Bristol Railroad
Encyclopedia

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The Bristol Railroad was a short-line railroad in Addison County, Vermont
Addison County, Vermont
Addison County is a county located in the U.S. state of Vermont. In 2010, the population was 36,821. Its shire town is Middlebury.-Geography:...

.

Businessmen in the town of Bristol chartered the railroad in 1890, and the grand opening was on January 5, 1892, although service had actually begun on November 25, 1891, when a car of potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...

es was shipped out of Bristol.

The railroad never did much business, and it is unlikely that it ever hauled more than a three-car train. Freight traffic was mostly agricultural. A trip could take as little as 18 minutes, if the locomotive had only one car to handle.

The railroad was abandoned during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

. The last run was on April 12, 1930. One man, John S. Burt, rode both the grand opening train and the final train. The western part of the right of way was used to build Vermont Route 17
Vermont Route 17
Vermont Route 17 is a long state highway in western Vermont, United States. The temporary western terminus is at the Lake Champlain shoreline in Addison just west of its junction with VT 125. The eastern terminus is at VT 100 in Waitsfield. VT 17 was initially much shorter than it is today,...

. Both the Bristol and New Haven Junction stations survive.

Locomotives

Number Image Type Builder Notes
1 Forney locomotive
Forney locomotive
The Forney is a type of tank locomotive patented by Matthias N. Forney between 1861 and 1864. Forney locomotives include the following characteristics:* An 0-4-4T wheel arrangement, that is four driving wheels followed by a truck with four wheels....

Rhode Island Locomotive Works
Rhode Island Locomotive Works
Rhode Island Locomotive Works was a steam locomotive manufacturing company of the 19th century located in Providence, Rhode Island. The factory produced more than 3,400 locomotives between 1867 and 1906, when the plants locomotive production was shut down...

65 short tons (58,967 kg). Used until 1911
Doodlebug
Doodlebug (rail car)
In the United States, doodlebug was the common name for a self-propelled railroad car . While such a coach typically had a gasoline-powered engine that turned a generator which provided electricity to traction motors, which turned the axles and wheels on the trucks, versions with mechanical...

Formerly worked in Boston. 4-cylinder petrol engine
Petrol engine
A petrol engine is an internal combustion engine with spark-ignition, designed to run on petrol and similar volatile fuels....

. Used 1911-1922
11 4-4-0
4-4-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-4-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and no trailing wheels...

Purchased from Southern Railway
Southern Railway (US)
The Southern Railway is a former United States railroad. It was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894...

. 110 short tons (99,790.3 kg). Used after 1922
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