Lamoille Valley thread and Conversion to Rail Trail

[cougar3676]

Scrapping has begun in earnest. This past week I travelled the route 15 corridor on business and saw quite a bit of ROW minus rail and ties. Cambridge, VT DOT building has a huge pile of rails, ties, and tie plates behind it. Scrapping has begun from there westward for at least a couple of miles. The ROW is intact from there eastward.

Wolcott, VT--Scrapping has begun at the Rt.15 crossing near the famous covered bridge westward, for how far I'm not sure. Here the rail had just been removed but ties vere still in place for the time being.

West Danville, VT--Scrapping is well underway here at the Rt 2 crossing heading westward along Rt 15. Rails were removed and ties pushed to the side. Does anybody know who is doing the scrapping? I have always been curious as to how exactly this is done, what kind of equipment is used, etc. I have seen track actually being pulled up behind a train before, but in pictures. Obviously this is not the case here. Is hi-rail equipment used or just a backhoe? Anybody?

[laflamcs]

Last weekend I travelled from Cambridge Jct to Berkshire where the railroad crosses the road several times. At one place I saw tie plates stacked about 6 feet high.

Cambridge Jct has just gotten a permit to tear down the broken down section house to make way for some sort of trail park. I am glad I photographed the area before scrapping commenced. If I had the stones, haha, I would have snagged the switch lamp there, buried in the brush.

My heart is shattered and broken as I see my favorite line torn up for a special interest group. The folks living near or adjacent to the line will have to get used to the sound of snowmobiles night and day.

[laflamcs]

I visited here right before the snow fell and photographed the maze of overgrown track. BIG TIME evidence of something big being scrapped outside on the enginehouse tracks. Not only was there a large blackened area on the tracks but there was also saplings cut in that area as well as bits and pieces of metal (including a couple electrical relays) on the ground.

On the grass near the enginehouse was a STRANGE SIGHT. Up on blocks, and recently fenced in with that plastic construction fencing, was a locomotive frame. Behind the frame, a fuel tank. Kind of freaky. Can anyone shed some light on this finding. I mean, time was taken to put that frame there and fence it off.

........Chris

[Trackmobile]

What will become of the Morrisville enginehouse? Is it privately owned?

[cougar3676]

Chris,
Perhaps this locomotives' frame was fenced off simply to prevent tampering and to keep local kids from playing on or around it. Perhaps someone had a use for the fuel tank and frame,and just haven't had the time to come and get it. I wonder if this is the remains of the old Alco RS or was it the GE 70 tonner?

[thebigham]

I wish I could get up there!!!

Chris

[thebigham]

Any other news?

Chris

[laflamcs]

I passed through Swanton last weekend and over the LVRR ROW. The crossing lights were still there, and the rails seemingly intact on the right side of the crossing (I saw a bunch of equipment stored there last year but the area is fenced and gated off. Wonder what became of this equipment.) The ROW on the left side had no rails but the ties were intact. What a shame. I am still in shock and saddened that my favorite line has been handed over to snowmobilers.

[DLWDowntown]

I crossed over the ROW between Morrisville and Wolcott about 10 days ago; both ties and rails were gone. The ballast had been roughly graded, and one small bridge that was visible had been decked over with 2x6s or similar to hold snow for the snowmobiles.

I only moved to the area a couple of years ago, so I never had the chance to see any action on the line. There is VERY little local industry left these days (sad) - in fact, many of the areas served by this line are largely reverting to forest. A far cry from the open farmland and timber industry of years ago.

[DLWDowntown]

Looks like the rail strippers did a thorough job. Following up on my last post, I was out in the car yesterday, and my path took me across the ROW a few times. Rail and ties were gone in every location I crossed. Taking Route 100 north through Morrisville towards Rt. 15, they have repaved the road (100) where one of the few grade crossings still had rail in. The grade crossings I've been across in the past few weeks are all totally gone - i.e. if you didn't know a railroad had been there, you wouldn't notice it now.

Anybody know to what extent the connection in Swanton is being removed? Any local industry use even a stub of the line where it connects to the NEC (former CV)? Looking at the NEC rails west of Swanton yesterday (I was driving to North Hero), even those rails were a little rusty. I take it that before the "Vermonter" was cut back to St. Albans, the former "Montrealer" took the CV routing through Swanton and then out over Champlain to Alburg and up? I even crossed the former Rutland RR "Island Line" ROW a few times yesterday in N. Hero. All this and not even out for that purpose...

[Pacobell73]

I was thumbing through some old Railpace magazines, circa early 90s. Great shots of a healthy Lamoille Valley. Given the line's extrodinary length, why did this line fall on hard times? Why did the state want to rip it up so badly?

I am curious to see what this grade crossing looks like now...a "before and after," if you will.

[thebigham]

What grade crossing is that?

Railpace recently had a pic of a WACR train going past a huge pile of ties from the LVRC in St. Johnsbury.

The snowmobile lobby convinced the state to rip up the line.

A lot of rail and ties will be going to the VRS.

[steveh]

*

[dcm74]

I was thumbing through some old Railpace magazines, circa early 90s. Great shots of a healthy Lamoille Valley. Given the line's extrodinary length, why did this line fall on hard times?

Minimal online traffic, Guilford's closure of the Mountain Division and deregulation were probably all factors. Even in its best days it was a marginal operation. Once the overhead traffic was gone there wasn't much for it to do. It traversed some very scenic country but scenery doesn't produce traffic.

[Arborwayfan]

My father, a civil engineer specializing in freight transportation, railroad reliability, etc., worked on a study of the Lamoille Valley about the time it stopped running because of washouts. He didn't see any way it could make money, either profit for an investor or economic return for the state. As someone already said, it wasn't going to become a major through route, without the Mountain Division, and anyway Vermont is too small for major E-W through routes. (This is a man who worked on B and M reliability decades ago and is between sad and angry when he looks at Guilford's service record.)