Hi everyone. I’m a newbie to model trains and trains in general. I recently found out that my great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, and great-great-great-grandfather used to live in Burlington , VT and were engineers for CVRR (Central VT Railway?). This was from the late-1800’s to the early-1900’s. I would estimate from the 1870’s to the 1920’s. Does anyone know what trains were used back then or maybe some good resources that I could use for researching this?
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Vermont Central or Central of Vermont was owned by parent company Canadian National. Try googling Canadian National Historical Society and see if they have an archive.
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Central Vermont has a historical society also.
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There are some extensive histories of the Central Vermont and its predecessors. They tend to be expensive when they come up for sale.
Central Vermont Railroad had an interesting history up to 1896, when it entered receivership and was acquired by the Grand Trunk (a Canadian railroad). Post-WWI financial troubles caused the consolidation of a number of Canadian railroads, including the Grand Trunk, into “Canadian National” shortly before the major grouping of British railroads. Interestingly, the CV was for many years operated separately from CN, with some highly interesting steam power; you can see diesels with the “wet noodle” style of CN lettered both “CV” and “GT”.
Welcome to the forum! I hope you can continue to post and let us know what are doing with your trains.
Try visiting cvcnrhs.org. It’s the website of the Champlain Valley Chapter of the National Railway Society. You may consider joining. They have a members section with a photo album featuring over 150 pictures of CVR steam engines as well as some excellent recorded presentations that show CVR in operation. In the CVCTube section, there’s an amazing video of CVR steam in operation.
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You might want to look for the first two volumes of Robert C Jones’ history of the Central Vermont, published by the now-defunct Sundance Books. They cover the history of the railroad from its founding through 1910, and the second volume contains some excellent and nearly complete (IIRC) track charts for the railroad that show most of the stations and the terminals. There are lots of photographs, illustrating equipment and stations in significant detail.
I don’t have roster data, but at that time CV would have had an entirely wooden coach fleet, probably most of which had open end platforms, rather than vestibules.
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Historically, Canadian railroads can’t operate in the US, or vice-versa. CP and CN tracks in the US had to be owned by a US company that CP or CN controlled. The 30 miles or so of CN’s mainline that runs through northern Minnesota (south of Lake of the Woods) was set up as the Manitoba & Minnesota (or was it Minnesota & Manitoba? Not sure right now), a US ‘railroad’. Central Vermont was a similar situation. Also worked both ways, New York Central System’s Michigan Central RR operated the Canada Southern Ry, which connected Buffalo and Detroit via Lower Ontario.
After NAFTA, the restrictions were reduced - but not fully eliminated. For example, up until the recent merger, CP trackage in the US was technically the Soo Line, headquartered in Minneapolis. Now CPKC’s US operation is in Kansas City, but legally is still in a legal / corporate sense separate from CPKC in Canada (or Mexico).
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Central Vermont was part of the Grand Trunk Corporation, which owned the GT (CN line to Portland ME), the CV, the Grand Trunk Western, The Duluth Winnipeg & Pacific and the Minnesota & Manitoba. CP’s lines in Maine and Vermont were managed in later years as part of the International of Maine.
CV did own the St. Armand sub between St Albans and Iberville QC until it was abandoned in the 1940s. Earlier CV had had lines that reached the St. Lawrence opposite Montreal. The Quebec lines were either sold to the GT or abandoned in the 1890s. Amtrak’s Adirondack uses a short stretch of track built by the CV between Longueuil and St. Hubert QC, near Montreal.
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Welcome to the forum.
Try the Bailey-Howe Library at Burlington’s University of Vermont (UVM). When I was getting my master of science in historic preservation from UVM I specialized in historic technology with a concentration on railroads. The library was a great source for all kinds of information, especially about local lines like CV and the Rutland. They have original CV publications, a collection of slides and postcards, and a lot more.
Yes, and that is where I would start.
Rich