Mount Mansfield Electric Railroad streetcar in Waterbury Center - postcard

The Mount Mansfield Electric Railroad was an intrastate

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

in central

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

. It ran from

Waterbury Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Waterbury had a population of 114,403 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 Census. The city is southwest of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury i ...

to Stowe, a distance of approximately .

History

An electric railroad between Stowe and Waterbury, connecting with the

Central Vermont Railway The Central Vermont Railway was a railroad that operated in the U.S. states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, as well as the Canadian province of Quebec. It connected Montreal, Quebec, with New London, Connect ...

, was authorized by the legislature of Vermont in 1865, 1872, 1888, and 1894. Not until 1897 were sufficient funds raised and construction started. A power plant was built at the south end of Stowe, outside of the village, along with a battery house just north of Colbyville, and service began in 1898. The line operated three passenger cars with baggage areas, two freight motors, a single truck work car which was basically an open-air trolley, and a doubled-ended rotary snowplow. This last saw minimal service, as the unit damaged the track and neighboring structures, and was not effective at the Waterbury end of the railroad due to low current. A wreck shortly after the commencement of services damaged one of the passenger cars; it was removed from service almost immediately. Traffic on the line was never heavy, with the primary shipper being the Burt Lumber Company in Stowe, which shipped

clapboard Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of those terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'', in modern Am ...

s and other wood products to the

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

area. Damage from the 1927 hurricane-related flooding was minimal, but traffic declined further in the early 1930s, and the right-of-way was passed to the state of Vermont in 1932, which promptly turned much of the roadbed into the first concrete paved road in the state,

Vermont Route 100 Vermont Route 100 (VT 100) is a north–south state highway in Vermont in the United States. Running through the center of the state, it travels nearly the entire length of Vermont and is long. VT 100 is the state's longest numbe ...

. The corporate structure of the MMER remained until 1963, operating trucks which carried goods over the new concrete road from Stowe to the train freight station at Waterbury.

Stations

An 1897 timetable listed the following stops from south to north: *

Waterbury, Vermont Waterbury is a town in Washington County in central Vermont, United States. Although the town is still home to the Waterbury Village Historic District, the village sharing the name of the town officially dissolved as a municipality in 2018. As ...

Stowe, Vermont Stowe is a town in Lamoille County, Vermont, United States. The population was 5,223 at the 2020 census. The town lies on Vermont Routes 108 and 100. It is nicknamed "The Ski Capital of the East" and is home to Stowe Mountain Resort, a ski fa ...

The Stowe terminus had a covered station in the back of a storefront. That building still stands on the south side of the main street in the village, but has been extensively renovated. Small stations were built at the side road leading to Moscow, Vermont, and in Waterbury Center. There was no station at the Waterbury end of the line; passengers used the Central Vermont Railroad station (still in existence), and freight was carried to the freight depot. There was an interchange, and boxcars and loads of coal made their way over the entire line by use of the freight motors.

References

* Jones, Robert C., ''Railroads of Vermont, Volume II'', 1993. * Chase, Jerry W., Waterbury (Vermont) Historical Society Newsletter, Summer 2003 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mount Mansfield Electric Railroad Defunct Vermont railroads Interurban railways in Vermont Railway companies established in 1897 Railway companies disestablished in 1932 1897 establishments in Vermont 1932 disestablishments in Vermont American companies established in 1897