Middletown CT

[Mr rt]

All, I found the comments, particularly the history very interesting & thank you for sharing them.
1. South of Middletown: In the 60s I used to here & see NH freight going up & down the Valley with a car or two at that time.
2. Portland: (also see "Providence & Worcester" section of this site for more detail)
a. Midstate on Murphy Road is the big customer that provided P&W a lot of cars until their roof collapsed from too much snow. Those trains used the Valley line from Middletown to Hartford, then Middletown to NH when the ROW condition North got too bad.
b. There is another possible new customer in Portland ... Red Tech on the north side of the ROW just a little east of Midstate
c. Standard Napp was a firm that made packaging machines. That plant is now a personal storage facility.
They had inside rail service, I think one cars worth.
d. When business was brisk there was a engine stored north of the Portland yard near what is now Valley Oil in a one stall barn.
e. The Airline line that used to continue east of Portland to East Hampton, then Colchester & Willimantic, now terminates at the new freight station across the street from the Anderson Feed store.
f. My great great grandfather moved from NY City to Haddam Neck via the NH & got off at Cobalt (just before East Hampton).
h. I went to the East Hampton school system. The High School W-A-S in the center of town & I used to see infrequent freight rumble thru town.
I. How about some input of the rail service from Middletown to Berlin. For many years the rails still crossed the highway going north-west.

[YamaOfParadise]

From my work on putting together a digital map of historical railroad ROWs on google's mapengine (which is now being transferred to openstreetmap), the most I gleaned on the Middletown-Berlin line is that the original builder was the New Britain and Middletown Railroad, and that the NH referred to it as the Berlin Branch. It certainly seems like it was abandoned quite a long time ago, though, as the ROW is a lot harder to find on satellite imagery or topographical maps.

[Mr rt]

Leaving the Middletown yard and going NW the line crossed Route 3 between the towns of Cromwell & Westfield.
On Route 3 the road rose to cross the tracks & the line continued on a built up ROW thru a masht area.
Beyond that has become a box store shopping area which has distroyed all traces of the ROW.
I have never looked for it again to the NW as it proceeded to Berlin where the NH/Hartford line has a station.

[TomNelligan]

A short stretch of the Berlin-Middletown branch is still in place at Berlin station as a (now disused?) industrial spur. A further mile or so of the line remained in use through the 1960s to reach what is now the Absa Abloy industrial plant up the hill, and some disconnected trackage is still in place at the latter location.

[csor2010]

The Assa Abloy spur is actually a different line known as the Emhart Spur that branches off the main north of Route 9. The portion west of Christian Lane has been recently put back into service. The Berlin-Middletown line branched off at the depot and swung northeast, crossing the (now flooded) clay pits. East of the landfill on Deming Rd., you can follow the ROW as it is now used for sanitary sewer line going to the treatment plant in Cromwell. The Berlin-East Berlin portion was abandoned circa 1940, so less remains in terms of structures along this segment. From East Berlin to the current EOT was abandoned circa 1965 and has some bridges remaining. A small portion of the ROW is used as a bike path around the West Lake area of Middletown.

[Brendan]

The Burlin line, when originally built, before the NH got it, was the first line into Middletown and was an electrified rail line, with third rail down the middle like a Lionel train set! I have traced all of it's route on Google maps and some of it's right-of-way is now roads and driveways but one can make it all out, if you know were to look. Down in Middletown, the current 3 track yard under the RT66 bridge was not the end. It continued under the Valley line in a tunnel that is now filled in and then under the air line were the south bound lane of Rt 9 is, and then down to the water by were harbor park is now. The track that comes off the valley line and goes down into the yard was added by the NH after it took it over. That yard also once sported and turn table and round house.

[Cosmo]

Some interesting developments in this area:
The Valley Line south out of town was cleared back, (a bit more than just some simple brushing) and the ROW is now more visible than I have ever seen it from Rt. 9. The cutting appears to go all the way down past the last crossing south in Middletown to the last crossing before the Kleen Energy plant but stops well shy of the washout(S) between there and the Maromas plant.
The washouts themselves do not appear to have been touched, but portions of the line closer to Rt. 9 appear to have seen a ballast (dirt?) regulator. There DO appear to be some sections of new ballast down that way as well, but again, coulk have been done before this spring.
There is also a report of the Maromas plant switching to oil recently due to a spike in NG prices, and a RUMOR that they may be considering reopening the line for service by tank-trains as the alternative- trucking, is rather more expensive.
Irregardless, reports of recent activity on the line seem to be holding up under scrutiny. Has anyone else in the area seen this activity first-hand, or can anyone else get over there to verify the extent of said activity?