Lamoille Valley Railroad Company

The Lamoille Valley Railroad Company started operations on January 1, 1978, operating the Vermont state owned trackage between Swanton and St. Johnsbury. This was previously the St. Johnsbury & Lamoille County RR. My layout is set in 1980, so I will focus on modeling the LVRC at the height of it's operations.

History of the line The 96 miles of track across the top of Vermont has been operated by a number of railroads throughout its history. Up until 1925 it was part of the Boston & Maine. Then it operated as the St. Johnsbury and Lake Champlain. Bankruptcy in 1944 led to a reorganization and a name change to the St. Johnsbury and Lamoille County. Orange and cream GE 70 tonners plied the rails until 1967, when Samuel Pinsley purchased the line on the verge of abandonment. Pinsley family red GP9s and RS3s operated the deteriorating railroad until 1972.

Original St. J & LC GE 70 Tonners (1967) Photo by Richard Phelps Pinsley St. J & LC EMD GP9s crossing Lamoille River (1968) Photo by Tim Phelps

The State of Vermont purchased the line to save the rail service for local businesses. The Lamoille County RR operated from 1973 until 1976 using D&H RS3s and then ex-Reading GP7s in an interesting scheme developed by president Bruno Loati. The need for repairing and upgrading the trackage was reaching a critical point with the State and the railroad in a standoff about fixing the right of way.

After much political battling, the state awarded a contract to Morrison-Knudsen to operate the railroad as the state looked for a company to rehabilitate the track. The M-K's Vermont Northern operated the railroad but was mainly interested in the rebuilding contract. Three ex-Long Island Alco C420s were the motive power and yellow 50' IPD boxcars were leased to increase revenue. When the state awarded the contract to rebuild the line to another firm, M-K pulled out.

The Lamoille Valley Railroad Company took over operations from the Vermont Northern starting January 1, 1978. The LVRC was given a 10 year lease from the State of Vermont and the money to rebuild the entire 96 mile rail line. In addition, operating subsidies were provided in an effort get the line up and running. Motive power came from the Delaware & Hudson. Four RS3s were repainted into a yellow with green stripe and lettering scheme. In addition, 100 50' IPD boxcars were leased, painted into the same yellow and green scheme, assuring cars for local shippers.

The line actively sought to capture bridge traffic from the Maine Central and Canadian Pacific in St. Johnsbury and the Central Vermont and CN on the west end in Swanton. However, a longer than anticipated rebuild slowed down these efforts, and trackwork was not completely rebuilt until October of 1979, a year behind schedule. When completed, the line did live up to its promise and helped get MEC cars to the Midwest 1 day faster than CP Rail could at St. Johnsbury.

In addition to serving as a bridge line, the Lamoille Valley also had a few on line shippers. This freight consisted of asbestos, talc, limestone, gravel, grain and feed.

An interesting feature on the line was the covered railroad Fisher Bridge in East Wolcott, the last of its kind on any common carrier railroad at the time. Photo by Ken Houghton from NERAIL Archive

The shut down of the Maine Central's Mountain Division in 1983 really hurt Lamoille Valley. Interchange with the CP still occurred in St. Johnsbury, but this slowly dwindled through the 1980s. The LVRC acquired the 27 miles of MEC tracks from St. Johnsbury to Whitefield, NH and operated this portion as the Twin State Railroad. The main customer was a paper mill in Gilman, Vermont.

In 1989, when the B&M sold off its lines in northern New Hampshire (Woodsville to Berlin and Groveton), this trackage plus the Twin State RR and LVRC were acquired by CSF Acquisitions and the entire operation became the New Hampshire & Vermont Railroad. The LVRC ceased as a separate railroad entity, although the line west of St. Johnsbury has still retained this name and passenger excursions continued for a few more years. No freight customers exist west of St. J.

Recent proposals for the LVRC line included turning it into a rail-trail for snow mobiles, reviving rail service under a new company, Vermont Rail Link, and starting up a tourist operation using a local 2-truck Heisler locomotive. The tourist and freight operations could operate simultaneously, but the line will again need some reconstruction.

A recent issue of Railpace has indicated that the Vermont legislature has granted authority to turn the eastern end, Morrisville to St. J, into a snow trail. All rail and ties will be pulled. It is unclear what will happen with Fisher Bridge. I do hope that they preserve this piece of history! The western section, Morrisville to Sheldon, will be left as is in hopes of restoring rail service and supporting business and the local economy. I hope this can occur one day.

LVRC Operations

Traffic moving west was heaviest with cars from the CP, B&M and MEC being picked up in St. Johnsbury. Train MJ-2, Morrisville to St. Johnsbury, operated 7 days a week to pickup these interchange cars, returning immediately as train JM-1. After any necessary switching in the Morrisville yard, a new crew boards train MV-1, Morrisville to Fonda Jct., which was the interchange point on the Central Vermont. The LVRC used CV trackage to get to Fonda Jct. The LVRC interchanged cars with the CV's #447 to Montreal. Train VM-2 would then head back to Morrisville, switching a few industries on the way.

Eastbound cars were not taken off of #447, but instead were delivered separately by a CV local to Richford. This caused a days delay in getting cars moved east. Because of this, the LVRC and CV modified operations in 1980 to allow the LVRC to run directly into the CV's Italy Yard in St. Albans. This change also allowed the LVRC to store surplus boxcars west of Sheldon Jct. where trains diverted south on CV trackage to St. Albans.

Train sizes varied from one locomotive and 2 cars up to 3 locomotives and 20 cars. In addition to the freight traffic, tourist passenger trains were operated. As the freight traffic slowly declined in the 1980s, these tourist operations became vital to the railroad's well being.

LVRC On My Layout

My layout will feature selected portions of the LVRC. Starting with the interchange in St. Johnsbury, my plan currently calls for various scenic and industrial scenes. These include (East to West):

• M-S-U Gravel pit siding in Hardwick (2)
• Fisher Covered Railroad bridge in East Wolcott (3)
• Morrisville yard and shops (4)
• Old St. J & LC station converted to restaurant
• Lamoille Grain Company, Morrisville
• Morrisville Lumber Company, Morrisville
• Vermont Industrial Products (wallboard), Morrisville
• Vermont Asbestos Group, Morrisville
• Eastern Magnesia Talc Company, Johnson (LVRCs largest shipper) (5)
• Sheldon Junction, interchange with Central Vermont's Richford branch (6)
• Ralston Purina Mill, Sheldon Junction (1)
• Bordeau Brothers Feed Mill, Sheldon Junction (1)

I don't have pictures or info for all of these industries, so I may have to model them with buildings that may not necessarily match the prototype. I may also add some other industries suitable to the area if I find room on the plan. The goal is to create a reasonable depiction of the LVRC that is also enjoyable to operate.

The Central Vermont will operate out of staging representing St. Albans to the active interchange with the LVRC. A diamond crossing will lead the CV north to more staging representing Richford. Possible future expansion could include actually modeling Richford with its grain elevators and interchange with the CP in a different area of the basement.

The Lamoille Valley part of the layout will leave the St. J peninsula and travel along the outer walls where it will turn back on itself via a connecting track through the closet. See the drawing below, the LVRC is the green section, the numbers correspond to the list above.

Here are some recent views of the LVRC areas on my layout. Most of the track is in place with some scenery underway. First is the Lamoille River with the Fisher Bridge, next is the section between Morrisville and Danville.

 

Below is an overview of the Wolcott area and Fisher Bridge, next is to the left, Hardwick.

 

Operations will be similar to the prototype. A train from Morrisville will travel to St. J for interchange and then return back to Morrisville. A train will leave Morrisville and head for Sheldon Jct. and the CV interchange and return. A local switcher in Morrisville will also serve the local industries. I may add some local trains depending on how things work out to increase on-line activity.

Motive power will be RS3s, 7801 to 7804. I have Atlas undecorated units to be painted yellow with Highball Graphics decals for these locomotives. I have completed 7804 so far. Click the picture below to read about it. I found on the NERAIL photo site a picture of an ex-MEC 44 tonner, in black with red stripes, used during the track rehab in 1977. Having one of these Spectrum locomotives already in MEC, a quick relettering would give me this unit. MDC used to have item #1913, an LVRC boxcar, and Athearn also had their PS5344 boxcar in LVRC. Highball Graphics makes LVRC boxcar decals as well. Other cars needed would be ex-C&O hoppers for ballast cars. I don't know exactly what these look like but I could probably use predecorated C&O hoppers and paint out some lettering and apply LVRC reporting marks. If anyone has more info or pictures, please let me know! There were also 2 cabooses, one CV and one B&M, and perhaps these could be represented with kitbashed MDC models and pieces from the Highball Graphics decal sets.

Here are Terraserver images along the LVRC right-of-way. For scenes I plan to model, the numbers refer back to the list above.

 

More info on LVRC

• St. Johnsbury & Lake Champlain - Philip R. hastings, May 1947 Trains, p. 50-59
• Today's Lamoille Valley (St. J. Saga Pt. 3) - May 1980 Railfan & Railroad, p. 26-37
• Loatti to Lamoille Valley (St. J. Saga Pt. 2) - March 1980 Railfan & Railroad, p. 48-55
• ST.J. & L.C. (St. J. Saga Pt. 1) - January 1980 Railfan & Railroad
• "Northeast Kingdom", B & M, CV and CP Pt. 2 - February 1982 Trains, p. 22-32
• New Hampshire & Vermont Railroad - October 1994 Railfan & Railroad, p. 60-67
• Alcos in the North Country - April 1993 Railpace, p. 17-19
• Alcos in the Great North Woods - Spring/Summer 2002 Railroad Explorer, p. 32-37
• Book: Green Mountain Rails, Robert W. Jones, 1994
• Book: Maine Central Mountain Division, Ron Johnson, 1986
• Book: New England Rails 1948-1968, Morning Sun Books, 1989
• Book: New England's Colorful Railroads Vol. 1, Four Ways West, 2000
• Video: Red Alcos, Green Mountains - 60 min. color, 1995

Additional Images

Web page written and maintained by: Mike McNamara