Hello all,
My wife and I have been vacationing on Lake Champlain in Vermont for the past few days. We’re on our way home this morning, but before we go I wanted to share with everyone some of what we’ve been exploring.
<< This is a summary, more photos and explanations can be found on my website: Leeds Hill Railroad - Lake Champlain. >>
We started our trip with a stop in Burlington on our way up to the Canadian border. There, we found Union Station, a rail yard, and a CN speeder (looked brand new). I love this detail on top of the station.
This car was sitting in the yard. Anyone want to replicate it?
I didn’t intend for this trip to turn into a history tour, the only planned RR-related stop was Burlington. Regardless, we happened upon this museum…
Swanton, VT, as it turns out, has a historical society who maintains a museum near the center of town. We weren’t able to go inside (not open the day we visited), but got to explore their collection outside. The coolest thing about the museum is the remains of an old roundhouse and turntable on the property. They also have an old speeder, caboose, semaphore signal, crossing gate, and lots of signs talking about the history of each piece. (Again, more photos at the link above!)
There is still one rail line that runs through Swanton and up into Canada; a branch-line of the NECR. There used to be more lines in the area; some of the remains can still be seen throughout Alburgh.
The active line runs through a nature preserve, which we hiked. The trail took us right over the tracks.
From Swanton we continue to Alburgh, and the train does the same, by crossing a portion of Lake Champlain. For cars, it’s a quick drive over a raised bridge. For the train, the RR office in St. Albans has to control this +100-year-old swing bridge. The bridge stays open (like this) during the boating season, and is closed when needed. In the off-season, it stays closed, and is opened upon request.
From here, the train heads up into Canada. For us though, we now follow a long-gone train route into New York state. There was another railroad that ran from the same swing bridge, but went west instead of north. (I believe it was the Alburgh RR, originally.) It went through the center of the town of Alburgh and crossed the lake into Rouses Point, NY. The remains of the bridge can still be seen on the lake’s surface. I think I found a location where rails may still be in place from this line, but it appears to be on private property, so we did not explore.
On to New York! My wife and I only went over to New York so she could see a lighthouse that wasn’t publicly accessible directly. We figured we could see it across the way. And we did! On the way back to Vermont, she noticed a sign for a railroad station. So, we checked it out.
It turns out that Rouses Point is the last US stop for Amtrak’s Monterealer service before the border. The station is on the National Register of Historic Places. While currently undergoing repairs, we were, again, at least able to visit outside.
