The Southern Vermont Traction Company was an interurban railroad that operated lines from Bennington, VT to (a junction with the PV&T, B&M, and CV at) Brattleboro, VT, to Arlington (Rutland), and south to Adams, MA (connecting to the PV&T and B&M at Pownal, VT, and the B&A at Adams). Like many other New England interurbans, it made a serious effort to move freight, and by the time it was taken over by the PV&T in 1940, freight was keeping it profitable over the losses of the passenger business.
The PV&T took it over just as the United States was being pulled into the second world war, so it kept operating as a 600VDC operation until 1946, when the remaining trackage was finally reelectrified at 3000 vdc just in time for traffic volumes to fall off a cliff as war production wound down..
SVT history
- 1883
- Brattleboro & Bennington Railroad chartered, track built from Brattleboro to West Brattleboro
- 1896
- Bennington & North Adams Railway chartered to run an interurban line between those two cities.
- 1899
- B&NA builds line from Bennington To Pownal, MA & Arlington, VT
- 1900
- B&NA builds from Pownal to Adams
- 1901
- B&NA purchases B&B, renamed to Southern Vermont Traction
- 1902
- built Bennington to Brattleboro.
- 1936
- abandoned Adams to North Adams
- 1938
- passenger service withdrawn, replaced by busses (Southern Vermont Stages)
- 1939
- abandoned Pownal to North Adams
- 1940
- purchased by the PV&T
- 1946
- Remaining trackage re-electrified at 3000VDC.
- 1948
- abandoned Wilmington to West Brattleboro.
- 1950
- Southern Vermont Stages sold to Town and Village Bus (Chester, VT.)
- 1951
- Abandoned Bennington to Wilmington.
- 1955
- Abandoned Arlington to Bennington, Brattleboro to West Brattleboro.
- 1962
- Re-established passenger services between Bennington & Pownal to satisfy long-neglected franchise requirements (Bennington wanted the tracks out of the street for civic beautification, and pointed out that the franchise required passenger service), but the SVT still had a good traffic sources just north of town, so they grabbed an idle PV&T class 6P coach and put it back into service as a connector to the PV&T’s daily train between Concord & Schenectady.
- 1975
- Abandoned (again) passenger service between Bennington & Pownal.
- 1997
- Leased the Vermont Railway’s line between Bennington & North Bennington after the VC decided to embargo it.
All-time SVT Roster
| No. | Type | Builder | Built | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-4 | passenger | Cincinnati Car | 1902 | Retired 1938 |
| 5-6 | passenger | Cincinnati Car | 1904 | Retired 1946 |
| 20-21 | express motor | Brill | 1904 | Retired 1931 |
| 70 | boxcab | St Louis Car | 1907 | to PV&T 286-288; retired 1940 |
| 71-75 | boxcab | St Louis Car | 1907 | to PV&T 284-285; retired 1946 |
| 73-75 | boxcab | St Louis Car | 1907 | to PV&T 286-288; retired 1940 |
| 80-81 | steeplecab | Baldwin-Westinghouse | 1920 | To CR&IC 1940 |
| 276 | steeplecab | Alco-GE | 1931 | Assigned to SVT 1946 (after the PV&T’s Mount Cube incline was abandoned), retired 2007 |
| 207 | boxcab | Alco-GE | 1912 | Assigned to SVT 2007, to Musée Ferroviaire Canadien 2012 |
| 240 | steeplecab | Baldwin-Westinghouse | 1930 | Assigned to SVT 2012-2013 |
| 609P | passenger | Pullman | 1928 | Ex-PV&T; in service 1962-1973 |
| 1210 | steeplecab | Portland | 2013 | In service |