 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Central New England Railway" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | |
 CNE system map,c. 1901 | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Reporting mark | CNE |
| Locale | Connecticut Massachusetts New York |
| Dates of operation | 1871–1927 |
| Successor | New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)standard gauge |
TheCentral New England Railway (reporting markCNE)[1] was arailroad fromHartford, Connecticut, andSpringfield, Massachusetts, west across northernConnecticut and across theHudson River on thePoughkeepsie Bridge toMaybrook, New York. It was part of thePoughkeepsie Bridge Route, an alliance between railroads for a passenger route fromWashington toBoston, and was acquired by theNew York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (the New Haven) in 1904. The New Haven ran the CNE as a separate company until finally merging it in 1927. The vast majority of the system was abandoned by the 1930s and 1940s. Surviving portions of the Central New England Railway are operated by theCentral New England Railroad and theHousatonic Railroad.
The Connecticut Western Railroad was chartered June 25, 1868 to run fromHartford, Connecticut, west to theNew York state line, where it would meet theDutchess & Columbia Railroad just east ofMillerton, New York. The line was completed December 21, 1871; the previous month the company had leased the easternmost section of the D&C to gain access to theNew York & Harlem Railroad at Millerton. The only branch was a short one in Connecticut, south intoCollinsville, which would not be completed until December, 1874. The Connecticut Western became bankrupt on April 27, 1880, and on March 31, 1881 it was reorganized as the Hartford & Connecticut Western Railroad.
In the meantime, theRhinebeck & Connecticut Railroad was organized inNew York on June 29, 1870 to build fromRhinecliff on theHudson River east to theConnecticut state line to join the Connecticut Western. The line opened to the public on April 14, 1875, running from Rhinecliff east toBoston Corners, New York. From Boston Corners to the state line, the R&C obtainedtrackage rights over the track of thePoughkeepsie & Eastern Railroad, which junctioned with the Connecticut Western and Dutchess and Columbia at the state line.
On July 1, 1882 the Hartford & Connecticut Western bought theRhinebeck & Connecticut Railroad, giving it a line fromHartford to theHudson River. ThePoughkeepsie, Hartford & Boston Railroad, the successor to the Poughkeepsie & Eastern, went bankrupt in the 1880s, and on January 26, 1884 the H&CW outright bought the line east of Boston Corners that it had operated under trackage rights.
Over the years, several plans had been made for afixed span across theHudson River south ofAlbany to replace the numerouscar float operations. One of the most persistent was originally chartered in 1868 as theHudson Highland Suspension Bridge Company, and would have crossed fromAnthony's Nose toFort Clinton, now roughly the site of theBear Mountain Bridge.
The proposal that was eventually built was thePoughkeepsie Bridge atPoughkeepsie. ThePoughkeepsie Bridge Company was chartered in June 1871 to build the bridge, and the first train crossed the bridge on December 29, 1888. The Hudson Connecting Railroad was chartered in 1887 to build southwest from the bridge, and about the same time the Poughkeepsie & Connecticut Railroad was chartered to continue the line northeast from Poughkeepsie. The bridge company had hoped to acquire thePoughkeepsie, Hartford & Boston Railroad, but was unable to, and so chartered the P&C to run parallel, ending at the Hartford & Connecticut Western Railroad atSilvernails, NY. The connections were not completed until 1889, and on July 22 the two approaches merged to form the Central New England & Western Railroad. That same year the CNE&W leased the Hartford and Connecticut Western, giving it a route fromHartford all the way across theHudson River toMaybrook andCampbell Hall, New York. Maybrook/Campbell Hall soon became a major junction point for many railroads transferring cars to the CNE&W. The Delaware & New England Railroad was also formed in 1889 as aholding company to own the CNE&W andPoughkeepsie Bridge Company.
In April 1890 the CNE&W chartered theDutchess County Railroad to run southeast from the east end of the bridge in Poughkeepsie toHopewell Junction, the west end of theNew York & New England Railroad (NY&NE) at theNewburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad. The line opened May 8, 1892, giving the NY&NE a route to the bridge.
TheReading Company (RDG) bought the CNE&W and Poughkeepsie Bridge Company from D&NE in January 1892, extending RDG's influence toNew England via thePennsylvania, Poughkeepsie & Boston Railroad. The two companies merged on August 1, 1892 to form the Philadelphia, Reading & New England Railroad (PR&NE). RDG proved unable to handle its new acquisitions, and PR&NE defaulted on its interest payments in May 1893. The final reorganization came on January 12, 1899 with the formation of theCentral New England Railway (CNE).
The original Connecticut Western had from the start been interested in building a branch fromTariffville, Connecticut, to Springfield, Massachusetts and the CNE finally began it in 1899. Thwarted by theNew York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad's (NH) surreptitious grab of a parcel of land known as Montague Farm and legal maneuvers thereafter, theEast Granby and Suffield Railroad had to be incorporated in 1901 to build a loop around the farm and rejoin the branch which connected with theBoston & Albany Railroad atAgawam Junction inWest Springfield, Massachusetts. From West Springfield toSpringfield,trackage rights were obtained over the B&A. The branch opened on September 12, 1902. Less than six months after the Springfield extension debuted via the loop, the Montague property was suddenly obtainable for a pittance. CNE then completed the last 313 feet of the original line, which it had to charter separately as the Short Line Railroad Company, and passenger trains began to run via the farm on March 9, 1903. The loop was retained briefly for freight use but was ended by May 1904. NH acquired financial control of CNE that same year, mostly for the Poughkeepsie Bridge and western connection at Maybrook that it would soon develop to its fullest potential. CNE was allowed to operate separately, but the lease of theDutchess County Railroad was assigned to NH on December 1 to allow its access to the bridge. TheNewburgh, Dutchess & Connecticut Railroad andPoughkeepsie & Eastern Railway (P&E) acquired by the NH in 1905 and 1907, were both assigned to the CNE and merged into it June 25, 1907 (along with theDutchess County Railroad). The ND&C gave CNE a route fromMillerton southwest to theHudson River atBeacon, intersecting the Dutchess County atHopewell Junction, and P&E ran parallel to the main line fromBoston Corners southwest toPoughkeepsie. By 1915 the former NY&NE fromHopewell Junction toDanbury, Connecticut, would also be transferred to CNE.
In 1910 the Poughkeepsie & Connecticut main line was abandoned in favor of the parallelPoughkeepsie & Eastern Railway fromPine Plains, New York, southwest toSalt Point, where the two lines had crossed. The P&E used trackage of theNewburgh, Dutchess & Connecticut Railroad (also merged into the CNE in 1907) from Pine Plains southwest toStissing, NY. Connections were built at both ends of the abandonment.
By the early 1920s, the New York, New Haven and Hartford had acquired access to the CNE lines. However, the NYNHH made limited use of the opportunity for long-distance east-west integration of the CNE lines with the NYNHH network. Passengers wishing for making east-west trips between the Hudson Valley and eastern Connecticut or Boston would need to take a Campbell Hall - Waterbury - Hartford train, and then transfer to one of the latter two stations to a Waterbury - Hartford - Boston train.[2]
In 1921 theMassachusetts part of the Springfield Branch was abandoned after less than 20 years of operation. The former P&E was abandoned fromAncram Lead Mines (NY) northeast toBoston Corners in 1925; along with the concurrent abandonment of part of the formerNewburgh, Dutchess & Connecticut Railroad to the south, the old Poughkeepsie and Connecticut Railroad andRhinebeck & Connecticut Railroad was the only remaining route of three fromPine Plains toConnecticut.
On January 1, 1927 CNE was finally merged into NH. The New Haven ended all passenger service on the CNE lines that year, with the exception of the segment running fromCopake, New York, southwest toStanfordville,Pleasant Valley andPoughkeepsie, which ran at least to January, 1932.[3][4]
CNE had the steepest grades of the various east-west routes of the NH; most bridge traffic was routed via the former NY&NE toHopewell Junction. In 1932 the formerRhinebeck & Connecticut Railroad was abandoned from Copake (northwest of Boston Corners) southeast to the state line, cutting the CNE in two. The NH had removed CNE tracks from Waterbury west to Southbury in 1937, a critical link in any east-west rail itinerary between the mid-Hudson Valley (Campbell Hall and Poughkeepsie) and eastern Connecticut (Willimantic).[5][failed verification]
More abandonments came during 1938. The main line was closed fromEast Canaan east toTariffville, along with the rest of the Springfield Branch. The main line and former Rhinebeck & Connecticut were abandoned northeast and east fromPoughkeepsie andRhinecliff, as well as the parallel P&E and the main line from the state line east toLakeville. In 1940 the main line from East Canaan toCanaan was closed, and in 1965 the line between Lakeville and Canaan was abandoned.
The Hartford & Connecticut Western Railroad was owned by NH through the CNE, but was not merged by the mid-1930s when NH became bankrupt. On December 31, 1937 the H&CW filed a reorganization plan. After a long reorganization, H&CW was merged into the NH on September 18, 1947 (along with theProvidence, Warren and Bristol Railroad andOld Colony Railroad); by then all of the H&CW but the easternmost section had been abandoned.
At the time of the 1969 merger of the NH intoPenn Central, all that remained of the original CNE was the westernmost section, fromMaybrook over thePoughkeepsie Bridge and southeast along theDutchess County Railroad to the former NY&NE as well as the easternmost portion to the northern part ofBloomfield, CT, fromHartford. The westernmost section was part of theMaybrook Branch, continuing east over former NY&NE and other lines toDerby. With the May 8, 1974 closure of the Poughkeepsie Bridge, the Maybrook Branch was abandoned west of Hopewell Junction. In 1976 the remaining line became part ofConrail. TheConnecticut Department of Transportation later acquired it and in January 1999 theCentral New England Railroad began operations on the 8.7 mile (14 km) Griffins Industrial Track. TheHousatonic Railroad operates a short segment of the original CNE line in Canaan to serve a limestone quarry east of its mainline and the preservedCanaan Union Depot.[6]
Media related toCentral New England Railway at Wikimedia Commons
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
