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The Massawippi Valley Railway was a short line railway established 1870 between Lennoxville, Quebec, and the Vermont border. Part of the Quebec Central Railway from 1926, the line was abandoned in 1990 and removed in 1992. Most of the former railway's path is now bicycle trails. ==History== The Connecticut River Division of the Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers Railroad had completed its line from White River Junction, Vermont to Newport in October 1863 and to the Canadian border in May 1867.〔Interstate Commerce Commission, 30 Val. Rep. 515 (1930): Valuation Docket No. 221, Boston and Maine Railroad et al.〕 The Canadian Pacific Railway already served Sherbrooke and Lennoxville, Quebec; the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railway (later part of the Grand Trunk Railway) linked Montréal via Sherbrooke to Portland, Maine. This left a gap where passengers and freight would be transferred to stagecoaches upon arriving in the Eastern Townships from Vermont. The border gap was bridged in 1870 by the Massawippi Valley Railway Company, a short line railway extending from Beebe Junction (on the US border) to Lennoxville (on the CPR line). A branch brought a rail link from Beebe Junction into Stanstead, Quebec.〔(Timetable 28 ), page 44, Québec Central Railway, April 30, 1972.〕 Service was initially provided using steam locomotives. A leasehold on this Massawippi line extended the reach of the Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers Railroad line (White River Junction - Newport) northward to the Canadian Pacific Railway at Sherbrooke. Onward connections could then be made to Montréal or Québec City in the north and to Boston and New York in the south. The rail line encouraged growth of the individual villages which it served, bringing new summer visitors to rural communities such as North Hatley, Quebec while facilitating the export of Canadian wood, produce and natural resources. In 1884, Massawippi Valley Railway's management included John Gilman Foster (1859-1931) as president, Stephen Foster as vice-president and William S. Foster as treasurer. All three simultaneously held positions of authority at the National Bank of Derby Line. On April 8, 1895, a southbound Boston & Maine Railroad passenger train derailed upon striking a boulder on the track; the engineer and fireman, injured by burns from steam, were transported to Newport but did not survive. By 1909, Beebe Junction had become the main point of entry to the North Derby, Vermont / Stanstead, Quebec region for customs purposes, a rôle it would only relinquish in the late 1920s as U.S. Route 5 led to increased road traffic at the expense of the railways.〔(The Growth of Customs, Stanstead Journal, May 9, 1974, cited at )〕 Massawippi Valley Railway was operated by the Connecticut & Passumpsic Rivers Railroad from 1870 to 1919, then leased by the Boston & Maine Railroad from 1919 to 1926.〔 CPR had leased the Quebec Central Railway in 1912; that railway in turn leased both the line north from Newport and the connecting Massawippi Valley Railway in June 1926.〔Mundy's Earning Power of Railroads, 1927, p. 562〕 Throughout the 1930s passenger service ran from Quebec City to Newport, allowing travellers to make onward connections. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Massawippi Valley Railway」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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