New Haven – Shelburne Junction railway line
The railway line New Haven Shelburne Junction is a railway line in Connecticut and Massachusetts ( United States ). It is around 152 kilometers long and connects the cities of New Haven , Hamden , Cheshire , Plainville , Farmington , Avon , Simsbury , Westfield , Northampton and Conway , among others . Most of the normal-gauge line has been closed. In the urban area of Plainville, Pan Am Railways still operate connecting goods. In the urban area of Westfield, the Pioneer Valley Railroad operates freight and serves some industrial customers in the north of the city. The section from today's end of the track on Root Road in Westfield to the former Southampton station has not been officially closed, but has already been dismantled. A large part of the disused route has been converted into cycling and hiking trails.
history
prehistory
On July 4, 1825, construction began on the Farmington Canal, an artificial waterway that was to run from New Haven to Northampton, Massachusetts and was largely funded by the City of New Haven. Until then, New Haven was cut off from shipping on the Connecticut River, as the mouth of the river was further east. The canal was supposed to divert trade from Hartford and instead bring it through New Haven. The canal therefore ran a long way west of Hartford, a route that was chosen on purpose. In 1829 the canal from New Haven to Farmington was completed and in 1835 it led to Northampton. The hitherto longest canal in New England was a losing business from the start, and the operator went bankrupt in 1836. The situation was made worse when a continuous rail link was opened from New Haven to Springfield and further north in 1839. In the early 1840s, plans began to convert the canal into a railway line, which was approved by the regulatory authority in 1846. In May of that year, the Farmington Canal Railroad Company was founded, which was renamed New Haven and Northampton Railroad in May 1848 .
Construction and opening
With the start of construction for the railway, the canal was shut down. On January 11, 1848, the first scheduled trains ran from New Haven to Plainville, after the line had already been completed on New Year's Eve of the previous year. From New Haven to Centerville, some of the tracks did not run along the former canal, but on the Cheshire Turnpike, the country road to Cheshire (now Route 10). The operator was the New York and New Haven Railroad , which had leased the route from the canal company on the opening day. In March 1850 she opened the extension to Granby. Passenger traffic initially only took place as far as Simsbury and then via a branch line to Tariffville. Only with the further extension of the route was passenger traffic between Simsbury and Granby started.
The Hartford and New Haven Railroad operated a main line further east and wanted to block the access of New York & New Haven to Massachusetts. It was agreed that the New Haven & Northampton trains should end in Granby and that there would be no continuous train service. Now small railway companies were founded that built short sections north of Granby. The Farmington Valley Railroad was founded in Connecticut in May 1852 and was supposed to build from Granby to the state border, but was bought by New Haven & Northampton in May 1854. The Hampden Railroad Company, founded in 1850, was to build a railway line from the border to Westfield and finally the Northampton and Westfield Railroad Company, also founded in 1850, from Westfield to Northampton . The latter two companies merged in 1853 to form the Hampshire and Hampden Railroad Company
The entire extension from Granby to Northampton went into operation on July 1, 1856. New Haven & Northampton leased the Massachusetts line from Hampshire & Hampden and finally bought it in 1862. Operator of the section in Massachusetts was not the New York and New Haven Railroad, but the New Haven & Northampton itself, as the lease was not extended to this section. On June 30, 1869, the lease agreement also ended on the New Haven – Granby section, so that New Haven & Northampton now operated the entire route alone and also introduced the continuous train service.
The unfavorable route in New Haven on the country road caused numerous accidents with road vehicles. In 1880, the railway line was therefore relocated to an off-road route. In July 1881, New Haven & Northampton finally opened the extension to Shelburne Junction, from where a right of use for the Greenfield – Troy railway to North Adams , or from 1887 only to Shelburne Falls , was agreed. On April 1, 1887, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (NH) leased the entire railway line and from that point on ran operations on it.
Shutdown
The traffic on the railway line was never very heavy. There was hardly any continuous traffic, as the main lines running parallel were better developed. When material was needed during the First World War and more and more passengers switched to their own vehicles, the NH ended passenger traffic between Conway and Shelburne Falls in 1917, and between Northampton and Conway the following year. In 1925 the section from South Deerfield to Shelburne Junction was closed. Around the same time, passenger traffic ended between New Haven and Plainville and between Farmington and Westfield. From 1928, finally, only goods traffic was operated between Plainville and Farmington and Westfield and Northampton.
In 1943 the railway company also closed the route from Northampton to South Deerfield. In 1969 Penn Central took over the railway line and closed the line between Easthampton and Northampton in the same year. The tracks on the entire route were so worn that in 1974 the US Department of Transportation declared the entire route from New Haven to Westfield as excess trackage and limited the speed. In 1976 the line from Simsbury to Westfield was also closed. Around this time the track connection to the main line in New Haven was cut and all freight customers along the line had to be served via Plainville. Also in 1976, Conrail took over the operation of the line between Avon and Simsbury with state subsidies.
In the early 1980s, scheduled traffic between New Haven and Cheshire ended. Conrail sold the New Haven – Avon route to the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1982 and closed the Avon – Simsbury section. In the same year, the Pioneer Valley Railroad took over the Massachusetts section from Westfield to Easthampton, but in 1983 shut down the route between Southampton and Easthampton. Between the Root Road in Westfield and Southampton the scheduled traffic ended around the turn of the millennium and the tracks were then dismantled, but this section has not yet been officially closed.
With Boston & Maine, the Connecticut route was transferred to Guilford Transportation in 1983 , which has been operating under the name Pan Am Railways since 2006 . This shut down the New Haven – Cheshire line in 1987, and the Plainville – Avon section in 1991. At the turn of the millennium, the section from Cheshire followed to about three kilometers from Plainville.
Route description
The route runs from New Haven to Northampton on the route of the former Farmington Canal and does not have any major inclines or tunnels. It starts at New Haven Union Station and turns north. The section in downtown New Haven has been almost completely built over. From Temple Street to Cheshire is the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail , a cycle path on the former railway line. The route runs north through Hamden and Cheshire. On the following section from Cheshire to Milldale, which was only closed at the turn of the millennium, the tracks have been dismantled, but the cycle path has not yet been completed. The Farmington Canal Heritage Trail does not begin again until Milldale and continues on the railway line to Southington.
Shortly thereafter, the railway line crosses under Interstate 84 and north of this bridge the tracks that are still used in connecting traffic begin. These lead to the Plainville junction station. The Waterbury – Providence railway line is still crossed here at the same level. The connecting curve towards Providence is long and only joins the railway line about 500 meters north of the intersection. The direct connecting curve from Providence to New Haven has been dismantled, so that the trains that serve the freight connections in the south of Plainville have to shunt here. To the north of Plainville station, the tracks end at the level of the airfield and the line that has now been closed again lies fallow until Farmington.
In Farmington, a branch line to New Hartford once branched off . From here, the railway line was again converted into a cycle and hiking trail. It continues north through Avon and Simsbury to Granby and across the border to Massachusetts. After a few kilometers through Southwick, the railway line reaches Westfield. The cycle path ends on Shaker Road just before the city limits of Westfield and the route lies fallow until Westfield. In Westfield the railway line crosses the Westfield River and immediately afterwards the Worcester – Albany railway line at the same level . The track crossing has been dismantled, only the connecting curve from Albany to the north is still in operation.
This is where the tracks of the Pioneer Valley Railroad begin, but the main line is the former branch to Holyoke . The line to the freight connections in the north of Westfield is operated as a branch line. The tracks are dismantled from Root Road, but the line is not officially closed to Southampton. From Easthampton, the disused route to the former Northampton Union Station was converted into the Manhan Rail Trail . In Northampton, the route touches the Springfield – East Northfield railway line , to which it runs parallel to South Deerfield and almost within sight. However, Interstate 91 was built on the route and State Road and Greenfield Road in South Deerfield were built. North of South Deerfield, the route turns northwest and passes under Interstate 91 and shortly thereafter reaches the Deerfield River, on the south bank of which it runs to the end of the route at Conway. North of Conway station, the line joins the Greenfield – Troy line at the Shelburne Junction junction . There was no stop here, the trains went on without stopping to Shelburne Falls.
passenger traffic
In 1851 two pairs of trains ran on the route from New Haven to Simsbury and on to Tariffville, as well as a pair of trains from New Haven to Farmington and on to Collinsville via another branch. After the extension to Northampton, the two pairs of trains that had previously operated to Tariffville went to Granby, where a change had to be made in the direction of Northampton. Two pairs of trains drove from there to the new end point of the route, but only one each with a direct connection to and from New Haven. Another pair of trains between Westfield and Northampton completed the offer on the new section. With the opening of the branch line from Northampton to Williamsburg from February 1868, the trains from the main line initially continued there. After management between New Haven and Granby was transferred to New Haven & Northampton, three pairs of trains ran from New Haven to Williamsburg on July 1, 1869 without changing at Granby, and another pair of trains from Westfield to Williamsburg.
This situation did not change until 1881 when the main line to Shelburne Junction was extended. Three pairs of trains now ran on weekdays from New Haven to North Adams and from 1887 to Shelburne Falls, as well as another from New Haven to Northampton and on to Williamsburg. An additional train with no counter-train ran from Westfield to Shelburne Falls on weekdays. In addition, there was a daily pair of trains from Simsbury to Northampton, which means that a train also ran on the route on Sundays.
Sunday traffic was discontinued at the end of the 1890s. At the same time, a pair of trains was reintroduced that drove from New Haven via Farmington to Collinsville and on to New Hartford. Only two pairs of trains left on the entire route. The third train only ran between New Haven and Northampton. The Simsbury – Northampton train pair was shortened to the Westfield – Northampton section. In the summer, an additional pair of trains ran from Northampton to Shelburne Falls.
The offer was changed in the early 1910s. Only in the direction of New Haven there was a continuous train from Shelburne Falls to New Haven. In the opposite direction, the train stayed in Northampton. Two other train pairs drove between New Haven and Northampton, one between Northampton and Shelburne Falls and one between Westfield and South Deerfield and on to Turners Falls. In 1917/18 passenger traffic between Northampton and Shelburne Falls was discontinued and in 1920 only two train pairs New Haven – Northampton and one train pair Westfield – Williamsburg drove on the route.
After passenger traffic had been discontinued on a large part of the route, two weekday trains ran on the route in 1926 on the Hartford – Winsted route, running between Plainville and Farmington over the railway line. A mixed train also ran from Westfield to Northampton. In 1928 this sparse traffic also ended.
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