• NH Maybrook Line - NYC Hudson Line Research Help

  • Discussion relating to the NH and its subsidiaries (NYW&B, Union Freight Railroad, Connecticut Company, steamship lines, etc.). up until its 1969 inclusion into the Penn Central merger. This forum is also for the discussion of efforts to preserve former New Haven equipment, artifacts and its history. You may also wish to visit www.nhrhta.org for more information.
Discussion relating to the NH and its subsidiaries (NYW&B, Union Freight Railroad, Connecticut Company, steamship lines, etc.). up until its 1969 inclusion into the Penn Central merger. This forum is also for the discussion of efforts to preserve former New Haven equipment, artifacts and its history. You may also wish to visit www.nhrhta.org for more information.
  by SDCW4300
 
I am developing a route for the Microsoft Train Simulator on the
Maybrook Line of the New Haven Railroad, from Campbell Hall/ Maybrook
yards to Danbury, CT. This will also include the Beacon Secondary
branch and the Poughkeepsie "Hospital Branch'. The time period
for the initial route will be the 1940's-1950's, but I am also
entertaining the possibility of doing several other versions, which
would be late 60's-early 70's PC and early 1900's CNE/ NH.

In conjunction with this project I will be helping some one work on a
route of the NYC Hudson River Line. His time line is the late 80's
to the present, but I will be working on back dating a copy to the
1940's-50's to connect with the Maybrook Line. So any info on
those would be helpful also, especially around the connection points at
Beacon and Poughkeepsie.

What will be needed over the next months is information, first on track
plans, layouts, sidings, yards and anything else pertaining to laying
out the track work. This information would mostly be for the
1940-50's version, but there is still siding, yard and industry
information needed for the newer and older versions.

While the tracks are being worked on, information for the scenery,
structures (both related and non-related to the railroad), roads,
bridges, tunnels, signals, train types, schedules, consists, and other
supplemental information, will be brought together to help bring it
alive.

This can not be a foot by foot photographic copy of the lines, because
of the limitations of the program. But the main emphasis will be on
getting the track work and signaling as close as possible and fill in as
much surrounding detail as possible after that.

My main area of geographic knowledge is the Beacon area and about 15-20
miles north and south of it, but I moved away back in the 80's so a
lot has happened since I lived there. I figured this would be a great
place to find information; you guys have more information in your heads,
than I'll ever find in reference material alone.

I have been in contact with Laura Smith at the Uconn website and have
some of the Valuation maps for the Maybrook Line coming. The others I
will be accessing from the site during development, but what I'm not
sure of is what may have changed between 1915 and the 1940-50's.
For instance the maps show the old ND&C junction in Hopewell, but it was
gone by the mid 1930's. Are there any such maps available for
the Hudson Line?

I have been and will continue to search the archives for pictures and
info, but if anyone has any other sources of information please let me
know.

Look forward to hearing from some of you.

JT
  by CannaScrews
 
Good Luck!

There is freeware which will convert USGS topo maps into MS landscape. If you are interested, I can get you the URL for downloading.

It came out of the UK & I haven't used it for about 6 years, so it may not work for other than XP operating systems.
  by Bernard Rudberg
 
You may want to check this web site. It has some of the info you are looking for.

I also have the line elevations for the ND&C RR from Dutchess Junction to Hopewell Junction. They are on very long paper rolls (yards long).

Bernie Rudberg
  by Bernard Rudberg
 
Welcome to Hopewell Depot Restoration Corp.

One of our members has created a Facebook Page about the Hopewell Depot Restoration. Take a look at this URL.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hopewell ... 2071793718
The Hopewell Depot Restoration project also has a new web site.
http://www.hopewelldepot.org
I have been working on local railroad history since I retired from IBM 20 years ago. I have posted several hundred photos and stories about Hudson Valley railroads on a web site. Take a look at the following web site.
http://www.kinglyheirs.com/CNE/
This web site has 23 sections. Just scroll down and select the section you want.
If you have any questions or comments just send me a note.
In addition I did about an hour of video for a Marist College oral history project.
The college web site is:
http://www.albany.edu/~pc171142/
About 6 minutes of my video session is in the "construction" section. Portions of this interview are now recorded for phone access as narration for the Walkway Over the Hudson and also on their web site.
http://www.walkway.org/
A number of photos from my collection are now being used on the interpretive signs on the Walkway.
Since my family background is in railroads in Sweden, I have always been interested in railroads and since I retired I have had time to study more. I am also the former president of a group working to restore our local Hopewell Junction train station into a small museum and educational facility.
I am also one of the organizers for the Central New England Railway Historical Tours. Every spring we tour a section of the old CNE Rwy with two bus loads of railroad fans. I do the navigating and narration for the tour. I have written the guide books for the last eight tours and I am working on the next one for spring 2012. Each book contains around 200 pages of photos and history for that section. Next spring's tour is now in the planning stages and will probably be in the area between Norfolk and Canaan CT.
I found the original record books of the ND&C RR at the Beacon Historical Society. The ND&C RR became part of the CNE Rwy in 1905. There are more than 30,000 pages of original railroad records. I wrote a book based on those records. It is called Twenty Five Years on the ND&C. It still available from the publisher and several local bookstores.
I have also written a book of photos and stories about Hopewell Junction and East Fishkill which we are selling as a fund raiser for the Hopewell Depot Restoration.
If you have any questions or comments just send me a note or call me at 221-9330.
My E-Mail is:
[email protected]
Bernie Rudberg
  by SDCW4300
 
Canna screws, thanks for info on the USGS link, I'd like to take a look at it. I'm on Vista, so it may not work, but I would like to see what it has to offer.

Hey Bernie, This is John out in KS, I've talked to you quite a bit in the past, and been out to the depot to work on it wth you. It is looking really good, and has come a long way since last Thanksgiving when we were taking the roof off! I will be in town next month and will try to have a Wednesday or Saturday open to come out and help. I will check the links you posted and see if there is something you haven't already rewarded with me in the past!

John