LUNENBURG — The inconceivable is happening in Gilman: Rail is returning to the former mill community.

Early this year, news broke that Vermont Rail System planned to reopen a then-defunct section of railroad that runs from one of its freight lines in northern New Hampshire across the Connecticut River into Gilman. The rail company is in the process of clearing and reconstructing that section of track, as well as negotiating with rail giant CSX to purchase the rest of the line, which runs approximately 20 miles from Gilman to St. Johnsbury.

The plans, however, have been a shock to community members in Gilman, a village in Lunenburg that once thrived because of the local mill and adjoining railroad, but became a shadow of itself when the last freight trains passed through in the late 1990s. Around the same time, the paper mill closed.

The mill reopened in 2004, but abruptly shut down in June 2007, with 115 workers immediately laid off, according to a website run by the power company that now owns the property. At present, the mill property primarily consists of a hydroelectric dam and solar energy fields, but its owner is seeking tenants — including those who might benefit from a rail connection.

As the two historic economic pillars of Gilman work to reestablish themselves, community members are grappling with the pending impact on their lives and their town.

‘Pretty pissed’

Annika Chaffee and her husband are two of many Gilman residents whose houses or yards back up to the tracks. The couple bought their house a decade ago, choosing the location because it was quiet and a good place to raise kids while still being close to larger population centers, Chaffee said. The property is sandwiched between the road and the railroad; during an August visit, one of their children played on a swingset abutting the rusty rails.

The Chaffees’ kids used to play on the tracks, which, in mid-August, were in the process of being reclaimed by nature. Trees and brush grew around and through the rail, and Chaffee said the family regularly saw bears and moose on their game cameras.

In the months since, Vermont Rail System has cleared vegetation almost all the way to the mill.

When she first heard the news of the railroad’s return, Chaffee said she was “pretty pisssed.”

“If my husband’s job wasn’t so good, I’d say, ‘let’s head to Maine,’” she said. “But we’ve invested so much into our house, we’ve got so much going with the community. … I don’t want to leave.”

Chaffee said she worries about the many unknowns: how often trains will run, if there will be noise in the middle of the night, if the rail cars will transport chemicals, what would happen if there’s an accident — and if her family’s property value will decrease.

The rail corridor includes 33 feet on each side of the tracks, though many in Gilman have utilized that space for decades, including for walks. In August, a hammock even hung directly over the tracks in the center of the village, near the mill.

That corridor makes up more than half of the Chaffees’ backyard. 

“We would lose a lot if they decided to impose all 33 feet,” she said.

So far, adjacent property owners haven’t heard from Vermont Rail System about its plans directly — local approvals are not needed — and must sit with their uncertainties.

“If the railroad is going to benefit us, great,” Chaffee said. “But if it’s just going to tear the whole town apart, and you lose too many good people, then that’s problematic.”

Rail as an economic driver

Vermont Rail System, a family-owned company based in Burlington, operates more than 400 miles of track in Vermont and adjoining states. While it runs a passenger “dinner train” in the Champlain Valley during the summer and fall and Amtrak uses some of its rail lines, the company’s main business is freight.

Selden Houghton, president of Vermont Rail System, said Thursday that the company has some interested freight clients in the Gilman area, as well as customers in northern New Hampshire that are presently trucking their product from the rail’s current end in Vermont. Houghton said a lot of the goods being moved are in the forest industry but he thinks “there’s some other markets that will evolve as well.”

The company’s goal is to reestablish the connection between its rail line in northern New Hampshire and the rest of its network in St. Johnsbury, where Vermont Rail System owns track. Currently, Houghton said, the company sometimes has to send equipment all the way up into Québec and then back down into Vermont.

“If you look at the map, it makes sense why we want to do it,” he said.

The Vermont Rail System network. Map courtesy of Vermont Rail System

Houghton said Vermont Rail System hopes to be running trains into Gilman within a year and that negotiations with CSX are ongoing; he is “optimistic” they will figure something out. However, Houghton noted, the rail corridor west of Gilman into St. Johnsbury is much more overgrown and has more significant washouts than the section into Gilman. The company plans to look to federal infrastructure grants to reopen that section of rail line.

The biggest reason for the project, he said, is to spur economic growth in the Northeast Kingdom and northern New Hampshire.

“If we can get competitive rail service reestablished by getting the New Hampshire Central Railroad that we purchased connected to the rest of the VRS system, it just opens up a tremendous amount of opportunities to put business on rail and get it off the road,” he said.

Houghton’s best guess is that trains will run through Gilman several times a week, initially, during daylight hours. However, he said, it really all depends on customers’ needs. Vermont Rail System’s nearby line from Newport to Wells River currently runs a train most days of the week during daylight hours, but used to do so twice daily, he said.

In terms of the myriad of pieces of personal property on the rail corridor through Gilman, Houghton said the company is going to initially clear things enough to move trains, but they “certainly need to address any encroachments” at some point. Typically, he said, brush is cut back the full 33-foot distance from the center line on each side of the tracks.

“You never know, based on business needs, what part of the corridor you may want to put a siding in,” he said, referring to a low-speed section of track next to the main line that is used for loading or storing rail vehicles. “It is private property.”

Residents tour a section of currently-unused railroad bed near their homes in Gilman on Friday, Aug. 15. Some property owners store items in the railroad’s right of way. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

‘Everything needs to be done in balance’

While many are wary, some in Gilman are excited about the return of the trains.

Jacob Fournier has lived in Gilman his whole life and has a great passion for rail, originating from watching the trains go by the windows of Gilman’s middle school in the mid-1990s.

“It was a lot more exciting to watch the trains out the window than it was to pay attention to class,” he said. In August, Fournier said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the return of rail to town, though he noted he does not live by the tracks and is not directly affected like the Chaffees.

“A lot of rail proponents and fans of rail, I think, had sort of resigned themselves to the fact that (the railroad through Gilman) probably was going to get torn up and turned into a trail,” he said. “So the fact that VRS feels like they see a path forward to developing enough business to make it worthwhile to invest in the lines has certainly made us, you know — we’d like to see the trains come back.”

Fournier was referring to the Twin State Rail Trail Project, a collaboration between Vermont and New Hampshire snowmobile clubs and other trail organizations that had planned to connect the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail in St. Johnsbury to the Presidential and Ammonoosuc Rail Trails in New Hampshire via the very rail corridor now in the process of reactivation.

Initially stunned, organizers are now working with Vermont Rail System on possible designs for a recreational trail running next to the rail line for a short but important portion of reactivated track in Whitefield, New Hampshire. They hope this approach, used in other parts of Vermont such as the Burlington bike path, might be possible along other parts of the route.

“Everything needs to be done in balance,” Fournier said. “As a proponent of rail, I don’t want to see the community’s needs for recreational opportunities ignored or steamrolled over.”

Vermont Rail System’s rail revival is also having a striking impact on nearby communities, most notably in Whitefield, New Hampshire, where the unexpected reactivation has stalled a multimillion-dollar library expansion project.

Kate Baxter, center, and Meagan Forbes examine a map of Vermont Rail System’s lines as they walk a section of unused railroad bed in Gilman on Friday, Aug. 15. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

‘Opportunity for connection and innovation’

Kate Baxter is chair of the local task force on Outdoor Recreation, Trails & Tourism, whose members — including Chaffee and Fournier — hold a multitude of viewpoints on the return of rail to town. The group was created during the Vermont Council on Rural Development’s community visit process, which Lunenburg participated in late last year around the same time the rail’s reactivation was announced.

Selectboard meeting minutes from last summer reveal an initial upwelling of community opposition, including a petition against the return of the rail. According to Baxter, the majority of residents — especially those who live on the rail corridor — would rather have seen the former railroad just turn into trees, communal land or the previously planned rail trail.

Now, however, they are focused on making the best of the situation.

As part of the task force, Baxter said she has spent a lot of time communicating with Vermont Rail System about its plans and progress, as well as meeting with residents to collect their feedback and share it with the rail company. In mid-September, she helped organize a meet and greet with several members of Vermont Rail System’s staff.

“I think it was helpful for people to … recognize this as a real thing that’s happening,” she said on Sept. 18. “I think there’s still a huge number of people who don’t even know. Maybe they’ve noticed the trees being cleared, maybe they haven’t.”

The task force has identified a number of proposals to share with Vermont Rail System, including one to retain community access to the Connecticut River and a number of trails alongside it that are reached by crossing the tracks. Later this month, Baxter plans to visit potential crossing locations with the Vermont Rail System team.

According to Baxter, Vermont Rail System said they are “confident” they can work out a crossing  — if there is financing.

“With collaboration of different stakeholders, I am hopeful we can achieve that,” Baxter said in an email. “Overall, VRS seems amenable to creative ideas in general if financing is there.”

Gathered proposals also call for low fencing alongside residential properties to bar animals and children from the rail.

“Every challenge is an opportunity for connection and innovation,” Baxter said. “It’s important to listen to all the different sides so that we can come to some sort of a future that is beneficial for everyone, so that we’re not just a pass-through (place) in the middle of nowhere.”

Curt Chaffee walks along a currently-unused railroad bed behind his home in Gilman on Friday, Aug. 15. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

Mill space for lease

The other historic economic pillar of town, the defunct paper mill, was bought by Ampersand Energy Partners in 2008 and reopened as a hydroelectric power plant. The Boston-based company — which owns and operates small hydro and solar power facilities — has constructed one solar field on an adjoining property and recently notified the Lunenburg Selectboard that it would like to create another solar field on the mill site.

The mill building itself, however, has remained vacant since its purchase, despite several failed plans for new use or improved power infrastructure. Currently, a website advertises space for lease in the “Gilman Business Park,” where the developer is “willing to build to suit on currently empty lots.” According to the website, light manufacturing companies, forest and agricultural product businesses and commercial enterprises would do well at the location.

Annabelle Blake, a spokesperson for Ampersand, said in an email that the company has “had interest from prospective parties” and believes the mill “holds strong potential for strategic investment and long-term community benefit.” Blake added that Ampersand strongly supports the restart of rail operations, which “will bring increasing environmentally friendly options for transportation for potential tenants of the former Gilman mill.”

Fournier said he’d like to see the mill get some use.

“It will never be a paper mill again like it was,” he said. “But if having rail transportation gets a couple smaller businesses in here that can create 10 or 15 or 20 or 30 jobs, that just helps diversify the economy.”

A currently-unused railroad line runs behind home son Town Highway 39 in Gilman on Friday, Aug. 15. A resident’s hammock can be seen hanging over the rails on the right. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

Who will benefit?

During the heyday of Gilman’s mill and the railroad, community benefit was clear: the entities employed locals, paid taxes and created a vibrancy in town. There was an ice skating rink and warming hut along with tennis courts and a hotel, Baxter said. Others remember a bowling alley, train station, union hall and restaurant — all of which disappeared with the mill’s decline.

But now, many residents are wondering how the resurrection of these former economic pillars will benefit the community, and how their quality of life — including access to nature and recreational areas — will change with the rail’s revival.

“We don’t want to have industry come that doesn’t give us jobs or that doesn’t feed our community,” Baxter said.

However, most doubt the rail line or the mill will bring much benefit in the near future in terms of taxes or jobs, Baxter said. In fact, Ampersand requested (though was denied) a tax abatement on the mill property last year.

One thing the community is excited about, though, is having functional railroad infrastructure and someone to call when it fails. During last summer’s flooding, unmaintained railroad drainage ditches plugged up and contributed to washed-out roads.

“No one would return phone calls until these people bought the track,” said Meagan Forbes, who owns property abutting the railroad. “(Vermont Rail System) has been very responsive, but we all have that concern: are they going to maintain it? How long are they going to be around before they go out of business?”

“We want to see something that’s sustainable,” Baxter echoed.

To that end, Baxter has been pushing for a public meeting with the rail company and New Hampshire and Vermont’s transportation agencies, hoping to put the community’s voice at the table.

“I get it: corporations, businesses need to make money, and that’s where their interest is coming from,” said Baxter. “But we taxpayers … we as community members also have a vested interest in this space. We pay for roads, those different elements, and we live here and we want other people to live with us here and enjoy this space.”