"Lines West"

I'm not sure I've ever heard of the territory west of New London referred to as "Lines West," but here it is on an early timetable... If anything, I would consider New Haven to be the dividing line, but maybe not...

In ancient times the New Haven ran so many passenger trains that they issued the system timetable in two halves, Lines East and Lines West, with New London and Willimantic being the dividing line as your timetable notes. Aside from being roughly halfway between the eastern and westerns ends of the railroad, those cities represented points where the metropolitan orientation of most passengers and local trains switched between New York/New Haven and Boston/Providence.

You may not have heard the term before because it went out of use about 75 years ago!

I can't tell you exactly when the New Haven went to one timetable rather than lines east and lines west. Employee timetables were also separate and the latest lines west timetable
that I have is dated April 25, 1926 and the first system timetable that I have is no.107 dated April 29, 1928 so it is in that space.
Even in the period with separate timetables both lines east and lines west timetables showed the through trains between New York and Boston via the Shore Line, Waterbury and
Willimantic and Springfield and the B & A.
Noel Weaver

Thanks for clearing that up... first time I've seen/noticed that term used when referring to the New Haven. Safe to say this term fell out of use by WW II?

-otto-

For the New Haven's employee timetables, the last "Lines West" issue was #102 dated 6/13/26 and the first "System" was #103 dated 9/26/26. The Lines West public timetables (Form 220) lasted a bit longer and the last one I have of these is dated 2/12/28. The first System issue (Form 200) that I have is dated 4/1/28. It's conceivable that there may have been a timetable issued between 2/12/28 and 4/1/28; however, if there was one, I haven't run across it yet.

Leroy Beaujon
Roseville, CA

When I was a kid, a lot of former New Haven employees I met referred to the lines between New Haven and New York (essentially the electrified district) as the "West End," likely a follow-on to the timetable reference Otto mentioned in the original post.

Marty

CVSNE wrote:When I was a kid, a lot of former New Haven employees I met referred to the lines between New Haven and New York (essentially the electrified district) as the "West End," likely a follow-on to the timetable reference Otto mentioned in the original post.

Marty

This I remember well, too.\
Noel Weaver

In the Electrified Zone, the "West End" referred to the trackage from New York City up to South Norwalk. The "East End" was from South Norwalk to New Haven. Two separate dispatchers.

Statkowski wrote:In the Electrified Zone, the "West End" referred to the trackage from New York City up to South Norwalk. The "East End" was from South Norwalk to New Haven. Two separate dispatchers.

Henry, you are correct in so far as SS Operators were concerned. In so far as engineers and firemen were concerned we
called everything west of New Haven the "West End".
Noel Weaver

Okay, so there was a West End West End and an East End West End. Makes sense. After all, it was the New Haven Railroad.

A few months ago I came upon a period article attributing the designation of the East and West lines by one the New Haven presidents at the beginning of the last century. I spent some time this evening to see if I could find it again. I wished I had bookmarked it. I will try again.

Here is a map from the 1950’s showing Lines West. I have included a link to an article with information on the subject and the various lines that formed the section. There is also a link to the NHRHTA website showing early timetables (1902-1915) with “Lines West”. There were also timetables with “Lines East”, but I haven’t come across any more specific information.


http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/abnere2.Html


http://www.nhrhta.org/htdocs/images0498.htm

As is with many cases on the RR, how the company designates certain territory could be different from how the crews refer to the same territory. When I worked for the NH in 1968, the "West End" was mostly the electric zone and territory West of NH.

It's not just portions of the railroad, but individual branch lines themselves. What the Operating Department called a stretch of trackage from Point A to Point B could be totally different to how the Engineering Department designated the same stretch. And then there were station names. Was it Avery or Needham Heights? Woodside or West Medway? Scantic or East Windsor? And then there were places that didn't exist, but did. Bowery Bay Junction?

Can't tell the players without a scorecard, but sometimes that doesn't help because you don't know what game is being played.

Statkowski wrote:It's not just portions of the railroad, but individual branch lines themselves. What the Operating Department called a stretch of trackage from Point A to Point B could be totally different to how the Engineering Department designated the same stretch. And then there were station names. Was it Avery or Needham Heights? Woodside or West Medway? Scantic or East Windsor? And then there were places that didn't exist, but did. Bowery Bay Junction?

Can't tell the players without a scorecard, but sometimes that doesn't help because you don't know what game is being played.

Yes and for a long time there were towers, some even 24 hour ones, that never existed in so far as the station pages of the
employee timetable were concerned. One thing Penn Central did was to put some common sense into the station pages of
the timetable.
Noel Weaver