CT Passenger Stations

OAKWOOD. An 1873 article said that a station on the H&NH was being opened here in connection with the new park and race track, their location seen somewhat later on the 1893 Hurd map [right]. The map on the left shows the area today, where a Home Depot now stands. Two 1883 articles mention this station near the entrance to the park, presumably in connection with its namesake Oakwood Ave, itself an offshoot of the popular local 'Oak' motif. We do not find this station on any timetables and it may just have been the NYNH&H stop opposite the HP&F/NY&NE's CHARTER OAK PARK depot: see C stations. We do not know what structure, if any, stood here. Since these two stops were in competition with each other, the redundant OAKWOOD was likely eliminated with the NYNH&H takeover of the NY&NE in 1898. [REFS: HDC/06/14/1873/02; HDC/06/18/1873/02; HDC/06/22/1880/02; NHER/01/21/1882/04; HDC/05/16/1883/01; HDC/10/17/1883/02]

OAKWOOD AVENUE. This station was in Norwalk. Al Weaver's scrutiny clarified that the road rising behind the shelter is the Merritt Parkway. It still crosses over the track today, marked by the red arrow in the upper left shot. Ironically, the current map at bottom left shows where the OAKWOOD AVENUE stop was. The MERRITT 7 stop [see M stations] it supposedly indicates is actually a bit farther north where Oakland Ave. ends today. With the WWII clue on the photo at top right, we checked employee timetables for the war years to find this station shown from 1943 to 1945 on the Danbury line. The Norwalk Tire and Rubber Co. had a large factory here that made products for civilian and military use. Arrows pointing out the catenary towers show the line running along the factory in the middle left photo. The lone 7:27 a.m. train, perhaps used mostly by employees while business boomed during the war, was probably complemented by an evening return trip. The company, an industry leader in business since 1914 and which touted 'Victory camelback' retreads to conserve rubber supplies during the war, would be sold in bankruptcy by 1950. A corporate complex dominates the landscape today here along the Norwalk River. This station was gone by 1946 but reemerged somewhat later as NORWALK MILLS: see N stations. [REFS: NYT/04/03/42/24; NYT/07/14/1950/42; NYT/09/26/1957/25]

ORE HILL1. This was an original, timetable stop when the CW opened in 1871. On the F.H. DeMars photo at left that purports to be Ore Hill, we immediately noticed the station we have marked with the red arrow. The style does match TACONIC, nee CHAPINVILLE, and if the 1880 NY&NE appraisal of CW assets is taken into account, the structure here is valued exactly the same at $1800. The 1874 map at lower left [add2/14] is one of the few we have that shows the earliest configuration of the roads and mines here, as well as the location of the station itself. The photo at right, also a DeMars, shows the CW line over the ore pit in 1878. The 300-ft long, 70-ft high bridge is noted in several newspaper articles and was apparently original to the line, the first mention being in June, 1872 when it was said that here "an opportunity is offered to inspect the depths of Mother Earth." With the village seen behind the train, we think the view looks south with the train heading east up the grade to Taconic that started here and may be slightly noticeable in the photo. One story in the Winsted Herald reported a horse walking of his own accord across the bridge on the plank in the center of the rails! Tourism and animal shenanigans aside, the bridging of the ore pit has to be seen as somehow necessary for the considerable expense it must have involved. Its elimination probably coincided with the relocation of the line to go around the south end of the mining operation. A report in 1899 was among several at the time that said that the line, which had been changed some years before to avoid the mining operation, was about to be returned to its original location, whatever that was. Some reconfiguration possibly occurred in 1900 when an article in the Lakeville Journal said "the old depot at Ore Hill has been torn down and removed by the railroad company." Mine-flooding and track-sinkage problems frequently plagued the railroad here and caused a few wrecks and many a slow order. So, mysteries and questions abound. Is the depot in the photo ORE HILL1, torn down in 1900? Is this even in Connecticut?? According to family, DeMars, who had a studio in Winsted, took pictures throughout the northwestern part of the state and nearby Massachusetts, lived in Scranton, PA for a while, and incorporated photos from other collections into his own. The notation on the glass plate negative, shown at lower left, seems to say 'Depot & Pitt' or possibly 'Depot at Pitt No 129' and the wrapper says 'Heritage Village.' Discounting the relatively recent Southbury residential development of that name in this state, where else could this be? Pitt, PA? Stay tuned for answers to these burning questions about ORE HILL1 and, in the meantime, enjoy the exquisite photos in the DeMars collection, available for free browsing online [click here]. The ore shipments from the several pits in this area were a major source of income for the railroad and the mine workers and their families for many years comprised the largest school district in the town of Salisbury. The school house, moved away from the mines to escape the noise, still stands today on Rte 44 just west of the station site. In 1887, the newspaper noted that the Ore Hill mine shipped 33,000 tons of ore in 1886, a larger figure than ever before. [REFS: CWN/06/14/1872/02; HDC/06/18/1872/02; WH/11/06/1874/03; HDC/11/26/1874/01; CWN/01/07/1876/02; NHER/02/12/1887/04; CWN/05/13/1897/03; SR/04/22/1899/12; HC/06/15/1899/05; NHER/06/15/1899/10]

ORE HILL2. Along with the tearing down of ORE HILL1 in September, 1900, a number of articles speak of raising and filling the track here with dirt being brought over construction project then underway for the State Line wye. The bridge was probably eliminated at this time, though there is no mention either of that or the massive fill project for the right of way through the pit. The relocation of the track to skirt the pit probably did not come until after 1903 when many local residents and even some employees of the mine-owners, the Barnum-Richardson Co., were of the opinion that the railroad commissioners should condemn the right of way over the abandoned portion of the ore mines, which they said was a danger to miners and the public alike. Nimke's date box, says the ORE HILL2 passenger shelter, presumably meaning the small building with the flag mechanism, as well as the freight station, were built in 1893. How that jibes with the tearing down of ORE HILL1 in 1900, is unclear, except that, if these structures predated that event, they may have been left to do service thereafter. The val photo at upper right, strangely without a date, is probably ca. 1916 and the Benton and Drake shot at upper left dates to the early 1930s. The map at middle left is 1894 and shows the layout of the mine operation. The image at middle right is the 1934 aerial map. The red line on both is what we assume was the old line over the ore pit, which is considerably larger in later days and today appears like a small lake across from where the old station once stood. The bottom shots are east [left] and west [right] views from Rte. 44 at the station, both showing the abandoned switch track to the old ore processing area. Mining operations ended in 1923 almost two centuries after ore was first discovered in 1731 and was used in everything from Revolutionary War cannon to railroad track and car wheels. [REFS: SR/04/22/1899/12; HC/06/15/1899/05; SR/02/15/1900/07; LJ/08/04/1900/03; LJ/09/01/1900/05; SR/11/21/1902/10; SR/11/15/1903/11; NYT/06/26/1913/04; CWN/02/02/1905/03; D51; N3.100]

PARLOR ROCK. This stop was established in 1878 by the HRR. It was a popular destination that brought crowds at its height from as far as Pittsfield and even more traffic from New Haven and the Naugatuck Valley after the connection of the NH&D and HRR at Botsford in 1888. The 1868 map [top right] shows the location of the grove containing the boulder with the parlor-like seat indentation, its fame already well established. The image at top left is a loosely drawn watercolor sketch with a train passing the station area. The 100-ft station platform shown in the photo at middle left is correctly sized and placed on the facilities map [bottom left], which, though its authorship is unknown and the number key is not given, seems to be quite accurate. It shows, as Al Weaver points out, a small station structure at the '9a' locator and we are, of course, looking for a photo at the Trumbull Historical Society, which has quite a bit of material [click here] on Parlor Rock's interesting history. In 1878, the HRR decided to make this a recreation facility to promote ridership, much like the D&N's Brookside Park and the NRR's High Rock Grove. Success was immediate and trains of 10 and more cars were not uncommon. In August, 1887, a huge 28-car train brought 4,000 Elks for their state picnic and the NYNH&H employee outing was held here as well, in spite of deteriorating relations between their railroad and the HRR. The piece de resistance was when "the biggest toboggan slide in New England" was announced, likely the brainchild of the industrious HRR Vice Pres. William H. Stevenson. Elevators were reportedly going to transport people to the top of the ramp that was to be lined with ice cakes cut from Lake High-High to propel people clear across the frozen lake surface. Though we note the toboggan is facing away from the lake on the map, electric lights, steam heat, and refreshment stands were ready for its opening on February 9, 1888. With ice skating and ice polo and heated pavilions for roller skating and dancing, Parlor Rock was instantly made into a lucrative year-round attraction and it would continue to be popular even after the HRR was taken over by the NYNH&H in 1892. In that same year a tip from the Long Hill liquor agent led to a police raid and the confiscation of beer from outraged Knights of Pythias picnickers. Trumbull reportedly went 'dry' shortly thereafter. This, plus dwindling crowds due to competition from Bridgeport's Pleasure Beach and West Haven's Savin Rock, persuaded the NYNH&H to close the park in 1898 and the buildings were dismantled by 1908. According to THS, trains still brought teams to use the baseball field until 1913. By 1915 when the val map was drawn [click here] nothing shows for this stop. The color image was taken on 10/23/2010 and it shows the rugged, natural beauty of this gorge and rocky glen. It is well worth a visit and parking for the short trek on the Pequonnock Valley Greenway is available on Whitney Ave., about 1,000 feet south, at the site of the former BEERS MILL, later LONG HILL, station. [REFS: DC/08/06/1874/02; NHER/06/06/1885/04; NHER/06/21/1887/01; NHER/07/29/1887/04; NHER/07/30/1887/04; NHER/08/11/1887/01; NHER/08/31/1887/01; NHER/11/08/1887/01; NHER/02/08/1888/04; NHER/09/05/1888/04; NHER/07/06/1892/04; NHER/08/17/1893/04; NL10.1.2]

PEPPER CROSSING. At upper left is a shot from the 1934 aerial maps, fabulously delineated in modern terms for TCS by Kevin Daly. This flag station is not on our 1911TT but it is on the 1915 val map at upper right and it does appear on our 1923TT. Within this date range, we do not yet know when it was established or if there was a particular reason why. It is still on the map from a 1932TT, the year in which passenger service from Hawleyville to Bridgeport ended. The small shelter was reportedly built by the Garders, a couple who relocated here from New York and began to farm the land and run a modest vacation resort. They are remembered today with the naming of nearby Garder Rd. The structure was for the comfort of visitors arriving by train and stay or buy their renowned farm-fresh produce. The val photo at middle right is from 1916. An article in the Newtown Bee claiming that the waiting station was partly dismantled and taken down in 1921 and then used as a storehouse on the farm property is only partially correct. Not only is the date contradicted by the 1927 PUC photo at middle left, but the Bridgeport Sunday Post image at lower left [add9/21] dates to 1932 when Henry Garder (inset) is shown reclaiming his structure. While we are not sure of the legalities, this was not the first time that a station reverted to the donor when no longer used by the railroad for its intended purpose. Another case was the ORANGE depot [see O stations] that was built by locals in 1872 for the NH&D and surrendered to the town when passenger service was abandoned by the NYNH&H in 1925. [REFS: BSP/03/13/1932/14; NB/07/08/1994/??; K56; NL22.4.9]

PINE GROVE1. According to NHRR real estate records, this station was built in 1873. It served the Methodist camp meetings that some sources say went back to 1856. The first mention we find in the newspapers is in the Courant in 1867, which said a six-day meeting would be held along the line of the HRR, midway between Falls Village and North Canaan. Many religious associations deliberately located their grounds along railroad lines to make the events accessible, like at the CAMP STATION depots in Plainville and Willimantic and at GOODSPEEDS, where Camp Bethel in the Tylerville section of Haddam was served [see G,P,W stations]. Whenever it was built, a newspaper article in 1877 reported that "the debris of the camp meeting station building belonging to Housatonic R.R. Co. and located at the grounds of the Pine Grove Camp Meeting Society, between this place and Falls Village, and which was blown down, and blown pretty much all to pieces in a gale in the last part of December, is now entirely cleared away, and nothing but the platform and floor of the structure remains. It is presumed the building will be rebuilt before the advent of the next camp meeting at these grounds." We do not think we have a photo of this station which may or may not have looked like the next one, PINE GROVE2. Between the camp meetings going back to at least the 1860s and the fact that this station was replaced in 1877, we have kept the 1873 build date only because of its 'official' nature. [REFS: HDC/08/03/1867/08; HDC/08/22/1873/04; CWN/02/23/1877/02; CWN/08/26/1885/03: 1860 first camp meeting]

PINE GROVE2 was the successor to the one that was blown down late in 1876. The newspaper said in August, 1877 that "the depot building at the camp grounds station, which was blown down by one of last December's gales, is again being rebuilt, and will be ready for the accommodation of the meetings next week." With eight HRR trains stopping here each way at the meetings in the previous year, there was certainly a need for the depot to be rebuilt, perhaps with larger dimensions than the original one. An 1878 article in Zion's Herald said that there were even special trains running down from Canaan that attendees arriving on both the HRR and CW had access and that there was a post office, telegraph service and "a daily paper printed on the ground (sic) reporting all the sermons." That paper was a special edition of the Connecticut Western News, which the editor took especial pride in issuing beyond the weekly edition in Canaan. The station here was only open during the summer when the post office handled up to four deliveries per day. Peak attendance was reportedly 7,000 persons in a season, but with religious fervor ebbing, the last revival meeting was held in 1912. In 1920, the old camp meeting constituency morphed into the current Pine Grove Association. The cottages with their Victorian adornments still exist today and are colorful reminders of the origins of this religious enclave. According to NHRR real estate records, the station was sold on 12/28/1929. The photo at upper left looks east toward Canaan Mountain and shows the unusual design of this depot that had sliding doors so the structure could be open on both sides in good weather. Except for the Paroid metal roof in the val photo, seen at upper right and dated 9/25/1916, all these images seem to show the same PINE GROVE2 structure. [REFS: CWN/08/25/1876/02; ZH/09/05/1878/55,36, American Periodicals Series, p282; D89; CWN/08/29/1907/01; LJ/04/20/1989/D6/supp.]

PINE MEADOW1. The first Canal line station here seems to have been put up in 1870 when the NH&N extended the Collinsville branch up to the Pine Meadow section of New Hartford. The Courant reported in July, 1870 that "three regular passenger trains now run daily over the new railroad from Collinsville to New Hartford."] While a newspaper article in May, 1870 said no station was built here yet, by November, 1871 there is a report that a "town road to the depot is now being built in Pine Meadow." A section house is the only other structure we see on railroad property in the panorama. Going on the observation that railroads often recycled their buildings for other uses, we offer just the possibility that this may have been the first station built by the Canal line. [REFS: WH/05/27/1870/02; HDC/07/21/1870/04; WH/11/03/1871/02; DC/04/08/1874/02]

PINE MEADOW2. The second station in this village was built by the CW. The Courant said this was a flag stop initially but the Winsted Herald reported that the station here was almost complete late in 1871 when the railroad opened. According to Lord, it stood at Albany Tpke. and was used until an agreement was reached with the NH&N for joint use of its station. Just when that was is uncertain, but an 1879 Courant article says that J.B. Beckwith, CW station agent "put in a set of hay scales near the Western depot" for a side-line business that he ran in addition to being the agent. A cryptic reference in the Winsted Herald in 1895 says that "the Pine Meadow depot erected some years ago by the P.R. & N.E. people is being torn down," and we can perhaps assume that this is when business for both railroads was combined at the Canal line station. Al Weaver's colorization and enhancement of the valuable panorama at upper left makes the structure at the red arrow stand out in the close-up at upper right. The result seems to show it as PINE MEADOW2 in a size and shape that corresponds to other CW stations such as BLOOMFIELD and CANTON. Another lost depot image captured! [add12/7>] Arguing against a depot of this size is that the 1880 NY&NE appraisal of CW property said there was a structure here to serve both passengers and freight valued at $175, compared to BLOOMFIELD it appraised at $1500.>] Between PINE MEADOW2 and the Canal line station in the foreground, PINE MEADOW3, one can see the diagonal crossover that moved the CW to the north side of the NH&N as they headed for the wild canyon known as Satan's Kingdom, in the distance and just around the bend. Negotiations between the railroads as late as November, 1871 were still ironing out how the tracks would cross in this area and there seems to have been an earlier plan for two crossings rather than the one that was finally agreed on. The bottom views show trains heading east toward Collinsville, the left photo with a Canal line train on the west bank of the Farmington River and the CW crossing the bridge, cliff to cliff, to take the east bank. Oh, how we wish we could have ridden across that bridge! [REFS: HDC/11/14/1871/04; WH/12/15/1871/02; HDC/12/21/1871/02; HDC/10/16/1879/04; CW/NYNE1880; WH/11/20/1895/08; D26]

PINE MEADOW3. In 1876, the NH&N would extend its line further, taking it across the Farmington River to reach the Greenwoods Co. [add9/12> An article in the Connecticut Western News in January said that the Canal road company was about to commence the extension northward to the neighborhood of Pleasant Valley and that it was only a matter of time before it was extended to Riverton "utilizing the twenty miles which are already graded and provided with culverts in part." Otherwise known as the Lee and New Haven RR, this abortive line north of the Greenwoods Co. was never built, though it appears as projected on all RRMs from 1876 to 1912!] In reporting on these matters, the railroad commissioners said in January, 1877 that "the two new passenger depots at New Hartford and Pine Meadow, now nearly completed, promise to be models of their kind. They were, in fact, virtually, if not completely, identical. Lord says that an agreement was reached with the CW for joint use of this station, which he says was built in the early 1870s. If Lord is correct about the joint-use agreement coming after this station was built, the railroad commissioners report date would put the event, for which we can find no specific corroboration, to some time after 1877. And, in light of the discussion under PINE MEADOW2, the joint-use era would not have come until 1895. Nimke [3.33] has a photo showing this station still standing in 1937. The val map at lower left is from 1916. [REFS: CWN/01/28/1876/2; CRC24.1877.17; D26,120]

PINE ORCHARD1. The name for this area came about ca. 1830 from the grove of young pine trees near the Sheldon cottages where people began to vacation and thought the earlier name of World's End was no longer appropriate. By 1886, the newspaper said that those pines were dying out but the spot was still very popular as a "quiet summer resort." The article mentions that a station, possibly prior to the one seen in this 1888 photo, had been put up by the cottage proprietors. The earliest mention we have found for this stop is in an 1880 newspaper list of stations but it is not in the travel guide timetables at the time. The RRMs first show it in 1884 and the GHD in 1885. An 1899 article mentions the fact that the station, as well as the post office, would open about the 10th of June that year, as was the custom for seasonal stops in the shoreline resort communities. [REFS: 1871-1881TTs; NHER/04/01/1880/01; NHER/07/09/1886/01; NHER/07/30/1886/03; NHER/08/10/1886/04; NHER/06/02/1899/08; John C. Carr, History of Early Branford, p48]

PINE ORCHARD2. The build date in red on the NYNH&H real estate card says 1899 but that disagrees with the August, 1893 date on the top left image, so we are presented with something of a dilemma on when this station was built. Either the record card is in error or there was an intervening station here, in which case the other two photos show a later structure virtually identical to the 1893 image. The lower photo is dated 10/22/1938 and, since the card affirms that this depot was removed in 1940, the upper right shot must be in the 1930s also, though we thought the vehicle was a little more modern looking than that. This would become a year-round station after increasing numbers of longer-term residents petitioned the railroad to make the change. The newspaper reported a burglary here in the winter of 1906. The 1915 valuation map at lower left shows the station and grounds at that time. The right of way seen to the left on the map is the earlier, more circuitous route of the original railroad which was straightened in the 1890s. We will revise locations as we better understand how this realignment affected the original locations of the stations. [REFS: NHER/06/02/1899/08; NHER/08/22/1900/09; NHER/10/13/1900/08; HC/03/17/1906/08][lowleft add1/23]

PLAINVILLE1. Built for the Canal line's opening in 1848, this was one of the three depots that we know of that were designed by Henry Austin for the NH&N and its lessee, the NY&NH. The others were the grandiose, first union station in the Elm City, our NEW HAVEN3, and COLLINSVILLE1 in the town of Canton. PLAINVILLE1 probably first stood behind the freight station on the west side of the track and was reportedly moved to the east side of the track at the junction created by the arrival of the HP&F in 1850, as seen in the image at upper left and on the 1855HC map at lower left. This design is the simplest of the Austin trio, with just a shallow hip roof and not even a single cupola like COLLINSVILLE1. PLAINVILLE1 was used jointly by the two roads until it was destroyed by fire in April of 1859 and the successor station was built, again in the southeast quadrant of the junction. We are investigating the possibility that Austin also designed UNIONVILLE1 [see U stations] and possibly even TARIFFVILLE1, both of which opened in 1850, shortly after the original trio. [REFS: HDC/04/30/1859/02; D107][rev12/9]

PLAINVILLE2. The snippet on the left is from the 1878 Bailey bird's-eye map. Click here. The train is heading north on the Canal line so the depot is in the southeast quadrant of the junction with the NY&NE. The Courant reported that this station was being built in May, 1859 to replace the Austin depot that had burned. The image on the right appeared in an 1890s newspaper article that sarcastically and humorously decried the decaying condition of the old Canal line depot, this even after new flooring and refurbishment took place earlier in the decade. At one point, it was lamented that this station did not catch fire with nearby buildings, though the sentiment was validated when this depot did, in fact, burn on July 3, 1900, reportedly "in a peculiarly mysterious way." Comparing the two images, we see that the bird's-eye artist caught the details of the station quite accurately, including the Adams Express Co. annex on the south end of the station building. [REFS: HDC/05/13/1859/02; HDC/11/29/1877/04; NHER/07/04/1900/09; HC/07/06/1900/12; NHER/07/11/1900/01; D107]

PLAINVILLE3. According to an article from an unidentified newspaper, this depot debuted on June 2, 1881. The Courant corroborates on June 10 that it opened last week. The Register had said in August, 1880 that a substantial combination station would be built about 200 feet east of PLAINVILLE2, which both roads had shared up until that time, and that the NY&NE had wanted to construct a union depot with the Canal road but "satisfactory arrangements could not be arrived at." The map at upper left is from 1893. The bottom two shots are from NY&NE real estate maps, likely dating to the late 1880s. The footprint of the NY&NE depot is the same as other large combination stations along the line and so we have copied the SOUTHBURY photo here as what PLAINVILLE3 undoubtedly looked like. Most, if not all, of the NY&NE 1881 depots were built by the prolific Hartford contractor, Leman Oatman. The maps show the arrangement of the platforms and buildings that included a restaurant, the two stations forming an L that foreshadowed the next depot that was built here. In spite of its proximity, this station resisted catching fire in July, 1900 and took over duties for both the Canal and Highland lines until PLAINVILLE4 opened. A Courant article of October, 1901 said that PLAINVILLE3 was "being torn down and carted away." [REFS: NHER/08/18/1880/04; NHER/11/02/1880/01; HDC/06/10/1881/04; CRC29.1882.34; HC/10/18/1901/12]

PLAINVILLE4. This L-shaped, brick station opened in 1901 in the southeast quadrant at the junction to serve both the Canal line and the Highland Division, replacing both PLAINVILLE2 and PLAINVILLE3. Oddly enough, we have yet to find any Courant newspaper coverage of the opening. An article does say that the railroad commissioners were in town in September to inspect the Bristol and Plainville Tramway Co. trolley line that ran nearby but no mention is made of them visiting the railroad station which must have been almost completed. Another article says that PLAINVILLE3 was being torn down on October 18, so we have to conclude that PLAINVILLE4 was open some time in between, probably earlier in October as has been claimed. It was razed after almost 90 years of service in 1989, its final incarnation as a flea market and haven for the homeless. [REFS: HC/10/04/1900/10; HC/09/06/1901/12; HC/10/18/1901/12; HC/10/29/1901/05; CRC49.1901.19; HC/09/12/1989/04; NL10.3.6]

PLANTSVILLE2. This station was also at the Plant Manufacturing Co. which was to suffer two more fires, the latter of which was in 1874, when the Columbian Register said "the telegraph office and the Canal railroad depot were located in the factory buildings and, of course, were destroyed." The 1855HC map at upper left shows the footprint of the factory complex. By some odd coincidence, the NH&N was at this very time in the process of trying to eliminate this stop in a series of closures that included ALLENS, BROOKS, and MOUNT CARMEL [see A,B,M stations] to cut costs and increase profitability. Some suspected that these moves, to the detriment of customers in its home state, were part of an effort to increase its through traffic to Massachusetts and to better compete with the NYNH&H. Ironically, that road, in its former incarnation as the NY&NH when it was leasing the Canal line, was blamed by some for saddling the NH&N with unprofitable, small stops that now made it less competitive. With HITCHCOCKS, PLANTSVILLE and SOUTHINGTON within three miles of each other, as seen on the 1870TT, the middle one was thought the logical choice to put on the chopping block, in spite of its considerable traffic in metals which were so much heavier to haul any distance greater than necessary. Over vociferous public objection in both communities, the railroad commissioners permitted the abandonment of PLANTSVILLE as well as SOUTHINGTON on the promise of a newer station at an intermediate point. The NH&N then proceeded to build SOUTHINGTON2 [see S stations] at the location indicated on the snippet from our CTRRMAP [lower left]. With at least one source saying the construction was rushed or done clandestinely, no doubt on account of the impending controversy, the new station opened on 5/6/1874 and trains ceased stopping at PLANTSVILLE2 at that time. With the handsome new brick passenger station in service to complement the new brick freight house, Southington folk quickly accepted its new location and grew less sympathetic to those who had lost their station in the southern part of town. [REFS: DC/01/08/1874/02; CR/01/10/1874/03; RRC8.398 (2/3/1874); HDC/02/05/1874/04; HDC/02/07/1874/01; HDC/02/28/1874/02; HDC/03/25/1874/01; CR/03/28/1874/03; HDC/05/06/1874/04; HDC/05/28/1874/01; HDC/06/10/1874/02; HDC/07/03/1874/01][rev11/11]

PLANTSVILLE3. Of course, the loss of their station was unacceptable to the Plantsville people who, as the Southington Reporter said, began a determined effort to stem the tide of closure for smaller stations everywhere. The cause was carried to the state legislature which passed a law in July, 1875 amending the NH&N charter to read that, if locals provided a depot within six months, the railroad would have to accept it and to stop its trains there. Faced with this prospect, the railroad offered to serve the coming new depot if it was built below Plant's pond and if the HITCHCOCKS station was eliminated as part of the deal, but the Plantsville people's cause was not about to sacrifice one station for another. They purchased land and, undeterred by a short-lived injunction, broke ground, with the Courant reporting in September of 1875 that the foundation had been laid and that the new station was going up "close by the site of the old one, which was removed by the railroad authorities." The location is penciled in on the NH&N real estate map at middle right. While construction was in progress, the local paper reported that the work was cheered on by a straw effigy with a cabbage for a head. It wielded a cane pointing at the new depot site and held a placard saying "I gave the land" with a paper inscribed as "Deed - $2500" sticking out of his pocket. Profuse denials were made that any particular railroad 'magnate' was being vilified! The image at lower left is a ticket sales tally from the Unionville station showing no tickets being sold to Plantsville in August, 1875, and it was no surprise that when the new station was "about completed" by the end of November, the railroad refused to take possession of it. Further NH&N foot-dragging led to a ruling for the citizens by the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors in May, 1876, after which the townspeople were said to be "in a 'high daddy' glee" at the news. PLANTSVILLE3 was festooned with flags and bunting and "all work was suspended [the factories closed], bells rung and cannon fired" as Canal line trains roared by, still not stopping but soon expected to do so. So elated were the Plantsville people and so divisive had the controversy become, it was reported that "yesterday at church (Sunday) they would not fellowship with Southington folk... [because] they have a depot of their own now, and will neither borrow or lend." It was also said that real estate values skyrocketed, seemingly overnight, based on the prospect of restored rail service. Trains, in fact, would not stop for a while yet and not before the arrest and release of NH&N Pres. Yeamans and the threat of the same for all the directors. Finally, a brief mention in the Courant on 4/2/1877 said simply that "the trains on the Canal road will stop at Plantsville to-day and hereafter." The NH&N ultimately appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court [click here] which affirmed in 1881 the lower court actions. While we had previously assumed that the triple-dormered depot in the photos seen above was a NYNH&H, ca. 1900-structure, the 1878 bird's-eye map of Southington shows that this in fact was the station built by the residents and given to the railroad in 1875. It seems we can never thank Mr. Bailey enough for preserving these images! PLANTSVILLE3 would retain passenger service with the rest of the Canal line until 1925 and track would be removed from New Haven to Cheshire in 1987. Rail is still in the ground north from the I-84 overpass at Queen St. though service via Plainville in 2011 stops well north of that point. [REFS: 42 Conn. 57 (1875) and 43 Conn. 351 (1876), both State v. New Haven and Northampton Co.; HDC/05/29/1875/02; SRP/06/18/1875/02; HDC/06/24/1875/02; HDC/06/30/1875/02; HDC/07/08/1875/02; HDC/07/29/1875/02; HDC/08/13/1875/02; HDC/08/18/1875/02 HDC/09/14/1875/04; HDC/09/22/1875/02; HDC/09/23/1875/02; HDC/09/29/1875/02; SRP/10/01/1875/04; HDC/11/30/1875/02; HDC03/21/1877/02; HDC/03/22/1877/02; HDC/04/02/1877/01; 104 U.S. 1, Railroad Co. v. Hamersly (1881)][add11/10]

PLATTS MILLS was a station in the southern part of Waterbury on the NRR. It is not on our 1894 timetable but does appear on a ca. 1902 railroad commissioners map. Although the namesake mills predated the later manufacturing activity here, the stop was probably established for the Bristol Company [click here and here], which was incorporated in 1894 and by 1918 employed 400 people in the production of measuring and recording devices. There was no station structure here, just a platform. As seen on the map, it is below the "TO DEVON" in the middle left. As a flag stop for just a morning train and an evening train, this station seems to have only served commuting factory workers. We are not sure how long train service lasted and when manufacturing ceased. The complex is still standing and are eerily silent today, as shown on the photo, where you can see the Bristol name and the word 'Recording' in faded letters.

POQUONNOCK2 was built in 1901 just east of its namesake river. There was a stop here and an earlier depot, POQUONNOCK1, from sometime between 1858 and 1871, on the line to GROTON1, the NHNL&S steamboat facility opposite New London. The first station reportedly burned and presumably was replaced by this one. In 1889, trackage was built from just west of here to the new Thames River bridge making the connection point Poquonnock Junction or Switch. The photo at middle left says the name has been changed to MIDWAY since the 10/28/1902 taking of the picture. The name change occurred in 1904 when the NYNH&H built a major freight yard and engine facility at this half-way point between Boston and New York. MIDWAY station is seen [top left] on the north side of the tracks and east of Depot Rd. and in the val photo. The site today is where the electrical facility is along the main. Click here for the valuation map that shows the massive Midway yards and facilities just east of this point. The new facilities were completed on December 1, 1904 with the name change effective thereafter. Today, an Amtrak maintenance facility occupies some of the land and the rest has been sold off for residential development, with telling street names like Midway Oval. The undated map sheet at bottom left shows the station west of the village road. According to a New London Day article of January, 1917, the station was being moved at that time as part of an expansion of the facilities. A 1935 map in Ed Ozog's 1981 Shoreliner article [p18] also shows the station on the west side of the road. [REFS: 1858TT; 1871TT; CRC49.1901.21; NHAR33.1904.6; HC/12/02/1904/02; NHAR34.1905.7; NLD/01/15/1917/08; NLD/07/16/1917/08; SL12.2.15; NL10.1.10; C171]

PROSPECT. This station on the MW&CR is shown by the blue arrow on the 1892 topographic map in between WEST CHESHIRE and SUMMIT. We know for a fact that the tick mark is a bit misplaced since the property owner across what is now Rte. 68 testifies to the fact that the station was on his land. It stood where the capital on the letter C is on the map. In the val photo on the right, the corner of his 1900s-era home is visible and it still looks out over the former station site today. [rev1/2>] Closer examination of this photo leads us to believe that the valuation photographer has caught the station up on some kind of moving device about to be shunted perhaps onto a flat car. Passenger service would end in 1917. The coach is actually on the stub-ended siding behind the station, where the box car appears in the panoramic photo at top left. That shot looks north from the Laurel Grove hotel resort, known earlier as Dunham's Grove, a popular picnic spot that generated some traffic for the railroad. Perhaps the blue arrow indicates a flag stop for the grove that was perched on a high bluff and separated from the PROSPECT station by a deep ravine that the railroad had to cross the curved trestle seen in the photo. Speaking of that trestle, we no longer think it matches the one long and straight one in the shot at lower left. We are of the opinion now that this is the high, straight trestle that went westward from Notch Rd. turning a little south in the distance to meet and cross Plank Rd. The embankment is still visible to the east of Notch Rd. It slopes fairly abruptly before where it once met the road and used the steel bridge to go over it and mount the trestle.>]

PUTNAM2. The Courant, touting the arrival of the BH&E here in 1868 reported in August that "sills for the new depot are being placed upon the foundation" and in September said that the large new freight depot would be used as a passenger station for "a few months." By March of 1869, it was reported that the two companies had both agreed to use the N&W station, PUTNAM1, exclusively for passengers and the new BH&E depot jointly for freight. The snip is from the Bailey 1877 bird's-eye map and shows the tracks of both roads passing in front of PUTNAM2. The BH&E met the N&W north of town near Mechanicsville, paralleled it into Putnam, and crossed over above the N&W station to be able to head west toward Willimantic. [REFS: HDC/08/07/1868/02; HDC/09/05/1868/02; HDC/03/06/1869/04]

PUTNAM4 opened on 6/16/1907. The newspaper said the main building was 83x27 feet, with a platform 132 feet long. Sixty-one years later, the NYNH&H, soon to go out of existence, filed to close this and 16 other passenger stations to save maintenance costs. It deferred a decision on this one after objections were voiced by public officials who said that passengers were still using the building and that the city was paying the janitorial expenses. No one objected, however, to the other closings at Cannondale, Redding, Brookfield, Gaylordsville, Cornwall Bridge and West Cornwall on the Danbury line, Talmadge Hill on the New Canaan line, and the eastbound stations on the main line at Greenwich, Cos Cob, Old Greenwich, Darien, Westport, Southport, and Fairfield. [REFS: CRC.54.1906.34; HC/06/171907/01; HC/02/28/1963/06; R83; SL28.1.25]


				TylerCityStation.Info Track 16 - CT Passenger Stations



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