Track 16 - CT Passenger Stations

NORFOLK1. The coming of the railroad to this town was unique in several ways. Not industrialized like Canaan or Winsted, this community was the farthest from railroad service, being forced to go to those towns or in a southerly direction to catch the train at Torrington. This situation played no small role in local resident Egbert T. Butler's advocacy for the building of the CW to relieve Norfolk of its isolation. The other unusual circumstance here was that the original plans called for the rails to be laid right through the trees and war monuments in the town green. Opinions ran high against this but were countered by people who feared that the railroad might avoid the town center altogether if it didn't get the route that it wanted. The railroad commissioners had the final say and, in addition to practical considerations, and wisely disallowed the desecration... "because gratitude to our noble defenders will not allow us to let a railroad run over, or seriously injure a memorial monument, dedicated to their memory, at the same time striking down in its passage trees of the century's growth, necessary to the comfort and enjoyment of the public, and for which money is no equivalent, unless we feel compelled to it by such controlling necessity as does not here exist." The result was a right of way just to the east of the green and at a low enough grade to necessitate the building of a long bridge to let the tracks pass below the busy Greenwoods Tpke. Hence, the unique, 50-ft 'tunnel' that was part of town history for years. The upper photos show NORFOLK1, the depot that was up for the opening of the CW in 1871. [add12/7>] The 1880 NY&NE appraisal of CW properties said the building was in good condition and put a value of $1700 on it, making it comparable to BLOOMFIELD and CANTON which were similar in appearance. >] The photo at middle left is an eastward look through the tunnel and, at middle right, the PUC has the 'story stick' out to measure the tunnel's clearance in the 1920s. Both lower images look west along the turnpike, with the one on the left clearly showing the planks covering the roof of the tunnel. The Norfolk Library [click here] now stands where the Old Store is seen, just beyond the tunnel. The church-like ambience inside is inviting, even as a bustling library goes about its business. The historical scrapbooks that we pored over are well worth asking for. Equally rewarding is a trip to the Norfolk Historical Society [click here] just across the Green where we were welcomed and treated to a large collection of railroad material, including some of the photographs seen here. [REFS: CRC17.1870.268; HDC/12/14/1871/02; WH/12/15/1871/02; D22+; R77]

NORFOLK2. "Practically completed" by 8/18/1898, this depot was evidently the idea of the PR&NE who reportedly started negotiations with locals for building a new depot in 1895, with a projected cost of $5000 to be shared equally by the town and the railroad. When finished, the cost was double that. Hill & Turner, a New York architectural firm, drew up the plans that called for a 76x30-ft granite building, with 320 feet of covered platform and a semi-circular driveway leading to the porte cochere. As the floor plan from the April 15th newspaper shows, the offices, baggage, and express rooms were in the south end of the building and the rest rooms, ladies' sitting rooms, and telephone booth were on the north end. The lot, probably a little east of NORFOLK1, was donated by the Battell family. One newspaper reported that "Norfolk's princely railroad depot is now practically completed" and that local residents had furnished framed photographs with scenes familiar to world travelers and a clock of elegant design for the interior. As late as 1904 the Springfield Republican was still remarking that the walls inside "instead of being covered with flaring railroad advertisements, are ornamented with fine views of beautiful buildings and landscapes -- a little art gallery, in short, for eyes that are weary of cinders and smoke and time-tables." In 1925, when passenger service only would last two years more, it was the town that wanted the railroad so much in the 1860s that was petitioning the PUC for more trains! We don't know when the tunnel was filled but in 2011 the old ornamental railings still grace the crest of the hill and a sloping, grassy path covers the right of way. It still leads to the station building and a playground-size, wooden train does its best to commemorate the days when the real ones ran a few feet away. [REFS: CWN/06/27/1895/02; CRC46.1898.23; HC/02/11/1898/07; CWN/02/24/1898/02; LJ/02/26/1898/01; CWN/03/24/1898/02; WEC/04/15/1898/??; CWN/04/28/1898/02; CWN/08/18/1898/02; SR/07/31/1904/11; WEC/06/24/1925/01; A38; D35; NL21.5.2; R77]

NORFOLK SUMMIT1. This was a flag stop known as SUMMIT right from the opening of the CW. Having never seen a structure preceding this one, we assume there was only a platform here until early in 1900 when, according to the newspaper, this station was being completed by the CNE. It was expected to cost about $2,000 and cater mostly to summer traffic. The interior was said to consist of a waiting room with rustic fireplace, baggage room, and ticket office. Though unattended at the start, it apparently was hoped that patronage would grow and an agent would be here to sell tickets. A covered platform was built nearly all the way around the building and the roof was to protrude out on the west side to form a porte cochere built around the trunk of a hemlock tree and supported by two large hemlock posts. The exterior was dressed, as seen, with slabs of bark giving the structure its unique, log-cabin look. In the photo at left, the darker covered porch can be seen as well as the tree trunk acting as a center support, just as the newspaper article said. On opening, the new station was christened NORFOLK SUMMIT. According to an undated clipping from Ted Vaill's Winsted Herald column, 'R.R.E.' says this station was standing on a morning in August, 1922 when one train went by and, when the next train passed, the log cabin was gone, totally destroyed by fire. In 1915, the name was changed back to simply SUMMIT, presumably to avoid confusion with NORFOLK. This change and several others were per ICC order No. F 1611. As reproduced in Lord, the NYNH&H notification to its station agents and other interested parties had a date of 11/16/1915. According to the Courant, the CNE made the changes proactively effective on 6/6/1915. If the newspaper was correct, one wonders what confusion was caused in the intervening months. [REFS: HDC/12/21/1871/02; WH/04/05/1872/02; CWN/01/04/1900/02; CWN/02/07/1900/00; HC/05/28/1915/06; SR/05/28/1915/04; D32,43]

NOROTON1. This was not an original stop on the NY&NH when it opened through the town of Darien in 1849 but, seven years later, the 1856FC map at right shows the DARIEN station at the blue arrow and another depot at the red arrow. This latter one was near the home of W. Lockwood and corresponds to the LOCKWOODS stop on the 1861 conductor's tally at center [add12/28]. Both the 1856 map and the one at left, which also dates to the 1850s, show the station south of the NY&NH track and at a location just east of today's Noroton Ave., then known as Railroad Ave. Nowhere else to be found in railroad documents or in travel publications like Snow's Pathfinder Railway Guide, the stop is first mentioned in the newspapers in 1865 as NOROTON. By 1868, the high ground of this locale, with its vistas of Long Island Sound, its beautiful dwellings, and good clean air, is being touted as "a desirable Summer residence for people desiring good society and at the same time easy and quick transit to the city, as business may demand." Access to the "flourishing village" of Stamford is also cited in the description which is aimed at the real estate market. The official timetable debut in sources we had access to was 1868 and in the next year, the Herald-Tribune said "a fine depot has recently been erected" here. It added that property values had doubled in value in the last three years, due certainly in no small part to the railroad providing service to this village. Even assuming that no structure preceded this 1869 station, the stop certainly predates it and goes back at least to the 1856 map. The reference to the "fine new depot" has us wondering if this was not a cross-gabled, Gothic structure akin to GREENWICH1, SOUTHPORT1, and other early NY&NH stations. NOROTON1 appears to have fallen in 1888 to track improvements. A newspaper article said that workers had arrived to begin straightening the curve here where freight trains were having difficulty and "by so doing will do away with the old depot and erect a new one farther north." NOROTON2 was built above the tracks and west of the new bridge for Railroad Ave., as seen on the 1890s blueprint map. [add12/30]. [REFS: PTH107.1858.14; RF/08/11/1865/02; NYHT/07/27/1867/05; NYHT/05/22/1869/04; HDC/07/01/1868/04; RRC31.84 (12/22/1887); BEF/04/24/1888/??]

NOROTON2. Built with the 1888 improvements, this small saltbox structure was put up north of the tracks on the west side of Noroton Ave. This westbound passenger station was specifically mentioned in August, 1897, when early-morning burglars forced the door with a coupling pin and rifled the drawers in the ticket office, only to find that station agent Robert Dewitt had wisely taken all the cash home with him. The arrow on the blueprint map at middle right [add, revs12/31] shows the 1850s depot location and the proposed grounds are seen to the west. NOROTON2 was taken out of railroad service on 5/28/1974 with the inauguration of NOROTON4/5 and the high-level platforms about 1,000 feet west. The old structure then became the base for a nationally recognized teen-run ambulance service called Post 53, still in operation today [click here]. Threatened with demolition in 1989, the station was subsequently turned into The Depot, a drug-free gathering spot for young people. The Wikipedia shots below show NOROTON2 on the west end of a composite structure that includes what looks like a freight depot and lumber shed in the center and a newer wing on the east end. Together, the components preserve a continuity going back over a century and a unique evolution from railroad use to community service. [REFS: NHER/02/08/1897/04; NHER/08/10/1897/01; HC/05/23/1974/95D; R77]

NOROTON3. The upper photos show this eastbound depot, the even more diminutive counterpart of its cousin across the tracks in the different-sized pairings that came with the four-tracking of the New York Division. The 1915 val map at lower left [add1/1] shows NOROTON2 at the red arrow and NOROTON3 at the blue arrow. The shot at lower right looks west and has NOROTON3 south of the tracks and NOROTON2 on the opposite side. This stop was renamed NOROTON HEIGHTS in 1942, reportedly to highlight access to the U.S. Navy radio school operating during World War II. This was about a mile north and up the hill at the Fitch's Home for Soldiers and Their Orphans that dated back to the Civil War [click here]. Currently, these buildings are the Allen-O'Neill housing complex at the corner of West and Noroton Aves. NOROTON3 was removed in the McGinnis era. [REFS: NL7.8.5; NL8.2.7; R77]

NOROTON4. This station was built in the Penn Central era and moved about 1,000 feet west on straighter track to accommodate the high-level platforms that the new M2 cars were going to use. The sleek platform canopy, the back of which is seen in the photo on the left, was designed by World Trade Center architect Minoru Yamasaki in 1955 and was apparently incorporated into the 1974 station relocation. His other railroad-station canopy at ROWAYTON4, was completely different in style. Perhaps because of the early date in his career, no newspaper articles or other documentation found thus far mention his involvement or, more importantly, the reason for it, with the two stations. Yamasaki died in 1986 [click here]. [REFS: SL13.4.28]

NORTH BLOOMFIELD. The PR&NE, which controlled the line from 1892 to 1898, would rename this stop NORTH BLOOMFIELD. The 1893 map implies the new name by linking it to the adjacent post office, though we note the Scotland name in use for the local schools. The CNE would begin calling this station BARNARD on 11/15/1915, following the ICC's F1611 directive to rename rail stops to avoid train order confusion. Timetables for 1917 and 1923 reflect the new name. Passenger service on this part of the CNE ended in 1927, the year it was merged with the NYNH&H. The railroad commissioners say a new station, apparently this one, was built at NORTH BLOOMFIELD in 1903. The Courant reported in that year that the CNE had wanted to abandon this location and put up a new station about 3/4 of mile to the east to accommodate the International Tobacco Corporation. Small tobacco farmers objected that they would be inconvenienced and that rights of having a say in depot locations were due them for subsidizing the railroad when it was built. The farmers won. Surprisingly, in addition to not eliminating the NORTH BLOOMFIELD stop, this new station was built here in that very year and the depot that the tobacco company wanted was built as well: see CLARKVILLE under C stations. A photo in Nimke shows BARNARD still standing in 1936. [REFS: HDC/12/21/1871/02; PTH18.1875.48; CRC53.1903.22; HC/06/20/1903/13; CWN/06/25/1903/02; RRC16.319 (6/26/1903); HC/07/02/1903/15; HC/11/14/1903/05; PTH517.1917.16; 1923TT; A26; D17,43; K115; N3.11]

NORTH BRIDGEPORT. The location of this elusive stop is seen on Carson St. in the clip at upper left from Hurd's 1893 Connecticut atlas [click here]. The station in this vicinity originally began as PEQUONNOCK in 1866 when the railroad commissioners ordered trains to stop here on petition of local residents, but the HRR was permitted to discontinue it shortly thereafter for lack of patronage. It seems to have reappeared, however, by 1873 under the new name, when the Palladium says that "the Housatonic Railroad company are building a cattle depot about fifty rods this side [south] of the station at North Bridgeport." Other 1873 newspaper articles also note incidents here and one in 1895 mentions an injured person being brought inside the depot. Even though it is not on any HRR timetable or map until ca. 1890, and Lee Beaujon says its last appearance on his timetables is May 9, 1901, NORTH BRIDGEPORT is seen sporadically on other lists into the 1920s. An 1894TT puts it at 2.21 miles out of Bridgeport. Thought to have been reincarnated as LYONS, a sign for that stop is seen in the PUC inspection photograph at lower right, but in the southwest quadrant of the Reservoir Ave. grade crossing, one street below Carson, where no station is seen in other photo. The red arrows on the 1934 aerial map at lower left show the two locations, with nothing apparent in either spot by then. Since there is also nothing on the 1915 val map [click here], NORTH BRIDGEPORT must have been gone by that time and LYONS thereafter, in time to be photographed in 1924. With gas rail cars doing the honors from 1925 on and passenger service on this part of the old HRR ending by 1932, LYONS days were numbered and, in fact, we have yet to see it on any official list. About two miles to the north of this stop, a railroad bridge would be built in Trumbull over the Merritt Pkwy, which opened on 11/19/1939. The photo at bottom left is from the 1980s and shows the (in)famous 'bridge to nowhere' as Rocky Hill Rd, its later incarnation. The need for the bridge was pushed by the NHRR as a necessary and precautionary detour in case of main line tie-ups. At a reported cost of $30G, it was used but once or twice before the track from Bridgeport to Stepney was abandoned a year later in 1940! The structure still stands today, unutilized. The embarrassment this caused for the state highway commission nixed a similar bridge over the Wilbur Cross Pkwy that would have continued rail service on the NH&D line from Derby Jct. to Orange center in 1941: see Track 4B, MP 4.51.1. [REFS: RRC5.27 (6/30/1866); NHDP/04/30/1873/04; HDC/09/17/1873/04; HDC/09/19/1873/04; NHER/03/30/1889/01; CRC41.1893.293; NYH/12/31/1895/11; HC/11/13/1939/14; RAM1908; 1919OL: no; 1923OL: yes; BT/02/26/1925; K55; NL19.8.10]

NORTH HAVEN2. At some point, possibly in 1860, the station here appears to have been moved elsewhere at the crossing and so we have added this listing for a second depot. A station house and station master are, in fact, mentioned in the newspaper in 1864, prior to the Columbian Register reporting on 4/8/1865 that "the building occupied by the Post Office, Adams Express, Railroad Station, and the grocery store of George W. Stiles... was destroyed by fire about 8:00 this morning." While the Courant somehow managed to scoop the local paper and ascertain the event really took place on March 31, the reports are similar. We have posted this zoom shot of the building that some sources say was an earlier depot but, as it is from a ca. 1930 Benton and Drake photo - the touring car is front and center! - it cannot have burned in 1865. The site, however, is plausible as where NORTH HAVEN2 stood. The date of 1860 that John Roy attributes to the building of the next station may well fit here instead for when the transition was made to the second station. [REFS: CR/06/18/1864/03; HDC/04/01/1865/03; CR/04/08/1865/03; R78][add1/1]

NORTH HAVEN3. This simple but elegant brick depot was built in the Italianate style and originally festooned with chimneys in each of the four corners. We are thinking that 1865 is the build date, attributing John Roy's 1860 date to the preceding station. The 1868 map at upper left shows the depot now on the west side of the track. The image at middle left dates to 1960 and looks south with the freight house, still extant in 2011, in the distance. Many thanks to Joe Taylor for the card at middle right, from his extensive collection of New Haven historical images. It is postmarked 1904 and looks west. The 1915 val map at lower left shows the arrangement of facilities at that time and our CTRRMAP at lower right, the link to which is available on the TCS home page, shows the area today. NORTH HAVEN3 is seen a short distance west of the Hartford Division tracks, where it was apparently moved to serve today in commercial use. [REFS: R78][rev1/1]

NORTH KENT2. The structure in the 1916 val photo [upper right] is a milk depot but may have also been used for boarding passengers, as was done at BOARDMANS BRIDGE, ROXBURY FALLS, WHITING RIVER [see B,R,W stations] and elsewhere in Litchfield County dairy country. The PUC photo at upper left is an eastward looking view on 10/19/1927. The original passenger depot is the store and post office in the middle distance in the shot at lower right, with the milk station seen in the center. The 1915 val map at lower left shows the passenger platform and the location of the milk depot highlighted in yellow, though the footprint of the latter structure is not on the map for some reason. The title shows the evolution of the name of the stop here. It was renamed FLANDERS after an accident of 6/2/1913 when a southbound special did not take the siding as instructed and plowed into northbound milk train waiting for the special to go around. Engineer Rigby of the special was indicted for manslaughter in the death of his fireman but acquitted by a jury on the criminal charge. The PUC investigation said that the multiple KENT station names may have played a role in the mishap. SOUTH KENT [see S stations] was also changed to LILY LAKE and then to WOODROW as a result of the same incident. FLANDERS is on our 1923TT as such and is gone by our 1937TT. [REFS: CRC36.1888.29; HC/06/04/1913/15; HC/07/09/1913/17; HC/07/18/1913/02; HC/11/06/1913/15; D74]

NORWALK1, as seen at upper left in the Illustrated News of May 14, 1853 after the Norwalk River catastrophe and on the 1875 Bailey bird's-eye map at upper right. This building is similar in design to several of the other early NY&NH stations. The 1856FC map [middle right] shows the location and even notes the 'Pump' on the east end of the station complex. The signal tower to control access to the drawbridge dated to the 1853 disaster and stood east of the station, just beyond where the D&N came in. A similar structure was put up in the same year at the Housatonic River crossing in Milford [see NAUGATUCK JUNCTION1] and perhaps elsewhere along the NY&NH to forestall more tragedy.

NORWALK2 was above the tracks on Wall St. at the blue arrow. Peter Cornwall says that a "novel station at Norwalk was built 'over the tracks... like the one at New Rochelle' adjacent to Wall Street where the track went through a deep cut which is today a man-made tunnel." According to the Danbury Times ad, this station also had boat service. The green arrow points to docks that passengers may have used on the adjacent Norwalk River. This station was destroyed in a fire that took much of the 'downtown' and was replaced by NORWALK3 in 1859. In material apparently quoted in the NHRHTA newsletter from the May, 1925 issue of Along the Line, the tunnel was through rock that was "so hard and tenacious that it broke the contractor." The yellow arrow points to the D&N steamboat dock: see NORWALK4, below. [REFS: CC/11/19/1858/02; SL16.4.26; NL6.8.6]

NORWALK3. This station was built to replace NORWALK2 and was reported to have been almost finished early in July, 1859. It was refurbished in 1870 and the railroad commissioners said in 1881 that the "upper Norwalk" depot had been expanded and its retaining walls strengthened. The val photo at top right shows the front of the station and the 1907 shot at top left shows a side view of it and the surrounding street scene. The middle left image is from the 1876 Hyde map of Norwalk and clearly shows the depot. The middle right photo is a 1910 view of the lower level of this station, with the covered stairway on the left leading down to the tracks. The bottom left image from the Landis and Hughes 1899 bird's-eye map of the Norwalks [click here] shows the short railroad tunnel under Wall St. station. The 1915 val map at bottom right shows the brick passenger station on Wall St. at the yellow highlight on the left. How long NORWALK3 was used is not clear but it stood until demolition in the 1960s with downtown redevelopment. The yellow highlight at right on the val map shows where its successor, NORWALK8, would be located. [REFS: HDC/07/08/1859/02; DT/11/30/1870/02; CRC31.1881.14]

NORWALK4 was the D&N's steamboat wharf and, though hampered by harbor freezes during the winter, a considerable amount of freight was handled here, at least until the Wilson Point warmer-water terminal was opened in 1882. The 50x938-ft long pier and harbor buildings opened in early 1871. We agree with Cornwall that this is not seen as a stop on passenger timetables, but we have found the newspaper ad [upper middle] that says passenger connections were made here, and that free transfer service was offered from the NYNH&H station. The railroad commissioners mention that the D&N was using horsecars, this on a separate Water St. track, between the Norwalk and South Norwalk stations. Perhaps they fit into the transfer service here. We assume that the earlier boat connections at Wall St. were moved here after 1871, when this extensive facility opened. According to material in NHRHTA newsletter apparently taken from the May, 1925 Along the Line, Legrand Lockwood's 1862 charter for a street railway in Norwalk [click here] that would have competed with the horse line was the reason for the family getting control of the D&N. Once the Lockwoods were in charge in 1864, the railroad service was discontinued and, according to the Courant, the new horse railroad was carrying 1,000 passengers per day. The two lower maps, 1876 [left] and 1905 [right] show the Dock freight yard that was below NORWALK4 and that was on NYNH&H employee timetables well into the late 20th century and by that time stretched almost all the way down to the main line. [REFS: CRC10.1863.16; NHDP/04/23/1863/02; HDC/04/22/1864/02; DT/11/24/1870/02; DT/04/26/1871/02; NL6.8.6; SL17.4.23]

NORWALK5. [add1/23>] A newly discovered article says the "commodious and beautiful new depot erected at South Norwalk by the New York and New Haven Railroad Company, is completed, and will be occupied to-day. It is one of the finest structures of the kind in the State, and reflects much credit on the Company.">] Very similar to STAMFORD2, which debuted earlier in 1867, this one apparently also had the 20 chimneys the other is credited with. In the 1875 map snippet to the left, the new station is seen adjacent to NORWALK1. That gabled structure is now "being appropriated for freight use," according to the NY&NH annual report cited in the newspaper. Also seen is the three-stall engine house and turntable mentioned as having been built now. There are two switchman's shanties on the east end of the station that would be replaced in 1888 by the wooden block tower visible in the photo on the left. The four-tracking and elevation of the line to New York, here as in Stamford and elsewhere, required the demolition of old stations to accommodate the realigned tracks. NORWALK5 was torn down in 1895 when NORWALK6 and NORWALK7 were built. [REFS: CRC14.1867.13; CH/05/16/1867/02; NA/12/25/1867/04; R91]

NORWALK6 was the new westbound station, necessitated by the four-tracking of the New York Division. The Landis and Hughes 1899 map shows the 1895 twin railroad stations. New viaducts over Burbank and Monroe Sts. are evidence of the elevation of the line to eliminate grade crossings. The railroad commissioners said that two new stations were now in use south of the site of the old one. The photo at top left looks to the west, with the stub-end tracks for the Danbury line at the east end of both stations. NORWALK6 is on the right. The photo at lower right shows the west end of this station. The 1915 val map at lower left has the Wilson Point branch marked with the red arrow. Click here for the full map. [REFS: CRC43.1895.12; NHER/09/27/1895/01]

NORWALK8. When this shed replaced the aging NORWALK3 as the new Wall St. station, is unclear. This one was actually on Water St., today Commerce St., just south of the tunnel which can be seen in the distance. Cornwall dates this photo to 4/13/1946 after he says the shed was refurbished and another in 1954 showing the structure in a state of disrepair and says only minimal train service was provided by then. We do not know when it was completely eliminated but a 10/28/1956 timetable shows just one New York-bound morning train stopping here. The rest of downtown Norwalk service was via the Danbury Bus Corp. stopping at the United Cigar store in the Marshall Bldg. at Main and Wall Sts. The store happened to be purchased by Major Patrick H. Lyden [click here], the NYNH&H's South Norwalk ticket agent who got a 'leave of absence' from the road to anticipate retirement while working at his new post. [REFS: SL17.4.23; SL31.3.13; P102]

NORWALK MILLS. This stop was just above WINNIPAUK, shown at the red arrow on this 1905 map snip. Cornwall says this was made a stop during World War 2 and was carried on timetables well into the Penn Central era. During the war it was called OAKWOOD AVENUE [see O stations], and later NORWALK MILLS siding. The 1924 PUC photograph at upper right shows the mill building ahead on the right, with Lowden St. crossing in the foreground. The lower photos show the Merritt Parkway on the rise in the distance, with the shot on the left seeming to be a westward view and the one on the right facing east. We wonder if these newer shelters debuted ca. 1965 when a Courant article said that the former Norwalk Tire and Rubber property, then owned by the Armstrong Rubber Co., had been sold to the Caldor department store chain which was renovating the complex and tearing down some buildings that dated back to the Civil War. The 44-acre site was to become Caldor's new headquarters, computer center, and warehouse facility employing 250 people to serve the nine stores it operated. Founded in 1951, the pioneering discount chain enjoyed phenomenal growth hereafter that would see it operating 166 stores at its height in 1994. By 1999, the pendulum would swing to bankruptcy and the chain would close all its remaining stores. [REFS: HC/05/28/1965/47; HC/06/06/1965/23D; SL17.4.24]

NORWICH3. This NLW&P opened in 1849 on the west of the river and this image seems to be of its station on North Thames St. The size seems larger than what was said to be barely adequate for a dozen passengers and so we assume that most of the space was for freight. The successor company, the NLN, would replace it with a larger structure in 1863. The image on the left is from the 1854NL map and shows the new connector that opened for service in 1855 to link the N&W with the NLW&P and allowed trains of the former road to get to New London on trackage rights. The station photo shows the curve of the connector in the foreground and therefore dates the shot to between 1853 and 1863 when this station was replaced. Determining what the trestle work over the Yantic River is in the background may help to date this photo more precisely. That could lead to the possibility that this photo is not of NORWICH3 after all, but is the successor station seen in our next listing. [REFS: HDC/08/18/1853/02; CRC1.1854.8; Q91; R79]

NORWICH5. This was one of the several union stations created by legislative act, though the time to completion here was considerably shorter than with NEW BRITAIN3 and WILLIMANTIC3, which were similarly ordered. Up to 1892 while N&W trains were using the NLN line on the west side of the Thames River to get to New London, the move made sense. Within six years, however, the NYNH&H would get control of the N&W along with its lessee, the NY&NE, and an almost immediate upshot was the completion of the N&W to Groton on the east side of the river. With N&W trains using the new route, probably immediately and exclusively, the new station was ultimately left to the CVT, which was now operating the NLN. The photo at upper left shows NORWICH5 straddling the west channel of the Yantic River with the NLN running on that shore. The track curving to the east is the old 1855 connector to the N&W. The val map [lower left] implies some NYNH&H ownership by including it with its property and the val photo [upper right] shows NYNH&H cars parked on the spur behind the station. The map on the lower right is a 1912 Bailey aero view [click here] and shows the station at the locator number 11 that we have circled in red. What is also interesting about this map is the amount of industrial development above the station on the island that itself has grown considerably, either through natural silting or reclamation, from the size seen on earlier maps. This station would stand in railroad service until the vulnerable position over the river led to its destruction in the hurricane of 1938. [REFS: Q91+,148a,180g, R79]

NORWICH6. Many thanks to Tom Hassenmayer for letting us use the photo at lower left [add1/1] from his personal collection. This station opened for business and public inspection on the evening of 1/27/1900, a Saturday. While speech-making was to be omitted, the Register said that music would provided on this occasion of "general jubilation" for the city and the surrounding towns in the building that was "to be lighted with electricity furnished by the local company." Come spring, the paper went on, flower beds would be planted outside in keeping with "the highest standard of condition and appearance" that the Consolidated was known for. This rare view looks northeast at the station and, in the right foreground, shows the Shetucket River bridge where the N&W had crossed since 1843 to go south to its new terminus at ALLYNS POINT. Another occasion for jubilation had occurred here only six months earlier when trains began using that bridge to go to the New London. After many years of anticipation, the Groton extension was certified by the railroad commissioners on 6/2/1899 as safe to operate and thereafter trains of the N&W, absorbed along with the NY&NE by the NYNH&H in 1898, used this bridge to go down the east side of the Thames River to get to the Whaling City. The tracks in the left foreground go to the NORWICH2 steamboat dock and further on go across the Yantic River to NORWICH5 and the NLN tracks that the N&W had used since 1853 to get to New London on the west side of the river. [REFS: NHER/07/01/1899/03; CRC47.1899.5,31; NHER/01/26/1900/05; R79; Q148c,h][rev1/1]

NORWICH7. The only things we can figure for this structure is that it replaced NORWICH5 after the hurricane of 1938. The station is on the east side of the track on the riverbank where the previous station was, but not straddling the river as the older one had. The view would presumably be looking south with the Main St. overpass in the distance where the connector to the N&W once started. Though the 1946 topographic map no longer shows the connector and Karr [p106] says it was abandoned in 1966, Farnham [p93], writing in 1973, says it hadn't actually come out yet. Either it is camouflaged in some reconfiguration so we can't see it here or we have misinterpreted what this photograph shows. [REFS: HC/12/04/1966/15C3]


				TylerCityStation.Info Track 16 - CT Passenger Stations



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