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For a brief moment at the start of the 1900s, it seemed believable that the town of Parsons Vale (population 1030) was poised on the brink of greatness. After all, the PV&T had connected the town to Portland and Montréal, and the Ace & Acme Lumber Company had just been purchased by the Lincoln & Concord Railway as part of its plan to connect Parsons Vale and the rich lumberlands at the foot of the White Mountains to its Lincoln to Concord mainline. With these signs of greatness, a proposal to connect Parsons Vale to Concord by a direct interurban railway seemed like a sure bet. So, in 1909, the Parsons Vale Rapid Transit Company was formed to build an electric interurban railroad from Parsons Vale to Concord. Construction started soon thereafter, and the line was completed in 1911 (including a branch from Winnisquam to Laconia, which, in 1913, was extended to the Weirs by the purchase of the Laconia Street Railway.)

The PVRT had enough funding so they could build their mainline to steam railroad standards, which meant that the rural section of the line north of Winnesquam was not built as a side of the road interurban, but a cross-country line (including the “Meredith El”; a viaduct crossing over the B&M and the neck of land between lakes Waukewan & Winnipesaukee) that was capable of handling steam railroad trains.

As all of the other railroads into Parsons Vale discovered, there was no gold to be made in passengers. But, unlike the unfortunate L&C, the PVRT survived by promoting holidaymaker service and online businesses on the Laconia branch, and traffic rights to the PV&T (the PV&T’s original line from Franklin to Plymouth was destroyed in a freshet in 1916, and it was cheaper to get trackage rights on the newer and well built PVRT between Franklin to Holderness – and upgrade the tension on that line to 1500vdc – than it would have been to rebuild all of the washouts and other flood damange along their original ROW; this kept the line to Parsons Vale running through the Great Depression years), and settled into a comfortably profitable life.

The PVRT inherited city trolley lines with their purchase of the Franklin Street Railway & Laconia Street Railway, but neither of those operations survived past 1931 (Laconia went first, in 1927, and Franklin lasted until 1931) and from then until the end of passenger service what remained of local ridership was carried by the interurbans running between Franklin and the end of the line in Lakeport.

When the LW&C was abandoned in 1936, the PRVT picked up three steeplecab motors, but otherwise didn’t change its initial locomotive roster until 1942, when it dealt with the rapid increases in traffic caused by the second world war by converting the Parsons Vale to Concord mainline from 1500VDC to 3000VDC (the PV&T’s 3kvdc motors could, of course, operate on 1500vdc, just at reduced speeds & power, so express trains were piloted by lashups of PVRT motors & express cars, which was an interesting sight.) After the conversion, all PV&T bridge traffic was carried behind PV&T motors while local traffic was carried behind engines 1018 and 980, which had been converted to 3000VDC.

The old 600vdc segments of the PVRT were slowly abandoned; the original side of the road alignment from Concord to Tilton went in 1933, the line from Lakeport to the Weirs went in 1935, and then in 1964 the line from Winnisquam to Lacona was abandoned after the Winnisquam bridge failed as a freight train pulled by motor 1018 was crossing it.

With the loss of the Laconia branch (the majority of the surviving shippers were on the south side of Paugus Bay, and they all switched to using trucks when service on the branch abruptly stopped) the railroad was down to 5 small shippers on the old Concord<->Parsons Vale mainline. This meant that the railroad was surviving exclusively on charging the PV&T for trackage rights on the line, and that was not enough to pay for 10 remaing employees (1 3-person operating crew, 1 person managing the railroad, a lawyer (on retainer), and 5 people in the track gang) and dividends to the stockholders. And this meant that when the PV&T proposed leasing the railroad outright it was almost embarrassing how quickly management said YES to that offer.

The PVRT is still – on paper – a separate corporation, but these days it only exists as a pair of restored (ex-MOW) passenger cars and a mailing address for the bank accounts that hold PV&T lease payments.

PVRT history

1909

Chartered

1911

• First Parsons Vale Rapid Transit train from Concord.
• Laconia branch (Winnisquam to Laconia) opens.

1912

Purchased the Franklin Street Railway (for city trackage on the Franklin branch.)

1913

• Franklin branch (Northfield to Franklin) opens.
• Purchased the Laconia Street Railway (to extend passenger service to the Weirs.)

1915

Trackage rights between Franklin & Holderness granted to the PV&T after flooding destroys the PV&T’s old mainline between Franklin & Plymouth.

1926

Abandoned local service in Laconia.

1931

Abandoned local service in Franklin.

1933

Abandoned Northfield to Concord in favor of PV&T trackage rights.

1933

Abandoned the Laconia city track.

1935

Abandoned east of Lakeport.

1936

Engines 1040,1018,980 purchased from the PV&T.

1942

• Parsons Vale to Concord reelectrified at 3000VDC.
• PV&T starts running trains from Boston to Montréal via the PVRT.

1961

Abandoned the Franklin city track.

1964

• Winnisquam bridge collapses, destroying 1018.
• Last passenger train (combination #300, passenger #999).
• Last shippers on the Laconia branch switch to trucks.

1965

• Laconia branch abandoned.
• Leased to PV&T for 999 years.

All-time PVRT Roster

No.	Type	Builder	Acquired/Built	Disposition
1-6	Passenger motors	Laconia	1907	scrapped 1926
7	boxmotor	Laconia	1911	scrapped 1934
8	boxmotor	Laconia	1911	to MOW 1934, scrapped 1951
9	baggage motor	Laconia	1912	to MOW 1928, scrapped 1934
10-14	convertable car	Osgood Bradley	1901	From Franklin Street Railway; scrapped 1931
101	motor snowplough	Laconia	1903	ex-Laconia Street Railway “Terror”, then “Blizzard”, then #1
111	boxmotor	Laconia	1898	2-axle; ex-Laconia Street Railway #11, wrecked 1915
112	Open trolley car	Laconia	1898	2-axle; ex-Laconia Street Railway #12, scrapped 1919
113	Open trolley car	Laconia	1898	2-axle; ex-Laconia Street Railway #13, scrapped 1919
114	Open trolley car	Laconia	1898	2-axle; ex-Laconia Street Railway #14, scrapped 1920
115	boxmotor	Laconia	1898	2-axle; ex-Laconia Street Railway #15, scrapped 1922
116	passenger motor	Laconia	1898	ex-Laconia Street Railway #16, scrapped 1935
117	passenger motor	Laconia	1901	ex-Laconia Street Railway #17, scrapped 1935
118	passenger motor	Laconia	1898	ex-Laconia Street Railway #18, scrapped 1919
119	Passenger motor	Laconia	1906	ex-Laconia Street Railway #19, sold 1926
120	express motor	Laconia	1898	ex-Laconia Street Railway #20, wrecked 1927
200-201	Passenger motors	Laconia	1910	retired 1934
203-205	Passenger motors	Laconia	1911	retired 1939
206	Passenger motor	St Louis Car	1913	retired 1947
207	Passenger motor	St Louis Car	1913	retired 1946
208	Baggage motor	St Louis Car	1913	stored 1938, reactivated 1942, retired 1948
209	Combination motor	St Louis Car	1913	renumbered to 300 & converted to 3000VDC 1947, to work motor 1964, stored 1966
301	Rotary snowplow	AC&F	1910	to PV&T M1006
302	caboose	Montreal Carriage	1910	wrecked 1964
302	caboose	Montreal Carriage	1910	to PV&T 157C 1967, retired 1990
401-402	Birney Safety Car	Brill	1919	For local service in Laconia, sold 1927
403-404	Birney Safety Car	Brill	1919	For local service in Laconia, sold 1927
500	Passenger motor	Brill	1924	stored 1964, to Connecticut Trolley Museum 1966
621	Boxcab	AC&F	1936	from Albany-Hudson Fast Line 21, stored 1948, to IRM 1977
980	Steeplecab	Baldwin	1937	originally LW&C 42, converted to 3000VDC 1947, to PV&T 282, in service.
1018	Steeplecab	Baldwin	1937	originally LW&C 41, wrecked 1964
1040	Steeplecab	Baldwin	1937	originally LW&C 40, converted to 3000VDC 1950, to Seashore Trolley Museum 1961