Vermont Railroad Timeline

War and Industry
1860-1910

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Civil War

No More Compromising

The War Begins

Attack on St. Albans

Vermont's War Hospitals

Women on the Homefront

Soldiers

Railroads Come to Vermont

Introduction

Riot Near Bolton Flats

Wrecks and Disasters

Railroad Timeline

Arrivals and Departures

Write a Letter to your Ancestors

Vermont's Changing Landscape

Introduction

Industrialized Vermont

Introduction

Cheese Butter then Milk

Quarries, Mills and Factories

Tools of the Trade

Workers Organize

Contrasting Communities

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1831-1843 • 1843 • 1846-1851 • 1852-1863 • 1860-1868 • 1870-1875 • 1877-1886 • 1888-1894

1877 February 5— The worst train disaster in Vermont’s history occurs when The Montreal Express traveling from White River Junction to Montreal goes off the tracks on the White River Bridge, killing 34 people and injuring 49.

1877 July—The Portland & Ogdensburgh Railroad, connecting Portland, Maine to Ogdensburgh, New York via St. Johnsbury, Vermont, is completed. Promoted by Horace Fairbanks, it provides cheaper transportation rates for the Fairbanks Scale Company. The Central Vermont’s Connecticut & Passumpsic River Railroad is forced to lower its rates.

1886 July—The Clarendon & Pittsford Railroad, owned by the Vermont Marble Company, completes the first two-mile section between Center and West Rutland. By the end of the decade this line is connected to the Rutland Railroad in downtown Rutland, providing rail access from the quarries to markets around the country.