posted
When I first came to CT as a young bride I had an elderly neighbor(ancient in my thinking) who spoke of taking a train from Stafford Springs, CT to the shore each summer for vacation time in earlier years.
Like many of us "older folk" tend to do, he complained that the trains were not what they used to be. I recall him telling me that at one time you could go to Canada by train from Stafford Springs.
My question is ---- was his "memory" faulty or was there such a train? ---- If so what line would it have been? What would have been the end points? What time frame would it have operated in?
Dee
Posts: 460 | From: North Central CT | Registered: May 2004
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Stafford Springs is along the New England Central (formerly Central Vermont RR) line from New London to E Alburgh VT.
CV passenger service was gone S of Windsor VT by 1960, however that line is the route of the Amtrak Vermonter N of Palmer MA. During the 1980's, Amtrak also operated The Montrealer over the route through New London after the B&M route through Northampton was deemed not suitable for passenger train operation. Willimantic was a station stop during that period.
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Dee - In the Fall, the Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts do a "Circle Tour" on the Providence and Worcester Railroad (a freight line). I did it last year, going from Worcester, MA to Providence, RI, along the NEC to Groton, CT, and then back north to Worcester. The portion along the Thames River going north from Groton to Norwich parallels the New England Central Railroad route, which is on the opposite (west) side of the river. We passed right through the Navy Sub Base, got great views of the Coast Guard Academy, and stopped for a photo run-by on the banks of the river, right opposite the Mohegan Sun Casino. Earlier in the trip, we had the thrill of pulling onto a siding south of Providence, and being passed by the Amtrak Acela going at maximum speed. There was a sound like a loud explosion, and our train rocked to one side. The Acela appeared only as a blur.
Posts: 133 | From: Canaan, CT | Registered: Dec 2004
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Knew I could count on someone here. Then if I read this correctly there were indeed rail links that (with a change of trains/ railroads) one could indeed "get there from here". He would have made most of those trips about 1920. However made a last trip up there in what I thought was the late 70s.
He was of French/Canadien descent and visited relatives in upstate Maine and the Montreal area. He also talked of a train that ran from Mid-State Maine to Montreal - but I seem to think that was a later time period.
Thanks - Guess his "memory" was working better than it seemed.
Dee
Posts: 460 | From: North Central CT | Registered: May 2004
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posted
Indeed, if you go back far enough in railroad history, there were trains between just about any two points with rail service. But by the late 1950s, service had shrunk considerably. However, until 1970 or so there were still two New York to Montreal routes: via Albany, with a day train and a night train via the D&H, and via New Haven and Springfield. As Mr. Norman has noted, the south end of the Central Vermont (below Northampton, VT) lost passenger service quite early.
A train continued to run (summers only) on the Grand Trunk (a CN subsidiary) between Portland, ME and Montreal until the late 1960s. Maine Central also had a route between Portland and St. Johnsbury, VT; cars to Montreal and (at one time) Quebec were handled beyond that point by Canadian Pacific. So until the early 1960s there were two Portland-Montreal routes.
But if you back to the time before World War II, the choice of routes was much larger. I have a little book I picked up at an antique store some years ago, entitled "Trolley Trips in New England". Published in 1912, it includes a way to travel from New York to Boston entirely by trolley car.
Posts: 614 | From: Merchantville, NJ. USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Ms. Dee, once upon a time, or back in the days of the Mellon's, you could imagine a map of Connecticut at the bottom of a spaghetti bowl. Now fill that bowl up and you have the New Haven RR's System map circa 1900.
There was a line, the Central New England that roundly paralleled US 44 from Hartford through Winsted and Canaan. There is a small town near Danbury called Hawleyville into which railroad lines converged from SIX different directions (today only two). There were "two a day" (in each direction) by my school, South Kent, during the years I was there 56-61. There were also tracks (NYC Harlem Division) and "two a day" extending from present "end of track" at Wassaic through Millerton and to Chatham connecting with the B&A (CSX). So as Mr. Resor notes, in Connecticut you could literally go "from anywhere to anywhere'.
And finally, if the New Haven did not quite go where you wanted to go, there was also The Connecticut Company, County Transportation, Connecticut Railway and Lighting, and many another streetcar line - all owned by the New Haven as well.
Sic Transit Gloria!
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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