(7)
Rutland Street Rwy Co (Main Line,
fairgrounds to West Rutland, 5.5 miles; and a City Line in the village,
2.5
miles, originally; electrified by November 1894, and extended to
Castleton, Lake
Bomoseen (summers only), Fair Haven and Poultney in 1906, total 35
miles. No mail contract in 1906 (Annual
Rpt, PMG),
and none shown in the Vermont Railroad Commissioner's Report from 1902
through
1915, but the Official Register (US) for 1907, 1909, shows that there
was a
route in those years, route 303008.
Also, reference is made (Allan A. Sher, Rutland Historical Soc. Quarterly, Vol X, Winter 1980) to a
mail-carrying car on the Poultney run.
There is a photo of this car, no US Mail sign visible, nor is
the photo
dated, but it would have to be 1907 or later.
Lake Bomoseen run closed 1916, the rest in 1924.
(8) Bennington and Woodford Electric Rwy (on abandoned right of way of the Bennington and Glastenbury RR), 7/14/1895, 9 miles. Probably no mail contract, shut down 10/5/1898 after a flood.
(9)
Bennington and North Adams Street Rwy Co (originally ran from
Bennington to N.
Bennington, 2/10/1898; extended to Hoosick Falls, NY, 7/3/1898, and in
1906, to
North Adams, Mass, becoming part of the much larger Berkshire Street
Rwy), 12
miles in Vermont. This line reported
mail income to the Vermont Railroad Commissioners in 1913, '14 and '15,
but it
is not clear between what points the mail was being carried; probably
Bennington-North Bennington. Closed
after the 1927 flood.
(10) Barre
and Montpelier Traction Co (State House, Montpelier to S. Main St,
Barre, with
branch lines in both cities), 6/29/1898, 9 miles, but apparently no
mail
contract , at least not in 1906, or 1912, '13 (Vt Railroad Commission
Rpt,
Public Service Commission Rpt). Shut
down after the 1927 flood. (This line might be the one added in 1912 or
1913, a
9-mile addition--but the Ann. Rpt of the
PMG still says only 7 routes, even though the miles went up).
___________________
*The Springfield Reporter of Dec 22, 1899,
announced that starting Dec 24th, the "electric cars" would meet the
northbound B & M train at Charlestown at 11:14 p.m. "Thus was
instituted the trip called the 'midnight', although it left the village
around
10:30 p.m., was back around 11:45, which ran for almost 50 years
thereafter ...
This also developed an unusual and most useful mail service to New
York City. First class mail could be
left at the
Adnabrown desk during the evening. The
hotel clerk would turn it over to the midnight trolley conductor, who
in turn
would put it on the railway mail car of the train at Charlestown. The mail would then be taken to White River
Junction, where it would be transferred to the southbound "Owl". The mail so handled, in spite of going
through Charlestown twice, was in New York before noon.
This was a splendid arrangement and lasted
for years until the Post Office Department decided to discover it. It was then halted since neither the hotel
clerk nor the trolley conductor were acting as employees of the Post
Office". (The History of Springfield, Vermont, 1865-1961, Keith R.
Barony,
1972, emphasis added).
**There is a very detailed history of the
Mount Mansfield Electric Rwy, full of human interest, by Alton G.
Wheeler in
Waterbury Sketches--but virtually nothing on the mail contract
(Waterbury
Historical Soc, 1976).
***The existence of this map was
brought to
my attention by J. R. McFarlane, who is working on a history of the St
Albans
Street Railway. There is a copy of it in
the Franklin County Historical Museum, St Albans.
Note:
The various sources from which information was drawn (principally,
AR/PMG,
reports of the Vt Railroad Commissioners (PUC), and Railway Mail
Service
schedules) do not seem to be in complete agreement.
The inconsistencies are probably more
apparent than real, however, due in part, perhaps, to such things as
electric
railways filing incomplete reports with the PUC, and the fact that
there is no
single year for which data from all three sources were available for
comparison. It does seem odd, however,
that three of the lines known to have had mail contracts (Burlington
Traction,
Rutland Street Railway, Berkshire Street Railway) never show up
in the
RMS schedules, and that other lines are in those schedules for some
years, but
not others.