On Board the Washboards

[Tom Curtin]

To answer another question above, the last runs of the 4400s were on the New Canaan branch around 1982 (?). The interesting thing about this was that those cars had been stored out of service for several years at that point, and a pair of the cars were selected and reconditioned to cover the "Dink" shuttle. This was done to free up the pair of M2s that had been covering that service.

I believe the last of them disappeared from main line service in the fall of 1975.

[Tom Curtin]

I recall --- and rode --- washboards working the Danbury-Norwalk shuttle in the 50s. They showed up in this service around late summer 1954, I recall (I was a young kid at the time and not recording dates as zealously as I did later). At the time there were two cars making a morning round trip and an afternoon round trip each weekday. Beginning in 1956 there was a single car making one round trip. Around Danbury this service got locally dubbed "The Toonerville" (not so dubbed by anybody on the railroad, just by local residents!). I would sometimes hear a railroader call it the "Dink" although I understand that name rightfully belonged to the New Canaan shuttle. This MU car shuttle was replaced by an RDC around the end of 1960. The MUs were a fun ride on the Danbury line, kind of like an old country interurban.