Spur/split near North Pownal, VT

Does anyone know the history of the spur or split off Guilford's Fitchburg main just northwest of North Pownal, Vermont? It leaves the main near the New York border and parallels Route 96, rejoining the main near Petersburg Junction. My copy of DeLorme's New York Atlas & Gazetteer (dated 1991 --- I need a new one!) depicts it as still extant at the time; I don't know whether that is still the case, but I remember seeing it when I drove down Route 346 several years ago. I didn't check it out, but wondered why it was there. Is it a vestige of the old Troy & Boston, did it/does it serve some industry, or what?

I recall seeing vestiges of a trolley line down through there, too.

I looked around the net a bit and found a few things that might be pertinent.

http://www.pownal.org/PHS/Directory1880 ... y1880.html

Topozone north end near Petersburg Jct. Vermont shows the north end of the line. Follow to the south end on the adjacent sheet.

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=42. ... &layer=DRG

Ed

The B&M through that corner of Vermont was made up of the former Troy & Boston and Boston, Hoosac Tunnel & Western single track lines which were operated as a physically separated double-track railroad into the 1970s. I forget at the moment which line survives as the current Guilford track, but I believe you're looking at the other one.

The Troy and Boston plus the Albany Northern both built east from the Hudson in the 1850s. Due to the time it took for Hoosac Tunnel to be finished, it spelled doom for the A.N. From there and nearly twenty years later, the Boston, Hoosac Tunnel and Western assumed ownership of the main as far west as Johnsonville. Both the B,HT&W and T&B came under Fitchburg ownership and eventually the B&M as of 1900. It took on its seperated mainline status from there until that was changed in the 70s.

Due to the crossover of the original ROWs by the river bridge in Hoosick Falls, westbounds would become eastbounds with left handed running. Out of Johnsonville, eastbounds would appear to run on the westbound main until they crossed under the actual westbound ROW in HF to become "proper" again. Confusing as hell, but cool to figure out once you do!

The current switch and siding in today's Hoosick Middle by the detector makes it hard to imagine the mains through here used to be "separate." You can barely decipher where the second main used to go west of there. A good book for photos and a little better idea is the one by the Plant brothers. Boston and Maine in Color by Morning Sun.

This is just a guess, but I wanna say that the abandoned section from Petersburg to the Pownal line is the AN/B,HT&W. Whatever it is, you can can follow it pretty easily on Indian Massacre Road. The Pownal end of the track used to tie back in near the vicinity of the more-recent but now-gone CPF 434 and the well-known Pownal Curve.

J Bray

I know of the Albany Northern from having accidentally discovered part of the original ROW west of Melrose, near Troy, several years ago. From what I understand, it crossed the Hudson somewhere just north of Waterford. The trestle (which must have been massive) was destroyed in a spring flood sometime around the Civil War, and the line was never rebuilt, in part for the reasons you mentioned. According to DeLorme's New York Atlas, the roadbed joins the B&M main near Reynolds, just east of the Mechanicville-Schaghticoke bridge. Can I correctly assume that one of the lines you named eventually bought the AN's roadbed east of there, so that the current line runs along the former AN?

trainsinmaine wrote:I know of the Albany Northern from having accidentally discovered part of the original ROW west of Melrose, near Troy, several years ago. From what I understand, it crossed the Hudson somewhere just north of Waterford. The trestle (which must have been massive) was destroyed in a spring flood sometime around the Civil War, and the line was never rebuilt, in part for the reasons you mentioned. According to DeLorme's New York Atlas, the roadbed joins the B&M main near Reynolds, just east of the Mechanicville-Schaghticoke bridge. Can I correctly assume that one of the lines you named eventually bought the AN's roadbed east of there, so that the current line runs along the former AN?

You know, looking at all the conversion points east of Johnsonville, it's hard to keep track which main is what! I think my guess earlier might have been wrong at Indian Massacre. Today's current PAR alignment has the two mains technically tied into one at Hoosick Middle with one represented east and the other west of there. Hopefully someone else would know.

Someone can fill you in on the exact issue/date (I forget at this moment), but there is a fantastic article on the B&M West End in one of the old B&M Bulletin's which explains in nice detail about the double track situation between Johnsonville and North Pownel. Hunt it down, it's well worth it!

Is anyone aware that the old Rutland "Corkscrew Div." between Bennington, VT and Chatham, NY passed through this area, also? If you look at the Topozone map in the link provided by SSW9389, there is an "unnatural" rectangular protrusion in the isocline just northeast of North Petersburg. Scrolling northward (up) on the map above Petersburg Jct. there is another "unnatural" sharp kink in the 500' isocline, and scrolling up just a little further till you find Hoosick cemetary, note the man-made cut through the 500' isocline (parallel straight lines) across the road from the cemetary. Scroll further north to Hoosick (village), then eastward (right) up the valley of Brown's Brook and the map will begin to show the Rutland ROW and tracks with labeling.
The Rutland crossed the B&M at Petersburg Jct. and shared a common station.

The diamond/wye between the B&M and Rutland was on the property once owned by a branch of my family named the Bratts. Bernardus Bratt (my 9th generation great grandfather) became the Patroon of Hoosick in 1735 and owned all of today's Hoosick and Hoosick Falls. His house is still there about 500 feet from where the station serving both lines was located. The family cemetery was in the northern end of the wye. The Rutland line can easily be traced today (after being pulled up in 1954) generally all the way to Bennington. Since the beginning of the 20th century what is left of the patroon's property is a dairy farm owned by the Philpot family. The Rutland crossed the B&M where both tracks of the B&M were side by side, but within a quarter of a mile (south) they split into the wide iron.

greenwichlirr wrote:Someone can fill you in on the exact issue/date (I forget at this moment), but there is a fantastic article on the B&M West End in one of the old B&M Bulletin's which explains in nice detail about the double track situation between Johnsonville and North Pownel. Hunt it down, it's well worth it!

There were several articles on the West End in various issues, but the article to which you probably refer would be in Volume XVI Number 1, "The West End." It has lots of great maps. There is also a short article in the September 1985 issue and entitled "Johnsonville - Johnsonville." Unfortunately, that article does not contain any maps.

-John

I work on the D&H. Sometimes I run over the Fitchburg to Eagle Bridge, to interchange with the Batten Kill. One can see the two ROWs split east of Johnsonville, and come back together at E. B. Someone said that there was another alignment north of the present ROW, in the area.
One time, a buddy of mine, from eastern MA and I met up to explore this area. We were at Hoosick Jct., when they repaired the line to N. Bennington, for Amtrak. In the legs of the "y" it looks like there is a filled in bridge. There is also a power line that lines up with the filled in bridge. What was that? I thought that the two lines ran together here.

Sorry to revive an old topic, but in response to the last post, there existed two parallel single track rows from Johnsonville all the way to the Vermont border. I believe several stations were built between the two lines. Between Hoosick Middle and Hoosick Junction one line cuts straight across the landscape, while the other follows the river, passing under the current freight main in Hoosick Falls. John St is in its place today. At Hoosick Junction there was trackage that cut across the legs of the Bennington & Rutland wye. Between there and Eagle Bridge you can see the power line following this right of way. It joined what's now the battenkill trackage immediately east of their Hoosick River Bridge. It's very easy to see the right of way south of rt 67 between Eagle Bridge and Buskirk, where it crosses to the north side of the road. There's a station in buskirk on Buskirk-West Hoosick Rd that you can glimpse from 67. The ROW disappears after that but you can see it on the north side of the lake you pass after crossing under the freight main east of Johnsonville.

If anyone has photos I'd love to see them. Also, I assume the lower line that hugs the river was the eastbound mainline, as it probably offered a lesser grade, though I could be wrong. Also the Eagle Bridge-Hoosick Junction section is erased from maps after 1945, probably because of the existing double track between those two locations.

B&M 1227 wrote:Sorry to revive an old topic, but in response to the last post, there existed two parallel single track rows from Johnsonville all the way to the Vermont border. I believe several stations were built between the two lines. Between Hoosick Middle and Hoosick Junction one line cuts straight across the landscape, while the other follows the river, passing under the current freight main in Hoosick Falls. John St is in its place today. At Hoosick Junction there was trackage that cut across the legs of the Bennington & Rutland wye. Between there and Eagle Bridge you can see the power line following this right of way. It joined what's now the battenkill trackage immediately east of their Hoosick River Bridge. It's very easy to see the right of way south of rt 67 between Eagle Bridge and Buskirk, where it crosses to the north side of the road. There's a station in buskirk on Buskirk-West Hoosick Rd that you can glimpse from 67. The ROW disappears after that but you can see it on the north side of the lake you pass after crossing under the freight main east of Johnsonville.

If anyone has photos I'd love to see them. Also, I assume the lower line that hugs the river was the eastbound mainline, as it probably offered a lesser grade, though I could be wrong. Also the Eagle Bridge-Hoosick Junction section is erased from maps after 1945, probably because of the existing double track between those two locations.

Very funny that this thread got revived, because I just drove Manchester, VT - Ridgefield, CT yesterday via NY 22 south of Bennington and was wondering about this very area.

Did the Rutland interchange much traffic with the B&M at Petersburg Jct.?

Most traffic appeared to change hands at North Bennington. Very few cars were interchanged at Petersburg Junction.