermont Railway acquired the WACR and took over the vehicles and operations, but the WACR remained an independent railway company in the Vermont Rail Systems network. After the Northern Vermont Railroad had to cease operations on its route from White River Junction to Newport in late 2002 , the WACR acquired this route and reopened on January 10, 2003. A tourist train, the White River Flyer , operated by the Green Mountain Railroad , runs regularly on the White River Junction – Norwich section .

literature

  • Edward A. Lewis: American Shortline Railway Guide. (5th edition) Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha, WI 1996, ISBN 0-89024-290-9

Web links