Remains of the NY&NE?

Reading the thread about the Dedham Branch got me thinking: what trackage of the former NY&NE remains in service? Off the top of my head, I can think of some trackage around Danbury, and the Highland from Waterbury to New Britain. What else is out there?

Also-- did the New England use the same Hartford station-- the current one-- as the NYNH&H, or was there a separate facility (as with the CNE)?

Certainly the busiest remaining NY&NE trackage is Boston-Readville (via Dorchester)-Franklin, thanks to MBTA commuter service. Hartford-Manchester is active as a freight branch operated by the Connecticut Southern.

Forgot about Hartford-Manchester. Was the Armory Branch also NY&NE trackage?

You're right -- the Armory Branch was also NY&NE, so the remaining stub out of East Hartford qualifies here.

The former New Haven RR Maybrook Line as far west as Hopewell Junction NY was built by the NY&NE in 1881. The tracks are still there and owned by MTA Metro-North. There is very little traffic these days.

Bernie Rudberg

So, for the main line, you've got a little over 100 miles of trackage intact-- Hopewell Jct.-Hawleyville, Waterbury-Manchester, Franklin-Boston. What else? Was the Providence branch part of the NY&NE? Anything left of that aside from Willimantic-Plainfield?

The 1880 map published in the Shoreliner Vol 21 issue 3 1990 of the NY&NE shows the entire Norwich & Worcester line (P&W main) and the Woonsocket and Pascoag (P&W Slatersville branch) as NY&NE property. The N&W service is daily I think but the Slatersville Branch is sporadic but still in service and the P&W is actively marketing the line.

The Norwich & Worcester line was only leased by the NY≠during the period it was in the NY&NE system it certainly looked like it was a part of the NY&NE. That lease was transferred to the NYNH & H and then the Penn Central. I don't know what became of the Norwich & Worcester after the restructuring of railroad properties when Conrail was created.

How about Newton Upper Falls through Needham to Needham Jct. Whatever remains Needham Jct.-Millis. Anything left on what the New Haven called the 'Upper Level' at Woonsocket?

The thing that is puzzling to me is why the Penn Central did not elect to use the Armory Branch between East Hartford and Springfield for the Cedar Hill - Selkirk through freight jobs. If they had done that they could have run these trains off the Springfield Line at Hartford to East Hartford and north to Springfield and the Armory Branch connected with the B & A mainline just a bit east of the Springfield Passenger Station and the train could have operated straight through Springfield without the unfortunate back up move on the wye or a time consuming runaround move with the power. Such an operation today would not be possible but I sometimes wonder why the people who made up the "Final System Plan" for Conrail did not consider this route.
Noel Weaver

edbear wrote:How about Newton Upper Falls through Needham to Needham Jct. Whatever remains Needham Jct.-Millis. Anything left on what the New Haven called the 'Upper Level' at Woonsocket?

Rail trail was approved on both the Needham Heights-Upper Falls segments and the Needham Jct.-Medfield Jct. segments about 1-1/2 months ago. On Heights-Falls the towns still reaffirmed a statement of support for the Green Line extension, so that (at least as far as they're concerned...not the T) is intended as an "interim" trail. MassHighway is due to rip down and reconstruct the bridge over Route 128 for the add-a-lane project, and is building the new bridge at 2-track width as provision for any future reactivation.

Needham-Medfield, on the other hand...the NIMBY's in Dover are dancing in the streets, and Iron Horse will show in a year or so like the Angel of Death to cart away all the ROW hardware for scrap and lay down one of their godawful-graded scam job trails. Millis sheds a tear...they're the town that really wanted commuter rail, and now that (nominally active) industrial track west of the junction is cut off from any halfway convenient passenger routing (only other option is zigzag move north of Walpole from the Franklin Line...which isn't gonna fly). It's a bicycle lobby driving that trail, so they have no idea how disappointed they're going to be at the terrible surface ride quality that Iron Horse is going to stick them with.


Woonsocket is, surprisingly, still intact and nearly totally unencroached from Bellingham Jct. to where it crosses the Air Line. I think that's because it passes through a lot of sand pits too poor-quality soil for building much in the way of new housing. Puzzled the East Coast Greenway folks aren't putting the Southern NE Trunkline trail on there to Bellingham and instead have dead-ended it at the end of the active Franklin Industrial. It doesn't have any connectivity to other trails from that terminus, whereas getting to Bellingham puts them within a sniff of the Upper Charles trail Milford-Holliston with available power line ROW next to the active Milford Branch.

Harris Pond is uncrossable now, so ROW is obliterated there. The water level in the pond has risen significantly and has submerged the embankment through there. Not sure why...but you can track the progression through time on Historic Aerials. The pond is physically quite a bit larger and deeper than it was 40 years ago. Up until about 3 years ago P&W still had extant tracks going about 800 ft. across the state line onto the tip of the embankment, as a runaround for 2 businesses sitting on the state line. But it was recently abandoned with all crossings freshly paved. The active runaround track for the Slatersville Secondary/mainline junction now ends about a hundred feet south of the Prospect St. crossing.

Wasn't the Air Line part of the New York and New England?

I like Noel's Idea of using the Armory Branch, but it looks like it had pretty small rail on it. It might have taken too much cash, which PC didn't have to make the line feasible as a main line. That may have lead to just making due with reverse moves to the B&A westbound.

Want to respond to F-line to Dudly via Park can't figure out the quote thing, anyway, Harris pond has a controlled water level. I went walking in that area in the fall and you can walk from Woonsocket past state line into Blackstone with Harris pond on either side of you untill you get to the point that they excavated the fill/row to allow a smaller portion of the pond to communicate with the main body of Harris pd The first one is negotiable if you have waders on, in a short distance at the second one you need swim trunks to cross ! If you were to go to Farm Rd in Blkstn and walk in past the scenic LANDFILL mound(the fence for it takes some of the row away) and before you get to the area where they dug the row out to put in new pipes to allow Harris pond "north" to feed the "south" portion look right or south and you will see the north end of the right of way I mentioned earlier. You are now at Woonsocket Junction. The Woonsocket division of the NY&NE passed under the mainline on to Bellingham Jct. If you walk north from there there is somewhat of a walking trail that turns to a gravel pit keep a little close to the bank of the pond, You now have to climb up an embankment to get to original track level because they excavated the gravel out, voila ! some piles remain from the trestle across Harris Pd (it turns To Mill River at some point) that took the line to Belhm Jct ! I took pictures of the old trestle piles I'll dig them up and try to post them.

The thing that is puzzling to me is why the Penn Central did not elect to use the Armory Branch between East Hartford and Springfield for the Cedar Hill - Selkirk through freight jobs. If they had done that they could have run these trains off the Springfield Line at Hartford to East Hartford and north to Springfield and the Armory Branch connected with the B & A mainline just a bit east of the Springfield Passenger Station and the train could have operated straight through Springfield without the unfortunate back up move on the wye or a time consuming runaround move with the power. Such an operation today would not be possible but I sometimes wonder why the people who made up the "Final System Plan" for Conrail did not consider this route.

To answer Noel's question, is it not the same problem today why this is not being used, The ST, Guilford, B&M and now Pan Am owed the line from the Springfield Armory to the the MA/CT Line, so in hense why the had it ripped up and sold the land underneath so no one could use this right away. With the NVN-SPG line being upgraded in near futrure, this line becomes more important today then ever to move freight from the North to places in CT. I know they have tried to get the land back but Politicians in State of MA are not helping.