East Hartford – Springfield railway line

East Hartford CT-Springfield MA

Route length:

46.8 km

-

Society:

East Hartford – East Windsor Hills: CSO
East Windsor Hills – CT / MA border : CNZR
CT / MA – Springfield border: most recently ST

Legend

		from Waterbury
	0.0	East Hartford CT
		to Providence
	3.4	Burnham Street
		Interstate 291
	5.8	South Windsor CT
	approx. 10	East Windsor Hills CT
		Farnham's
	16.7	East Windsor CT
	19.3	Broad Brook
		from Westway
	22.0	Melrose CT
		Holyoke Street Railway (Reeves Road)
		Enfield CT
		Scitico River
		Holyoke Street Railway (Hazard Avenue)
	27.4	Hazardville CT (formerly Scitico)
	30.6	Shaker station
	approx. 33	State Line
		Connecticut , Massachusetts
	36.2	East Longmeadow MA
		Watershops Pond
		Watershops
		Springfield (State Street) Tram
	43.0	Armory
		Link to Worcester
		from Worcester
		Springfield Tram (Chestnut Street)
	46.8	Springfield MA Union Station
		to Albany

The East Hartford – Springfield railway line (also Armory Branch or Springfield Branch ) is a railway line in Connecticut and Massachusetts ( United States ). It is around 47 kilometers long and connects the cities of East Hartford , South Windsor , East Windsor , Enfield and Springfield , among others . The standard gauge line is closed in Massachusetts. The Connecticut section belongs to the Connecticut Southern Railroad (CSO) from East Hartford to East Windsor Hills and from there to the border of the Central New England Railroad (CNZR). The CNZR has a right of joint use for the CSO section.

history

To compete with the very well-used New Haven – Springfield railway line of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (NYNH), local entrepreneurs planned to build a railway line parallel to this line from Portland to Springfield. They founded the Connecticut Central Railroad Company in Connecticut in 1871 and the Springfield and New London Railroad Company in Massachusetts in 1874 , which were to build the sections in the respective states. Shortly thereafter, the owners decided to build only the northern section of the planned railway, from East Hartford to Springfield. On January 26, 1876, the entire line went into operation and Connecticut Central leased the section located in Massachusetts. Operation was led by the Connecticut Valley Railroad , which also operated the line connected to East Hartford and which had leased the entire line from East Hartford to Springfield.

On August 31, 1876, however, the Connecticut Valley filed for bankruptcy and the lease was terminated. Connecticut Central was now in charge of operations on the railway line. On June 1, 1880, the New York and New England Railroad leased the railroad and took over operations. Since the line was significantly longer than the main line from Hartford to Springfield and also only had a single track, there was no continuous train service in the direction of New York. Only a few trains ran the route. In 1898, NYNH leased New York & New England and now ran the business, which meant that the competitive situation no longer existed. Around 1927, passenger traffic between Springfield and Armory ended and passengers had to change trains at Armory Station to get to Union Station. From October 13, 1929, passenger trains only ran from Hartford to East Longmeadow. Passenger traffic was completely stopped by June 27, 1932 at the latest.

In 1969 Penn Central bought the route and in 1972 stopped freight traffic between East Windsor and Hazardville. In 1976 this section was formally closed, but remained in the possession of the railway company. In the same year Conrail took over the railway line. In 1982 she sold the northern section from Springfield to Hazardville to the Boston and Maine Railroad , which in turn was taken over by Guilford Transportation a year later . Around 1990 Guilford ceased operations on this route and shut it down at the end of 1993. Around 1986 Conrail also closed the section from South Windsor to East Windsor.

In 1995, the Central New England Railroad bought the disused section from East Windsor Hills to the Massachusetts border and again carried freight traffic between East Windsor Hills and East Windsor. The tracks were also partially renewed on the remaining section. Conrail re-established the line between South Windsor and East Windsor Hills and provided the track connection. In 1996 Conrail sold the southern section from East Hartford to East Windsor Hills to the Connecticut Southern Railroad, which has operated freight services on this route since then.

Route description

The line branches off at the former East Hartford station from the main Providence – Waterbury line and runs north through the suburbs of East Hartford parallel to US Highway 5 . In East Windsor Hills, where the property line is between CSO and CNZR, the route first turns east and then turns north again shortly afterwards. In this section it leads through a thinly built-up area. In the town of Melrose, which belongs to East Windsor, a branch line from Westway flowed until 1937. Shortly before Hazardville, the train crosses the Scitico River .

Shortly afterwards, the railroad crosses the Massachusetts border. The track ends bluntly on a field right at the border. The now closed further railway line runs further north through East Longmeadow and shortly thereafter reaches the urban area of Springfield. An asphalt bike path was laid on the railway line from Denslow Road directly north of the state border to East Longmeadow. Shortly before the Watershops train station, the railway line crosses the Watershops Pond . The bridge is still standing, but is not used. In the urban area of Springfield, some sections of the railway line were built over with parking lots, sports fields and individual buildings. Shortly before the end of the line there was a track triangle, where a short connection to the Athol Junction junction branched off on the Boston & Albany main line. The route joins this main line shortly before Springfield Union Station .

The line that is still in operation is single-track and has sidings in East Windsor and Hazardville as well as numerous freight connections and loading tracks along the entire route. The only engineering structures on the route are the bridges over various streams as well as the Scitico River and the Watershops Pond.

passenger traffic

The passenger trains on the railway line usually went beyond East Hartford to Hartford. Shortly after the takeover by New York & New England in 1881, four pairs of passenger trains and another, which only ran between Springfield and Melrose and on to Rockville, drove on the route. Shortly thereafter, the offer was reduced and in 1893 two pairs of trains were still running the entire route on working days. In the mid-1910s, the second train to Hartford was dispensed with, only two trains left on working days in the direction of Springfield. After the end of the First World War, the second train in this direction was also canceled. The 1929 timetable now only shows an evening train from Hartford to Hazardville and, in the opposite direction, an early morning train from East Longmeadow to Hartford. Shortly afterwards, passenger traffic ended on the route.

Sources and further reading

Individual evidence

↑ see timetables of the route from the years mentioned.

literature

Ronald D. Karr: The Rail Lines of Southern New England. A Handbook of Railroad History. Branch Line Press, Pepperell, MA 1995. ISBN 0-942147-02-2
Mike Walker: Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. New England & Maritime Canada. (2nd edition) SPV-Verlag, Dunkirk (GB), 2010. ISBN 1-874745-12-9

[1] see timetables of the route from the years mentioned.