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- passenger service withdrawn, replaced by busses (Southern Vermont Stages)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 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 |