Trolley Thursday 10/15/20 - Springfield Electric Railway

 Springfield, Vermont, is a small town on the western side of the Connecticut River, with the state of New Hampshire in the east. Just 14 miles south along Highway 91 is the town of Bellows Falls, where F. Nelson Blount's famous Steamtown USA museum was originally located. Though Springfield is a small town (with its population not yet cracking 10,000 people), its railroad history is rich with both streetcar and heavy rail operations. One of the biggest names out of that region is the Springfield Terminal Railway, which came to prominence as the operations wing of the Guilford Rail System (now Pan Am Railway), but originally started out as yet another boom-town trolley. On today's Trolley Thursday, let's board the little Springfield Electric Railway and find out why this legendary line deserves to be remembered.

Vermont's "Railroad Fever"

Irish laborers lay tracks near Danville, VT, in the mid-1800s.
(Vermont Historical Society)

A railroad map of Vermont, 1902.
(Old Maps)

The Springfield Electric Railway (SER) can credit its creation from what was known as Vermont's "Railroad Fever" boom. Despite being a small, wedge-shaped state, Vermont offered handsome business in lumber, mining, and dairy; after all, all that green has to be cut off the mountains and transported somewhere else. From the time the first steam locomotive landed in America in 1829 and the creation of the SER in 1896, 81 individual railroads were established and charted all through Vermont. Most, however, would fold by the 1880s into larger systems such as the Boston & Maine (B&M), Delaware & Hudson, Maine Central, and Rutland Railroad, but that still left the 9,623 square mile state covered in railways. With so many railways connecting through in Vermont, many communities without rail service realized that horsecars, and especially the new electric streetcars, was a lot better than waiting for the railroad to come to them.

Another "Toonerville Trolley"

The Adna-Brown Hotel in Springfield, VT, some time
before 1900. The open summer car is indicative of the
early SER fleet. The hotel later burned in 1961.
(HipPostcard)

In 1896, the riverside town of Springfield, VT chartered their own streetcar company, the Springfield Electric Railway, to feed passenger traffic and freight interchange from the B&M station in Charlestown, NH, just 4 miles southeast. The tiny Vermont town was so anxious to have a main-line connection that the SER became one of the first purely-municipal streetcar systems (despite being chartered as a private company) due to city funds being used to build the initial 4-mile route from the Adna-Brown Hotel at Springfield Town Center to the Cheshire Bridge over the Connecticut River. Due to following a private right-of-way along the Black River, the line was considered an "interurban".

The Black River and Falls through Springfield, VT, 1910.
Many manufacturing companies, and streetcar lines, got
their power from waterwheels set along the riverside.
(Unknown Author)

Power was provided halfway down along the Black River tributary, from a powerhouse and dam at Gould's Mills. Interestingly, power was generated not by hydroelectric turbines, but by a pastoral waterwheel hooked up to a DC generator. More town funding later extended the line past the Cheshire Bridge (a toll bridge) into Charlestown proper, where it terminated at the B&M station on Dell Street and Erin Court. As the turn of the 20th century rolled around, the small-town charm and almost cartoonishness of the system led the SER to be labeled just another "Toonerville Trolley". However, unlike most Toonervilles, the SER contributed greatly to sparking a new industrial boom in Vermont. Eventually, Springfield was known famously as "Precision Valley" due to its reputation for "industrial craftsmanship and precision manufacturing."

A postcard view of a Springfield Electric Railway summer car arriving at
Charlestown Station, year unknown but possibly before or in 1900.
(Nashua City Station)

The Springfield Terminal carhouse in the 1950s, with
what appears to be Car No. 16 sitting outside.
(Jen ~ Small Town Legacies)

All of this was possible thanks to the important connection the SER shared with the B&M. From the start, though the townsfolk of Springfield and Charleston hailed their streetcars as revolutionary, all of the SER's coffers were packed with freight money. Interchanging with the B&M at Charlestown enabled new manufacturing machinery to arrive in Springfield, enabling innovators and inventors alike to find riches and success. Machined tools from "Precision Valley" became hot commodities all over the US, and more often than not most of these tools found their way into maintaining the streetcars at SER's Springfield carhouse.

Notable Rolling Stock

Springfield Terminal Railway No. 10 at an unknown
location/date, showing off its attractive combine body
and rebuilt bumpers. 
(Unknown Author)

When the SER opened for operation in 1897, the town also secured local funding for a handsome fleet of cars from the Wason Manufacturing Company of Springfield, MA. (No relation.) Most, if not all of these cars were built as wood-bodied "combination cars", with a baggage section able to hold any local freight or mail deliveries and a dedicated passenger section taking up the rest of the car. Summer cars were also on the SER's roster, built by the Brill Company for seasonal operations. Wason also manufactured dedicated freight motors for the SER, which were hollowed-out, all-baggage/freight streetcars with stronger motors that could haul heavier freight equipment. Later on, at least two of these freight motors were rebuilt as center-cab "work motors" for line maintenance. 

Springfield Electric Railway No. 4, an express freight motor built by
the Wason Car Company and delivered in 1901.
(Unknown Author)

STL No. 15 works a freight on an unknown date
along the Black River line. Consists like these
were common in the later period.
(Bill Volkmer, Don Ross)

More rolling stock was provided by the Boston & Maine following their purchase of the Springfield Electric Railway in 1921. Under the new Springfield Terminal Railroad (STR) name, the B&M continued to provide for the town by investing in new and used Baldwin-Westinghouse electric locomotives and two steel-bodied streetcars from Wason to continue maintaining the line to Charlestown Station. The latter were ordered in 1926, and were among the last streetcars built for the STR. After this, the system continued to depend on electric power until 1956, when the wires gave way to diesel exhaust.

The Big G

On May 20, 1975, STL 44 tonner No. 1 can be seen
crossing the Cheshire Bridge near the New Hampshire
toll booth. Back then, the toll was only 15 cents.
(M. Leachman)

Despite "Precision Valley" business booming in the war years through their thriving machine tool businesses, the railroad began floundering in WWI. The railroad went into receivership and Springfield began looking for a buyer, eventually finding one in the Boston & Maine Railroad. After the purchase was finalized in 1921, the street railway was reorganized as the Springfield Terminal Railroad, with the name denoting it as a freight interchange branch. The years leading up into WWII were spent in relative peace; despite the rise of automobile ownership, the local freight traffic and easy commute across the Connecticut River kept the STR in service without hurting the B&M's earnings too much. 

STL No. 1 was a 44 tonner originally from the San Francisco
& Napa Valley Railway in 1942, then Sacramento Northern.
It was rebuilt and sold to the STL in October 1956.
(Tom Sink)

After WWII, the B&M made the decision to dieselize the STL and end street passenger service. Numbers had dropped sharply postwar, and the repeal of gasoline rationing meant people were buying cars more than ever. One of the last electric operations on the line was a February 23, 1941 charter trip using wooden Wason car No. 10, which was planned by the Connecticut Valley Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) and the founders of the Connecticut Electric Railway Association. After 1947, all electric passenger services ended and were replaced by local town bus services, while freight work was still provided by aging electric locomotives. After 1956, these were replaced by diesels.

Guilford SW-1 No. 1400, branded for "Springfield Terminal", 
poses at Waterville, ME, on August 15, 1987.
(Roger Lalonde)

Pan Am Railways' headquarters in Billerica, MA,
showing the four railroads that still grace its rails:
Maine Central, Portland Terminal, Boston & Maine,
and Springfield Terminal. 

After over 50 years spent as a B&M subsidiary, change came to the Springfield Terminal when, in 1983, Timothy Mellon (grandson to Andrew W. Mellon, who founded both the Standard Steel Car Company and Carnegie-Mellon University) purchased the Boston & Maine for his new merger railroad, Guilford Rail System (The Big G). Mellon also owned the Maine Central (MEC), its subsidiary Portland Terminal, and the Delaware & Hudson Railroad, and used his system as a terminating railroad for lines heading to New England.

Springfield Terminal was considered the operating hub of the Guilford because, as an ex-interurban road, its operating rules and regulations were not subject to union approval like the bigger Class 1 railroads. This issue continues to be controversial in New England railroading to this day. In an effort to bury this problem under good PR, many Guilford diesels (including ones not originally owned by STL, or far too big for the system, were clad in "SPRINGFIELD TERMINAL" lettering, bringing more railfan interest to this tiny former interurban. As of 2006, the former interurban's name still handles Pan Am Railways' operations division (as Guilford rebranded itself after buying the defunct airline's name and logo).

A former Southern Railway SD45, now Springfield Terminal 689, looks
the bee's knees in its new paint scheme at Guilford's East Binghamton Shops, 1988.
(Doug Lilly)

Survivors

Springfield Electric Railway No. 16, restored to
"as-built" condition, and operating at the Connecticut
Trolley Museum.
(CT-Trolley.org)

Of the Springfield Electric Railway's original streetcars and rolling stock, only four found their way into preservation along with some of the line's infrastructure. The Connecticut Trolley Museum in East Windsor, CT, owns most of the fleet, including wooden combine No. 10, steel combine No. 16, flanger No. 12, and the Gould's Mills DC generator. Car No. 10 was the second car to come to the museum, purchased directly from the STL in retirement, and is now on static display. Flanger Car No. 12 was originally built for the Northern Massachusetts Railway in 1915 as No. 1014 by the Brill Company, but later worked the STL from 1926 to 1956. Car No. 16 was acquired following the end of all electric operations in 1956 after being used as a freight motor, wherein its seats and its side windows were all removed. Of the trio, No. 16 remains in operation and fully restored, seats and all. 

Springfield Electric Railway No. 10 on static display at the
Connecticut Trolley Museum.
(CT-Trolley.org)

Boxy Baldwin No. 14, in Cornwall colors, at the
Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL.
(Edward Kwiatkowski)

The fourth and final extant electric survivor of the STL is Cornwall Street Railway Light & Power No. 14, a Baldwin-Westinghouse steeplecab preserved and in operation at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL. Originally built in 1929 for the Springfield Terminal as No. 20, it was sold off after the end of electric operations in 1956 to Cornwall, Ontario, where it worked as a freight locomotive for another 16 years, until 1972. It was later sold to the Illinois Railway Museum, where it is preserved in its latter livery. As for the other diesel locomotives that operated under Springfield Terminal, most have either been scrapped or repainted. The last piece of surviving infrastructure worth mentioning is the Charlestown B&M depot, which is now a hardware store.

The Charlestown, New Hampshire, railroad depot, now used as a hardware store. 
The blue sign above the window shows the depot once served "Charlestown, NH & Springfield, VT.
(New England Depot)

Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources today were provided by Springfield Vermont News, Vixettes.Com's resource on Southern Vermont Interurbans, Nashua City Station, and the Connecticut Railroad Museum's histories on their SER cars. I'd also like to shoutout both the museum above and the Illinois Railway Museum for keeping the SER on track and preserved for future generations. If you are the computer savvy type, you can play on the Springfield Terminal Railway in OpenRails, courtesy of Elvas Tower. On Tuesday, we look at the preservation angle for a change as we show off the oldest heritage streetcar running in America! For now, you can follow myself or my editor on Twitter, buy a shirt or sticker from our Redbubble stand, or purchase my editor's self-developed board game! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) Until next time, ride safe!