55 Years ago today -Floods of '55

krispy wrote:When I was a kid (early '80s) there was a small sign stuck in the embankment opposite the platform at Branchville, just at the southern edge of where the station building is. It stated that where the sign was marks the highpoint of the water from one of those '55 floods. I'd still look up at it, until it disappeared (wish I had a camera then). Both of my folks were kids that year, one was in New Canaan, the other in Silvermine, and they had some wild stories about those storms. We'd pass some bridge in downtown Norwalk and they would relate about someone getting swept away in their car, or something along those lines. Saddest was the story about what happened in the cemetary in Springdale, when the flood washed away or exposed a section where there were alot of children interred...

I remember the same sign! We must be about the same age, fwiw. I think the sign disappeared around the same time they put in the high level platform which was I suppose what, 1991 or so?

The saddest story I remember as a kid was about the couple who were swept away with their car when the bridge over the Saugatuck on Diamond Hill Road in Redding (behind the Mark Twain Library) gave way. They were on their way home from a dinner party and had a couple of kids waiting at home for them...

Back on the subject of rails, I know I've seen somewhere-- maybe in an old copy of the Ridgefield Press?-- a picture of Pat McGinnis himself walking a section of washed-out track south of Georgetown.

krispy wrote:When I was a kid (early '80s) there was a small sign stuck in the embankment opposite the platform at Branchville, just at the southern edge of where the station building is. It stated that where the sign was marks the highpoint of the water from one of those '55 floods.

Derby station also had an informal '55 flood marker, a painted line on the south wall of the building with a note identifying it as the high water mark. It was five or six feet off the ground. It lasted until the station was sold in the 1970s and refurbished as an office.

chnhrr wrote:Tom you’re probably right. That should have read October 1955 and not October 1, 1955. Here is a picture at Norwalk (photo courtesy Life Magazine).

Do you know the locaton of that photo? I thought I knew every inch of the Danbury branch but that one throws me

Tom Curtin wrote:

chnhrr wrote:Tom you’re probably right. That should have read October 1955 and not October 1, 1955. Here is a picture at Norwalk (photo courtesy Life Magazine).

Do you know the locaton of that photo? I thought I knew every inch of the Danbury branch but that one throws me

Could it be a view looking north near the north end of the tunnel under Wall Street in downtown Norwalk? If you look closely just to the left of the catenary support in the foreground you can see what looks like the side of a plate girder bridge, which would be the bridge over the Norwalk River at that point. Being close to the river would explain the undermined catenary support in the background. I recall being told by one of my grade school teachers that a couple of factories downtown collapsed into the Norwalk in October '55, which would account for there being buildings where there should just be an open space for the river.

eddiebehr wrote: The October, 1955 flooding, much less, but bad enough coming only two months after Hurricane Diane, was caused by Hurricane Hazel which went up the Hudson Valley and into Canada. That's a very unusual path and there was serious loss of life and destruction in an area that is not accustomed to that type of weather. In Hurricane Hazel, the State of Maine detoured from Lowell to Framingham and South in broad daylight due to highwater either of the B & M or NYNH & H. South Boston sent either one of two DL-109s light to Lowell to handle the S of Me.

You're off by a year Eddie --- Hurricane Hazel was October 1954. The Oct. 55 flood was not caused by any hurricane, rather an extremely heavy rain.

BTW for those interested in hurricane history this web site http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/hi ... html#hazel is extremely interesting. It gives dates and paths

Ridgefielder wrote: Could it be a view looking north near the north end of the tunnel under Wall Street in downtown Norwalk? If you look closely just to the left of the catenary support in the foreground you can see what looks like the side of a plate girder bridge, which would be the bridge over the Norwalk River at that point.

I doubt it. The photo looks too rural --- too many trees, and what could be a barn. I keep staring and staring at it and can't place it!!!

Tom Curtin wrote:

Ridgefielder wrote: Could it be a view looking north near the north end of the tunnel under Wall Street in downtown Norwalk? If you look closely just to the left of the catenary support in the foreground you can see what looks like the side of a plate girder bridge, which would be the bridge over the Norwalk River at that point.

I doubt it. The photo looks too rural --- too many trees, and what could be a barn. I keep staring and staring at it and can't place it!!!

Well it seems likely that it is somewhere where the tracks are quite close to the river, because of the undermined catenary support. Maybe somewhere around where Perry Ave. crosses the tracks just south of the Merritt? I know the river was put into a man-made channel through there after the '55 flood.

So tough to tell though with all the changes to the landscape over the years.

Sorry All

I don’t really know the location. The caption on the website claims Norwalk. I’m originally from Old Greenwich so I don’t know Norwalk. Life Magazine also stated that the picture at Stamford was October 1st, but this was an error. Could this be the branch line to New Canaan?

See link

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l? ... s%3Disch:1

Ridgefielder wrote:Well it seems likely that it is somewhere where the tracks are quite close to the river, because of the undermined catenary support. Maybe somewhere around where Perry Ave. crosses the tracks just south of the Merritt? I know the river was put into a man-made channel through there after the '55 flood.

So tough to tell though with all the changes to the landscape over the years.

'Tis a puzzlement, that's for sure!! If I could read the number on the catenary pole that would solve it.

It's unquestionably the Danbury line --- only this line had those I-beam poles. New Canaan branch was completely different.

The tracks are pretty close to the river from Norwalk all the way to Branchville --- except for a stretch between Honey Hill Road (north of Cannondale) and Georgetown, so that kind of visible damage could occur almost anywhere along there

I vividly remember the hurricane and flooding of late August, 1955. At age 11, I was a passenger returning from Boston to New York City on the "SENATOR", which was marooned for several hours at Providence due to flooding. As no telephones were working in the station, numerous people came on board to use the radiotelephone in the observation parlor car. After many hours' delay, we proceeded via an alternate routing (the "Shore Line" was flooded farther down the line) to New Haven and New York City. I don't remember the precise routing, but it may have been via Worcester. (Does anyone remember these details?)

A few days earlier, I was precluded from taking the "ERIE LIMITED" from Cochecton, NY to Jersey City due to flood-caused cancellation of traffic on the Erie mainline, when returning to New York City from summer camp. The preceding day, I actually saw and heard the North Church steeple blow down in Boston.

I had just come home from Korea and had mustered out at Ft. Dix. I got as far as New York City as the storm hit. After a couple of days I got a trip to Albany and then to Boston by I recall ,the B&M or the NYC. All together it took 3 days to finally get home.

RRBUFF wrote:I had just come home from Korea and had mustered out at Ft. Dix. I got as far as New York City as the storm hit. After a couple of days I got a trip to Albany and then to Boston by I recall ,the B&M or the NYC. All together it took 3 days to finally get home.

If you left from Albany it would have been the NYC (Boston & Albany) but you would have detoured over the B & M to North Station due to some major washouts on the NYC.

As an adjunct to this - the Merritt Parkway [RT 15] bridge was washed out over the Silvermine River in Norwalk & had a shoofly around it for months.

It is still visible on the south side on the downgrade just before the "Super 7" interchange.

Since I was just a "mere sprat" then, I don't remember if it was caused by Hurricane Diane or the October rain. In any case, the Danbury branch was over the next rise going north.

Which of these events was the one that permanently severed the Air Line between Pomfret and Putnam?

trainsinmaine wrote:Which of these events was the one that permanently severed the Air Line between Pomfret and Putnam?

Yes.

The hurricane did - it was more widespread.