New York and New England Railroad

The New York and New England RR from Willimantic was opened to Hartford in 1849 and to Waterbury in 1854. It reached its connection at Hopewell Jct. with the Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut RR in 1881, using their tracks from Hopewell Jct. to Fishkill Landing, now Beacon.

For many years, freight was ferried across the river from Newburgh to Fishkill Landing, and the N Y & N E was a busy freight road. Later, freight was routed via the Poughkeepsie Bridge, over the old route to Hawleyville and then down to the Shelton loop to Waterbury and Hartford. The former N Y & N E between Hawleyville and Waterbury was abandoned in 1948.

The N Y & N E covered a lot of Connecticut, but it had no connection into New York City, and to run trains there, it had to use the N Y, N H & H tracks from Willimantic or Hartford. In an effort to obtain more revenue on their own line, the N Y & N E tried to arrange to run its trains over its own line to Brewster, NY and then over the Harlem RR to New York. The New Haven blocked this move.

About 1891, the N. Y & N E, in connection with the Long Island RR. The New England Terminal Co. Ferry and the Housatonic RR, (Danbury & Norwalk Div.) placed the Long Island & Eastern States Express in service, Brooklyn to Boston. This train ran from Brooklyn to Oyster Bay on the LIRR, ferried across Long Island Sound by the New England Terminal Co. to Wilson Point, to Hawleyville via the Danbury & Norwalk Div. of the Housatonic then to Boston via the NY & NE RR.

In 1892, the Meriden, Waterbury and Connecticut River RR was leased to the N Y &N E who operated it a few years and then abandoned it for financial reasons.

The Norwich and Worcester RR was built in 1840 and was leased to the N Y & N E in 1869, thus giving the railroad a boat connection from Allyn’s Point to New York. This road was later extended to Groton.

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The Central New England Railway

The Central New England Railway was purchased in 1904 by the N Y, N H & H.
It was operated as a separate entity until formally merged in to the New Haven on June 1, 1927.

A paper organization called the Delaware & New England RR was formed on July 22, 1889 to take over the Hudson Connecting RR (just completed between Campbell Hall and Highland) and the Poughkeepsie & Connecticut RR to form the Central New England & Western RR. On August 30, 1889 the CNE&W leased the Hartford & Connecticut Western RR (then operating between Hartford and Rhinecliff) for a term of 50 years.

It was in 1890 that the CNE&W was taken over by the Philadelphia & Reading Railway; however, it was operated as the CNE&W until the P&R changed it’s name to the PR&NE on August 1, 1892.

There was a major financial crash in early 1893 and the P&R relinquished control of the PR&NE on August 19,1893 to a Receiver who operated the line until it came out of Receivership on January 12, 1899 when the CNE was formed. At that time, the CNE was still controlled by Philadelphia interests.

As mentioned above, the CNE was operated separately from the New Haven RR until 1927. The New Haven purchased the ND&C in 1905 and turned it over to the CNE to operate. For a couple of years it was known as the ND&C Division of the CNE (and it’s operation probably stayed about the same as when the ND&C operated it as an independent company) and on June 25, 1907 it was merged in to the CNE.

The Poughkeepsie & Eastern Railway was bought by the New Haven in early 1907 and on June 22, 1907 it too was merged in to the CNE.

Its grades were the steepest on the New Haven system with the possible exception of the grade between West Cheshire and Summit on the Meriden, Waterbury and Connecticut River RR. Norfolk Summit was over 1300 feet above sea level and Norfolk station was the highest, about 1200 feet above sea level, in the entire system. In spite of these stiff grades, this road did a large freight business for many years and also ran many passenger trains.

The Hudson Connecting Railroad (from Campbell Hall Junction to the Poughkeepsie Bridge) and the Poughkeepsie and Connecticut Railroad (Poughkeepsie Bridge to Silvernails) merged in 1889 to form the Central New England and Western Railroad.

The CNE&W was merged with the Poughkeepsie Bridge Company (inc. 1870) into the Philadelphia, Reading and New England Railroad in 1892. The PR&NE was bought by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, but failed. It was sold in 1898 and reorganized as the Central New England Railway in 1899.

The CNE leased the Hartford and Connecticut Western Railroad and Dutchess County Railroad, and obtained trackage rights over the Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad for a connection to the New York and Harlem Railroad.

The CNE also bought the parallel Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railway (Poughkeepsie to Boston Corners, New York) in 1907, and incorporated parts of its trackage into its line, and abandoned other parts.

At one time, there were passenger connections to Boston, Reading, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. There was also through passenger service between Winsted and New York via Millerton and the Harlem Railroad.

The CNE is best known for the Poughkeepsie Bridge. It was an engineering marvel for its time period. Until the Hell Gate Bridge was completed, it was the only all rail line South of Albany to western connections. At the present time, thousands of tons of freight are hauled daily over this bridge. It was double-tracked when the bridge was strengthened, then when heavier engines were bought, the tracks were gauntleted.

The first train over Poughkeepsie Bridge was at the end of 1888.

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Central New England Timeline

The CNE merged with the following companies on June 25, 1907:

Poughkeepsie and Columbia Railroad – never built?

Dutchess County Railroad – Poughkeepsie Bridge to Hopewell Junction

Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad – Hopewell Junction to state line

It kept its lease on the Hartford, Connecticut and Western Railroad, which ran from Rhinecliff, New York, on the Hudson River, past Silvernails, New York (where the CNE joined), and to Hartford, Connecticut, with branches to Collinsville, Connecticut and Agawam Junction, Massachusetts (from where it had trackage rights over the Boston and Albany Railroad to Springfield, Massachusetts).

The CNE merged with the following companies on June 25, 1907:

Poughkeepsie and Columbia Railroad – never built?

Dutchess County Railroad – Poughkeepsie Bridge to Hopewell Junction

Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad – Hopewell Junction to state line

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The line out of Hartford (known as the Connecticut Western when built) was completed to State Line (near Millerton, NY) in December of 1871.

Trackage rights were obtained from there via the Dutchess & Columbia RR on in to Millerton itself. The distance between these two points was 68 miles and to begin with there were two daily except Sunday passenger trains in each direction. The morning train out of Hartford departed at 9:50am and took FOUR HOURS to get to Millerton. The afternoon train left Hartford at 3:40pm and beat the morning train’s time in to Millerton by eight minutes. In the reverse, the morning train left Millerton at 6:00am and got to Hartford at 10:17am. It’s afternoon counterpart left Millerton at 2:40pm getting to Hartford at 6:50pm.

In 1882 the then Hartford & Connecticut Western (successor to the Connecticut Western in 1881) bought the Rhinebeck & Connecticut RR that operated between Rhinecliff, NY and Boston Corners, NY. The R&C originally had a lease arrangement with the Poughkeepsie & Eastern (known in 1882 as the Poughkeepsie, Hartford & Boston) to operate between Boston Corners and State Line so that they could connect with the Connecticut Western. Trackage rights were given to the H&CW (based on the previous agreement they had with the R&C) between State Line and Boston Corners by the Poughkeepsie, Hartford & Boston RR. This piece of track was leased to the H&CW on June 1, 1883 and purchased by them on April 5, 1884. When the H&CW bought the R&C, they also negotiated to buy the section between Boston Corners and State Line so as to give them a through route of their own all the way to the Hudson River. Pennsylvania coal coming up to Kingston on the D&H Canal was the main reason the H&CW wanted a route to the Hudson River. The H&CW began to call their route “The Rhinebeck Line” and did start out with at least one through train in each direction between Hartford and Rhinecliff. In addition to this train, there were still two other trains operating in each direction between Hartford and Millerton. The big thing, though, at this time was that these trains were now only taking three hours to make the 68 miles rather than four hours when the line was first opened. The Rhinebeck Line, however, seems to have been downgraded in 1886 as a through passenger route because a timetable from that year indicates one must change in Canaan in order to travel between Rhinecliff and Hartford.

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