Rutland Railroad's Island Line

I was hoping to get some information on this line (pictures when active too) and the causeways and trestles on Lake Champlain. I've never seen any of it in person only on maps but it has always intrigued me. All I know is that the line opened in 1901.

If this line was called something else, I will edit the title to reflect the correct name.

Probably your best bet for information or photos is to find a copy of the book "The Rutland Road" by James Shaughnessy. I think it is long out of print but the content is very well done and the photos are high quality in every way.
Noel Weaver

Noel Weaver wrote:Probably your best bet for information or photos is to find a copy of the book "The Rutland Road" by James Shaughnessy. I think it is long out of print but the content is very well done and the photos are high quality in every way.
Noel Weaver

Some very affordable copies available here:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... d&_sacat=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Island Line is now almost entirely a rail-trail. I've rode my bike on the trail from Burlington up to the cut in the causeway. It's quite a nice trail, paved from Burlington to the start of the causeway, then hard packed gravel out on the causeway. At the cut in South Hero, there's a bike ferry that operates where the swingbridge/drawbridge used to be. There's slabs of marble along the causeway. Localmotion has a lot of info on the Island Line:

http://www.localmotion.org/island_line_bike_ferry" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

b&m 1566 - You may find this useful
Island Line Rail Trail (Colchester Causeway)
https://rc-pedalpoint.blogspot.com/2014 ... ester.html

There are additional links on the bottom of the post re history, etc.

Thank you for the info.
On the north end of the lake near the boarder it appears to be seconded ROW? Was this a future realignment/old alignment or another rail line?

That's another rail line... the CV had a branch to Rouses Point that came in from East Alburg at a junction just west of the present drawbridge. At last check, some boxcars were stored on the stub remains of this line, which may have been a wye. The CV came into the Rutland line at your above linked map, and the two ran on the same trestle to Rouses Point, which only some piers/posts still exist.

With regard to the Rouses Point Trestle both the Central Vermont and the Rutland operated over this same bridge but they did not use the same rails, there was gauntlet track over this bridge with one set of rails for the Central Vermont and one set of rails for the Rutland.
Noel Weaver

Thank you for the information guys!
So, when the Rutland built their trestle, is that when CV abandoned theirs in favor of the gauntlet track or was it sometime later? There is no trace of the CV trestle.
When did CV usage end, before or after the Rutland abandonment?

b&m 1566 wrote:Thank you for the info.
On the north end of the lake near the boarder it appears to be seconded ROW? Was this a future realignment/old alignment or another rail line?

It sure looks like there was a trestle at that location. It's possible that both trestles didn't exist at the same time, or there was a slight overlap in operation.