East Bridgeport Yard

A question came up on Metro-North regarding freight operations of the past in East Bridgeport and I thought it would be
better to answer on the New Haven Railroad forum because even before the New Haven was taken over by Penn Central the
operations there were reduced in various stages.
There were three main yards in Bridgeport, the East and West Yards in East Bridgeport, the East Yard being the one that
Metro-North uses for their equipment and the West Yard which is pretty much history, it might be completely gone by now.
The third main yard in Bridgeport was the Lower Yard just west of the station which was accessed by the East Ramp off track
4 and the West Ramp off track 3. There was a tunnel under the line from the West Ramp. This was used by switchers to and from East Bridgeport with drags of cars for the Lower Yard and also by the Naugy to change ends with the Budd Cars.
The East Yard at East Bridgeport was mostly used for set off and pick up by eastbound trains and for local cars in Bridgeport.
The Wast Yard was the more important of the two in the NHRR days. A good number of westbound trains worked this yard
on their trips west either a set off or a pick up or both. Years ago there were always hot PRR cars out of both Hartford and
Waterbury and instead of going through Cedar Hill they had at one time a job out of Hartford (ANE-1) which moved the PRR's
from Hartford and Waterbury where they would be picked up by the regular NE-1 out of Cedar Hill. Even earlier the Hartford
and Waterbury train would operate all the way to Bay Ridge with a pick up and power and crew change at East Bridgeport.
In later NHRR years the Hartford cars moved to Cedar Hill and the Waterbury cars moved to East Bridgeport on DN-3 where
NE-1 would still stop and pick them up. There were also Oak Points and Harlem Rivers out of Waterbury and they would go
on either NH-3 or later on NH-1 or NE-1 which eventually had to stop at Oak Point to drop anyway. As business declined
through the 50's and 60's trains were combined and one train would do the work formerly done by two trains.
As business declined out of both Hartford and Waterbury the railroad did not attempt to make connections with NE-1 at
East Bridgeport but moved the cars through Cedar Hill for later trains. As the brass industry, machine shops, meat
packers and other stuff declined in Waterbury, so did railroad operations in both Waterbury and elsewhere and train after
train came off.
There were towers at both ends of East Bridgeport, SS-62 which was where Central and now CP-257 is located today and
at SS-63 (Bishop Avenue) about a mile or so east of that location. SS-63 was closed by Penn Central not too long after
they took us over and everything was done at SS-62. Under the NHRR more work took place at SS-63 than at SS-62 and
SS-62 was only open on the last trick most of the time.
The Lower Yard handled mostly local business for Bridgeport which included meat, coal for the power plant and cars for
Bridgeport Brass and other stuff in North Bridgeport (the old Berkshire). Switchers out of the Lower Yard also went west
and did the Hole Track and State Street at Burr Road as well as Bullards off track 4 and McKessone and one or two others
off track 3. The shortest regular revenue freight move on the entire New Haven Railroad was most likely a regular two
car move from the Jenkins factory by the curve to another Jenkins operation off track 3 west of Burr Road and there was
a regular day job out of the Lower Yard that did that move on the middle trick 5 days a week.
As you can see by what I have written on here at one time there was a lot of freight on the former New Haven Railroad and
Bridgeport was no exception to this.
Noel Weaver

Thanks as always Noel for your info. One thing I've always wondered was when that unfortunate wreck of the Federal occurred, it was my understanding that the locomotive left the mainline and when it hit the ground, it struck another engine drilling on street-level trackage. Was this trackage the Lower Yard? Do you know of what the crew on that engines reaction to the oncoming train from above? Many thanks in advance!

krispy wrote:Thanks as always Noel for your info. One thing I've always wondered was when that unfortunate wreck of the Federal occurred, it was my understanding that the locomotive left the mainline and when it hit the ground, it struck another engine drilling on street-level trackage. Was this trackage the Lower Yard? Do you know of what the crew on that engines reaction to the oncoming train from above? Many thanks in advance!

The yard job in the Lower Yard was a Lower Yard job. The fireman did not get badly hurt and I remember after he was set
up to engineer working with him a couple of times. I can't remember just who the engineer was on that Lower Yard job but
I don't think here was badly hurt either. The engine on that job the 0949 also lived to switch cars for many more years
after this unfortunate incident. It is in my book as having worked on it sometime during my career.
The railroad still had a yard office and a yardmaster in the Lower Yard at that time and for quite a few years after that too.
Noel Weaver

Thank you for posting that Noel. Do you have notes on all that, or is that off of memory? Pretty impressive either way.

Between the bridge and the yard, on the north side of the track, there is a site that someone told me used to be a ammunition manufacture. Is that accurate?

Jayjay1213 wrote: Between the bridge and the yard, on the north side of the track, there is a site that someone told me used to be a ammunition manufacture. Is that accurate?

Remington Arms, once a very busy place and now a ruin like so many other old Connecticut factories. They had an intra-plant railroad that used, among other things, an ex-NH Mack railbus to transport gunpowder from a bunker to the manufacturing area. That was in service into the 1970s.

Memories both on the main line and in the towers in Bridgeport during the summer of 1964 when I was affected by 282.
Noel Weaver

How many tracks did the east yard have?

trainguy2024 wrote:How many tracks did the east yard have?

Both sides had a lot of tracks but I seem to think that the west side had more. There was a lot of switching that took place in that yard in years past, today it's gone completely.
Noel Weaver

Thanks Noel,
I am modeling Bridgeport in HO scale and decided to put in East Bridgeport yard. I wanted to get as close as I could or as close as my basement would allow.

What was the location of BRIDGEPORT brass and also did the new haven have a icing facilty in the lower yard?

Here is an aerial shot taken 1949 of the subject area. Note Seaview Ave at the extreme left and a train running down the street!

HistoricAerials.com is the source.

CannaScrews wrote:Here is an aerial shot taken 1949 of the subject area. Note Seaview Ave at the extreme left and a train running down the street!

HistoricAerials.com is the source.

If I remember correctly, the state of Connecticut digital archives would have - from the 1934 aerial survey of the state - a good shot of the yard from 1934 [and - if you search - track diagrams from that time period, or not too far after it, in other parts of the site]

Bridgeport Brass was on the old Berkshire. They also had access to water transportation and got barges of sand among other things.
Noel Weaver

I believe BRIDGEPORT brass was on Housatonic Ave. Did they receive the sand via rail cars and what other type of rail cars did they receive?

Thanks for posting this Noel, I was wondering about the West yard as it is listed still on the maps. All thats left is the lead into a company and some headroom for the Remington Spur. I've seen some pieces of turnouts remaining on the east end as well. Very informative.