CNE main line west of Canaan

From the book Lost Railroads of New England By Ronald Dale Karr , the track1570 feet west of the Canaan diamond to Lakeville was abandoned in 1965 by tha New Haven RR. It was 9.5 Miles

That Canaan-Lakeville spur was one of the original possibilities for the tourist railway that was eventually established at Essex. Extremely negative local opposition sent the rail folks off in search of other locations--- Collinsville to Farmington was one (also quickly stifled) and eventually the lower Valley Branch was the successful spot.

H.F.Malone wrote:That Canaan-Lakeville spur was one of the original possibilities for the tourist railway that was eventually established at Essex. Extremely negative local opposition sent the rail folks off in search of other locations--- Collinsville to Farmington was one (also quickly stifled) and eventually the lower Valley Branch was the successful spot.

Another one that was considered was Torrington-Winsted. Nelson Blount was interested but he wanted all the way between Highland Junction and Winsted and the New Haven wasn't interested in selling out in Torrington at the time.
Noel Weaver

Noel Weaver wrote:

H.F.Malone wrote:That Canaan-Lakeville spur was one of the original possibilities for the tourist railway that was eventually established at Essex. Extremely negative local opposition sent the rail folks off in search of other locations--- Collinsville to Farmington was one (also quickly stifled) and eventually the lower Valley Branch was the successful spot.

Another one that was considered was Torrington-Winsted. Nelson Blount was interested but he wanted all the way between Highland Junction and Winsted and the New Haven wasn't interested in selling out in Torrington at the time.
Noel Weaver

Damn, that would be a great line if Blount got it. Not sure if Winsted would have industries today to use it, but it would be cool to have it.

Wasn't the Canaan to Lakeville one of the proposed locations when the rail museum, which became the Valley was proposed?

Bernard Rudberg wrote:When the NY&NE built the line into Hopewell Junction from Danbury in 1881, they bought track rights on the ND&C RR from Hopewell Junction to Wicopee Junction (Now part of Beacon).

The single track through that section had passenger and freight traffic of two railroads in both directions. This was a logistics and dispatching headache that lasted over twenty years until both roads were gobbled up by the CNE/New Haven.

Bernie Rudberg

It shouldn't have been a dispatching headache. Out here in Western Pennsylvania we had plenty of examples of two railroads using a single line without a problem. If Railroad A owned the tracks, with Railroad B having trackage rights, Railroad A's dispatcher (and Railroad A's timetable) controlled all movements over the line, whether it was Railroad A's train or Railroad B's train. One example we had out here was a jointly-owned railroad with both railroads using it. Only one railroad did the dispatching, period.

How many years did the New Haven use the New York Central to access Grand Central Terminal? For that portion of the run, NYC dispatching, NYC timetable, and NYC rules applied.

Engineer Spike wrote:Wasn't the Canaan to Lakeville one of the proposed locations when the rail museum, which became the Valley was proposed?

I believe local opposition killed that before it ever had a chance. There were a lot of heavy handed politicians in and around Salisbury even back then and it is probably the same today.
Noel Weaver

If Cannan-Lakeville ever happened, there would be 2 RR museums within 20 miles of each other (Berkshire Scenic).

A similar chain of events occurred during the discovery process for locating the Railroad Museum of New England. 5 sites, 3 states and 6 years were required.

The CVRA with the Valley Line did well in retrospect.