A safe formerly belonging to the N D & C RR is now in the Asst. Supt's. office in Danbury.

For many years, freight was ferried across the river from Newburgh to Fishkill Landing, and the N Y & N E was a busy freight road. Today freight is routed via the Poughkeepsie Bridge, over the old route to Hawleyville and then down to the Shelton loop to Waterbury and Hartford. The former N Y & N E between Hawleyville and Waterbury was abandoned in 1948.

The N Y & N E covered a large territory, but it had no outlet into New York City, and to run trains there, it had to use the N Y, N H & H tracks from Willimantic or Hartford. On November 18, 1884, the New York and New England placed the New England Limited in service between Boston and New York, leaving both terminals at 3:00 p.m. The running time was six hours and was routed N Y & N E to Willimantic, then Air Line and New Haven to New York. This train was succeeded by the famous Ghost Train in 1891 and ran until 1895. This train was also known as the White Train, as the cars were painted white.

About 1910 the N Y, N H & H ran two trains a day each way, from New York to Boston via Waterbury and Bridgeport, using the N Y & N E route. The trains were numbered 45, 46, 55 and 56.

Anxious to obtain more revenue on their own line, the N Y & N E tried to arrange to run its trains over its own line to Brewster, NY and then over the Harlem RR to New York. According to information received a number of years ago from a reliable old timer, there was some sort of an agreement between the N Y, N H & H and the Harlem RR that forestalled the move.

About 1891, the N. Y & N E, in connection with the Long Island RR. The New England Terminal Co. Ferry and the Housatonic RR, (Danbury & Norwalk Div.) placed the Long Island & Eastern States Express in service, Brooklyn to Boston. This train ran from Brooklyn to Oyster Bay on the LIRR, ferried across Long Island Sound by the New England Terminal Co. to Wilson Point, to Hawleyville via the Danbury & Norwalk Div. of the Housatonic then to Boston via the NY & NE RR.

The Schedule:

The above schedule is copied from a public timetable of the Housatonic RR dated Sept. 21, 1891. The train ran for only a year, did not show on the 1892 timetable, but trains are shown running over the same route leaving Boston at 12 noon, due Brooklyn 8:44 p.m.; leaving Brooklyn 9:55 am, due Boston 6:30 p.m.

Another short lived service was the hourly trains the N Y & N E put on around the late 80's between New Britain and Hartford. At the same time the N Y, N H & H put on duplicate service between New Britain and Hartford via Berlin. After running this duplicate service for a while, both roads called off their dogs.

About 1898, the third rail, known as the power rail, was installed between Hartford and Bristol and between New Britain and Berlin. At this time, there was double track between Hartford and Bristol. One of the tracks was turned over for the use of the third rail cars and the other track for steam trains, both being operated under single track rules.

[[ CLICK ]] The third rail cars ran every hour from Hartford to Bristol and every half hour from Hartford to New Britain. The time card meeting points were Newington Siding and Cooks. The tracks crossed over at New Britain. The fare was divided into zones, 10 cents anywhere in the zone between New Britain and Hartford and 10 cents to stations in the zone between New Britain and Bristol. The zone tickets were called dinkey tickets by the public.

As the live, or power, rail was placed between the two running rails, there were many animals killed by coming into contact with the live rail. About 1907, President Mellen planned to have the power rail removed and overhead trolley wire installed. He also planned to run the cars on the railroad from Bristol to Parkville and then on the streets through the business district of Hartford. It seems that the trolleys in Hartford used the grooved instead of the T rail and wouldn't change. There were many arguments on the subject, but Hartford wouldn't change and the plan was abandoned. Steam service was reinstated and ran for a number of years on the same schedule as the former third rail cars. Later double track operation was resumed between Hartford and Bristol.

The Rockville RR, (Rockville Branch) was opened, Rockville to Vernon, August 10, 1863. For many years there was a colored conductor named Henry Verness, who worked on this road. He first worked in the freight house in Rockville and later was employed as a brakeman and worked up to be a passenger conductor. He was well liked and highly respected by all who knew or worked with him and when he died, his body lay in state in the townhall in Rockville.

When the N Y & N E assumed control of the Rockville RR an agreement was made that Henry could hold his job as conductor as long as he wanted it, and when the N Y & N E, known at that time as the New England RR, was leased to the N Y, N H & H May 10, 1898, the same agreement was in effect. One day Mr. Mellen saw Henry and ordered him discharged because he was colored. When Mr. Francis Maxwell, an influential Citizen of Rockville, heard about Henry, he notified Mr. Mellen that Henry would have to be put back on his job, or the people of Rockville would take back their railroad. Henry went back to work. He retired in 1909 after giving many years of faithful service to the railroad.

The Connecticut Central RR, (Springfield Branch) was opened January 1876 between East Hartford and Springfield. A branch line was built and opened in 1876 from West St. Rockville, to connect with the Connecticut Central at Melrose.

The Norwich and Worcester RR was built in 1840 and was leased to the N Y & N E in 1869, thus giving the railroad a boat connection from Allyn's Point to New York. This road was later extended to Groton.

The South Manchester RR was owned and operated for many years by the Cheney Brothers of silk-mill fame.

May 1, 1892, the Meriden, Waterbury and Connecticut River RR was leased to the N Y & N E who operated it a few years and then abandoned it for financial reasons.

The N Y & N E was an expensive railroad to build and like most of the cross country railroads in this section, it was also expensive to operate and maintain on account of its many steep grades.

There were rumors at one time about building a new line from Hopewell Jct. to a point near Gaylordsville on the Berkshire in order to eliminate the heavy grade from Hopewell Jct. to Reynoldsville Summit, but the rumors died down and December 1904 work was started on double tracking from Stormville to Towners and from there to Danbury in the spring of 1905. The double track was completed to Danbury, Wildman St. in 1907. The old Housatonic and N Y & N E single track lines between

The tunnel on the old Housatonic at Hawleyville was never used after the new route was built, but the tunnel at Hawleyville on the old N Y & N E was used by trains to Waterbury via Sandy Hook until 1948 when the entire line from Waterbury to SS 201 was abandoned.

About the time the work was being done on the west end, the road from Waterbury to Bristol, including the building of Terryville tunnel, was being double tracked. Much of the route between those points was changed. After this work was completed, the old New York and New England had, with the exception of the road between Columbia and Vernon, a double track line from Boston to Waterbury.