Trackage between Hawleyville and Waterbury

At its peak of usage, was the line between Hawleyville and Waterbury single or double track?

RAY wrote:At its peak of usage, was the line between Hawleyville and Waterbury single or double track?

I believe it was single track with sidings, although there may have been space left on the Housatonic River bridge for a double-track. I've hiked a decent part of this ROW through Southbury and Oxford (it was turned into a rail trail in 1939, which must make it one of the oldest such conversions in the US) and the grade doesn't seem wide enough for two tracks, although 19th Century clearances were of course much narrower.

The line between Hawleyville and Bank Street Junction (Waterbury) was single track. There were four long sidings on this line in the 1920 timetable but what killed this line for freight operations was the severe grades especially westbound out of Waterbury.
Noel Weaver

Where would one pick up the ROW in Southbury? Is it south of route 84?
Thanks
Russ

photons wrote:Where would one pick up the ROW in Southbury? Is it south of route 84?
Thanks
Russ

Yes, it's south of I-84. The trailhead is on Kettletown Road, across from the entrance to the IBM facility and just up the hill from Exit 15. There is not really anywhere to park on Kettletown Road, however. There is parking farther up, where Southford Road crosses the trail at the former site of the Southford depot.

It's a pleasant walk and well worth a visit. There's an amazing stone arch bridge over Eight Mile Brook near Southford, completely intact despite the '55 floods and everything else that has happened since the New Haven pulled out in '39.

Much obliged.
Russ

If I can revive this thread, the interesting thing about this line is it was once the main line of the New York & New England, from Boston via Willimantic and Hartford to Waterbury and on to Danbury-Brewster-Hopewell Jct. The NY&NE's western freight terminal was at Fishkill Landing on the Hudson River, with a train ferry connection to the Erie at Newburgh.

It did have some severe grades. I saw a photo of a triple-headed steam train coming out of Waterbury with a not very big train.

Years ago I had the pleasure of knowing a retired block/tower operator, Mike Martino, who had worked at Towantic (in the town of Oxford IIRC) at a temporary block station at sometime during the early 1920s when a number of freights were rerouted due to a freight wreck on the normal Maybrook line route. He described a triple header freight. Wonder if he had to "hoop" up train orders to all 3 locomotives plus the caboose? Mike said his office was just a telephone pole - no station by then. And Mike didn't have a car, so hopefully it didn't rain during his assignment there as there was probably no shelter. He remembered the ground shaking as the train slowly climbed a hill toward him.

That's a nice story. That was where the photo I saw of the NY&NE steam triple-header was taken too. A photo from around 1890 in a New Haven Shoreliner issue, in an article called something like "Waterbury West on the NY&NE." I recently reread it.

Three 19th century teakettles hauling a westbound up Towantic hill.

Btw I could be wrong, but I think only the road engineer (plus the conductor) would need a copy of the orders. The helper engineers were basically just along for the ride.

Tommy Meehan wrote:That's a nice story. That was where the photo I saw of the NY&NE steam triple-header was taken too. A photo from around 1890 in a New Haven Shoreliner issue, in an article called something like "Waterbury West on the NY&NE." I recently reread it.

Three 19th century teakettles hauling a westbound up Towantic hill.

Btw I could be wrong, but I think only the road engineer (plus the conductor) would need a copy of the orders. The helper engineers were basically just along for the ride.

The grade is severe enough that you can tell you're climbing a steep hill when you're walking it-- only other place I've encountered that on a rail-trail is the old Ridgefield Branch. Can't imagine what it was like to see a loaded freight climbing up it out of the Housatonic valley.

It was a hell of a grade all right --- a study of your USPS topo maps will show you the line climbed from 163 feet at Sandy Hook; to 350 at Southbury; to 640 at Towantic. Then it dropped to 420 at Allerton Farms and 280 at Waterbury. Small wonder the New Haven selected the much longer route through Botsford (where it tops out at 420 feet) and Derby Jct to upgrade and double-track.

Tommy Meehan wrote:That's a nice story. That was where the photo I saw of the NY&NE steam triple-header was taken too. A photo from around 1890 in a New Haven Shoreliner issue, in an article called something like "Waterbury West on the NY&NE." I recently reread it.

Three 19th century teakettles hauling a westbound up Towantic hill.

Interestingly, that photo is more recent than you think --- one of the engines in that tripleheader was built in 1913. Tripleheaders were very rare anywhere on the NH --- must have been a treat to see!!!

Yeah I goofed when I referred to the tripleheader photo as being from 1890. It says right in the caption it was taken at Oxford in 1913. Many other photos in that article are pre-1900 though.

If anyone's interested the article is called "Waterbury West, on the NY&NE" by Robert B. Adams. It was in the NHRHTA's Shoreliner publication, Vol. 15 Issue 1 and is available on-line from the NHRHTA group.

It's an 18-page article with many photos and a map and IMHO well worth the price which I believe is about five bucks.

It is a very good article --- Bob Adams was an excellent researcher. Now that you've piqued people's interest in it I hope we (NHRHTA) still have some in stock! We're sold out of most of those real old Shoreliners.

It's listed as available.