Central Vermont: The South End

Remembering the "Banana Belt"

The Banana Belt. A terminal switching railroad in Central America? Guess again. Nobody can accurately say where or when the name originated, but it was a term used by Central Vermont Railway employees when referring to the southernmost portion of the CV's Southern Division, the 121 miles of the Willimantic and Amherst Subdivisions between New London, Conn., and Brattleboro, Vt. Constructed during the mid-19th century, the line was best described as being "an endeavor which started nowhere, ended nowhere, and managed to miss every major city in between." The stretch of track still exists today as a part of the New England Central Railroad.

ISBN: 0-942035-32-1