Wood River Branch Railroad

Wood River Branch Railroad.
The Wood River Branch Railroad was a shortline railroad in Rhode Island. Chartered in 1872 and opened on July 1, 1874, the 5.6-mile (9.0 km) freight and passenger line connected the village of Hope Valley to the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad (NYP&B) mainline at Wood River Junction. While it was nominally independent, finances were tough from the start; it heavily relied on support from the NYP&B and its successor, the New Haven Railroad. Ralph C. Watrous became its president in 1904, and remained involved for the next 33 years. A major flood in November 1927 severed the line and the company considered abandonment, but local citizens and the New Haven agreed to rebuild the line for freight only under New Haven control, using a gasoline locomotive. The New Haven sold the line in 1937 for $301 to local grain mill owner Roy Rawlings. He ran the company until 1947 when a fire destroyed his mill and other local industries. The railroad was abandoned in August 1947, and little remains of it.