Mount Mansfield Electric Railroad
The tram Waterbury - Stowe was an interurban streetcar operation in Vermont (United States). The distance was 11.97 miles ( 19.26 km ) long and connected the town of Waterbury and Stowe. The track was in operation from 1897 to 1932.
History
Already in October 1865 received a Mount Mansfield Railroad Company a concession to build and operate a railway from Waterbury Stowe over Morrisville. The concession lapsed, was renewed on 8 November 1872 and fell again. Another license was granted on November 10, 1888 for the same distance. After that should be started until 1894 with the construction and to be completed within ten years, the section of Waterbury to Stowe. 1894, the concession was extended to electrical operation and on November 27 of the year the Mount Mansfield Electric Railroad Company was founded. The now valid concession allowed the construction of the line to Morrisville, and the integration of different communities in the area, and she allowed steam operation and electrical operation.
On 10 May 1897, the construction began and on 18 December the same year the route was opened from Waterbury to Stowe. The official opening ceremony took place only on 4 July of the following year. The continued construction in the north remained under. A schedule of 1900 were, according to two trips per direction offered on weekdays five on Sundays.
After the first years of the railway company bestowed some income, went late 1920s, the transport numbers decline sharply. The growth in travel and the movement of freight onto the road necessitated the expansion of State Road 100 that ran out near the two terminal stations and in Waterbury Center right next to the track. On April 4, 1932, the Company applied for the closure of the route, which was quickly approved. On 2 May 1932, the last railcar marched. The tracks were dismantled and sold the land route to the State, who extended the highway. For one year the railway company operated a bus line on the track, which was then adjusted from inefficiency also. The company still existed until 1959, more than trucking company that transported by truck freight.
Route description
The route begins in the station of Waterbury, which was shared. It branches off from the railway Windsor Burlington and leads through an incision in a large arc to Colbyville. From here to the Lower Stowe route followed mostly the state road 100, on the east side they lay. North of Colbyville there was a loading point at Battery House. The largest Kunstbau the track was a 224 -meter-long Trestle in Waterbury Center. Here the railway line left the highway for a short time to meet over this bridge parallel to the Hollow Road back on it. Before the two bridgeheads in each case there was a siding. There was the only passing loop of the track at which trains could meet at the intersection of the highway with the Moscow Road. After Stowe Lower the route left the main road and leads across open terrain and today along Depot Street, whose name still reminds us of the train, to its final stop in Stowe, who was directly in front of the entrance to the wagon shed. In Stowe, there was also the railway-owned coal-fired power plant, which supplied the driving current.
Rolling stock
At the opening of the route of the train were three railcars ( Tw 1-3) for passenger services available, which had been built by the Wason Manufacturing Company of Springfield ( Massachusetts). There was also a freight railcars ( Tw 4), as well as a snow plow. The freight railcar was used after a few years as a working railcars for route maintenance. 1914 acquired the railway another freight railcars ( Tw 5), which was used from that time as a snow plow. The early 1920s was turned off No. 2 and used as a source of spare parts railcars. The remaining vehicles were scrapped after the closure of the railway.
Sources and further information
- Robert C. Jones: Railroads of Vermont, Volume II New England Press Inc., 1993, ISBN 978-1881535027. .
- 1435 mm
- Tramway system (United States)
- Railroad track in Vermont