Beacon Line News - Trail Walk

The former Newburgh, Dutchess, and Connecticut Railroad in the news:

MillbrookRoundTable.com

Link redirects to Zwire, who must be the hosts.

The original rail line was 58 miles long. It ran from Fishkill Landing (currently Beacon) to Glenham, crossed Route 9 into Hopewell Junction, and stopped again at Billings and Verbank before reaching Millbrook. After Millbrook it continued to the state line, east of Millerton. The rail was closed in 1931 after automobiles began to draw commuters from the trains. Only a small portion of the line between Fishkill and Hopewell Junction is still in use today. Metro-North occasionally runs its locomotives late at night, flanked by patrol cars, to connect trains to its Connecticut lines.

Great historical background!Someone may want to update the wiki page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newburg,_D ... t_Railroad

What exactly do you think needs changing ?

The Wiki site has more information than the Millbrook clip.
The ND&C went out of existence in 1927. After that it was New Haven etc.

Where is the confusion ?

Bernie Rudberg

I certainly didn't mean to imply the Wiki page was somehow inadequate, especially from a historical perspective. Nevertheless, that's what my post says, doesn't it? Sorry about that. Rereading the Wiki page this morning I realized just how thorough it was.

What I should have said: "Someone may want to update the wiki page" to include current events, efforts at preservation, previous proposals for the Beacon secondary, and remains of the line, and to incorporate the article as a reference.

I'm not that knowledgable on this area, and am involved with some other projects right now, so I don't want to screw up someone else's work. My research has led me to several interesting articles such as this which are not on point for what I'm working on, but still interesting to others. I only meant to bring the article to everyone's attention.

The Wiki page is titled ND&C RR but it has info on a bunch of other related railroads. I agree it is all good info but how do you organize it ? If you keep adding parts, eventually it becomes a confusing jumble. The Wiki page is already close to that level. If you want to do it up right, you should probably create new pages for each subject which turns into a full time job. I am familiar with that because I spent several years putting the ND&C book together. It always takes several times as much effort as your original estimate.

By the way, my 1927 date for the ND&C in the previous note is not correct. The ND&C became part of the CNE about 1905. 1927 was the year the CNE became a formal part of the New Haven. The CNE Rwy operated as an independent railroad but in fact it was really part of the New Haven family.

Bernie Rudberg

You're probably right - it is a lot. I've played around on some other Wiki pages, and it can get involved. These "short" lines, cobbled together to make mains, in a highly competitive atmosphere with competing lines, mergers and acquisitions, it sure can get complex. I read some of the NY Times articles from 1995, they had a good historical perspective on the many twists and turns, both figurative and literal.