Central Vermont Railway in northern VT

My layout features a small portion of the Central Vermont's 27 mile Richford Branch, which ran northeast from St. Albans to the town of Richford, VT. The branch crossed the Lamoille Valley at Sheldon Jct. and met the Canadian Pacific in Richford.


The Richford Branch is in the upper left corner of this portion of the CV running through Vermont

Prototype Central Vermont Richford Branch 1980

The CV operated daily locals between St. Albans and Richford. Trains 537/538 worked out and back each day, usually utilizing a pair of SW1200s. At other times, the roads GP9s and RS11s would also handle this train. In addition to the CV trains, the LVRC started operating directly into St. Albans via Sheldon Jct. in lieu of interchanging with the CV at Swanton.


CV SW1200 1510 rests at the roundhouse in St. Albans VT. The SW1200s were ex-GTW units that were previously painted in Canadian National red and black scheme before being repainted into the CVs Larson Green scheme.

Central Vermont on my layout

I have staged CV trains interchange with the LVRC at Sheldon Jct. This is a slight departure from the actual operations, but I think it will be more interesting on the layout.

A 2 track staging yard below and behind St. J on the peninsula represents the line west to St. Albans. The CV track enters view at Sheldon Jct. Here an interchange with the LVRC is conducted as well as some local switching. The CV crosses the diamond and then exits to another 1 track staging yard below the LVRC representing the line north to Richford.

During an operating session, train 538 from Richford will pass through Sheldon Jct. picking up any cars dropped off by the Lamoille Valley. Later, train 537 will leave St. Albans staging to drop cars off for the LVRC and perform some local switching before continuing on to Richford staging.

Locomotives currently include Alco RS11s. In the future I'd like to have a model of the SW1200. I also plan to model the CVs Bicentennial GP9, 1776, The torpedo tube GP9s are also cool.


CV GP9 1776 was painted into a bicentennial scheme in the mid-1970s.


An overview of Sheldon Jct. on my layout. It is a still in progress section of the layout, requiring additional structures including replacing the stand-in grain elevator.

Marty McGuirk is currently modeling the CV's Richford Branch. His blog has lots of great information.