Exploring the Hartford, Providence, & Fishkill Railway in the 21st Century






When I moved back to Connecticut in 2016, the rail line running from Providence to the Hudson River first imagined by the Hartford, Providence, and Fishkill Railway began to fascinate me. I came at this line of many regions from an eastern Connecticut perspective: I would be teaching high school in Manchester, and this was around the time when Connecticut Southern service on the Manchester Line would be ending.  I found out quickly that this line was once part of a much larger vision stretching across three states, a distance of some two hundred miles. The places it once connected are today vaugely connected by the meadering US Highway 6. They have deep mutual roots, but today Providence's Federal Hill and the gentle waves of the Hudson River lapping at the shore at Beacon seem to have little in common. They once were a single train ticket away from one another.

I wanted to write a story about travelling this once great railway in its entirety. But what does that mean? For starters, what is the railway even called? I began with the idea that it was the Hartford, Providence, and Fishkill of 1849, but they never made it west of Waterbury. It was under a successor, the New York & New England, that this finally occured in 1881. Where does the line go? As the advertisement above states, under the NY&NE it went to Fishkill Landing (today's Beacon, NY) but below you'll see a 1913 timetable from the successor NYNH&H that has it attached to the Maybrook line and heading towards the bridge at Poughkeepsie, NY. The same timetable shows that few trains went the whole distance, but instead operated over part of the line (ie Poughkeepsie-Hartford, Waterbury-Hartford, and a strange Danbuy-Putnam one. This last one had trains routed along the other NY&NE branch, towards Boston, east of Willimantic. Tickets from the 20th century show that the Central Connecticut stations along the HP&F kept passenger service for a very long time as part of a Waterbury-Boston route.

In short, I had to make some editorial choices. On this page, I'll refer to the line mostly as the HP&F. The exception are the stations west of Waterbury, which I'll typically call the NY&NE. Keeping with the spirit of the "Hartford, Providence, and Fishkill" I'm going to organize my photos as if the mainline runs from Providence Union Station to Beacon, NY, and treat the Hopewell Jct-Poughkeepsie part of the Maybrook line as a related spur like the South Manchester Railroad or the Rockville Branch. I'm also going to add the Dutchess and Columbia between Wicopee Junction and Dutchess Junction in as a branch. There is nothing sacred or even logical about these choices- they're just what makes the most sense to me.

What makes the line so fascinating is the various condition that the line is in. The best way to see the far eastern end is to ride the MBTA Providence Branch and the best way to see the far western end is to ride the MTA Metro-North Hudson Line Branch. In between there is a mix of rail trails, mountain bike trails, active freight rail, out of service lines, a totally abandoned part, and a section that has been converted to Bus Rapid Transit (BRT.) Photos on this site were taken on foot, on bike, on train, on kayak, and on bus. There are three excellent musuems (Connecticut Eastern, Danbury, and Hopewell Junction) and lots of ways to enjoy the line in its current state.

The site is a perpetual work in progress. I make no claims to have seen everything exciting yet, and would welcome suggestions. Across this 200 mile journey, there are many people and organizations deeply involved with their sections of the line that know far more than me. I try to link to these interesting people as much as I can in the body of the site.

To organize my discussion, I plan on using these documents. The first two are a map and timetable, scanned from Connecticut Railroads: An Illustrated History, by Gregg Turner and Melancthon Jacobus. The second two are NYNH&H timetables from March 2, 1913. The last is an NYNH&H timetable on Penney Vanderbilt and KC Jones's site that I don't have a copy of. I used that to get the milage between Beacon and Hopewell Junction.





To use these 5 documents to organize our exploring, I'll count miles from Providence and convert the Poughkeepsie-Willimantic miles using the older timetable. Note that by 1913 trains were operated separately east and west of Willimantic.

As the timetable lists Providence as mile 0 and works westward, each of the following pages will do the same (ie each picture is west of the preceeding one.)

If a place is listed here, it means we've visited. If it isn't yet linked, it means we haven't had time to organize the photos, process them, and come up with a coherent narrative of what the site currently looks like. It also might mean I don't understand what was happening at the site based on my current knowledge, and would welcome any comments.

If a place isn't listed here it means we haven't visited yet.

Miles from Providence Union Station (1898)	Name of Explored Site	Features to See	Best Means of Seeing
All distances here are approximate- they come from timetables half a century apart, bike GPS, and Google Maps. In some places they don't line up.
0-0.5	Providence Station is north of the former Providence Union Station, so the former right of way has been redeveloped
0	Providence Union Station		on foot
0.5-2.6	This section is part of active Northeast Corridor (Amtrak, MBTA, Providence and Worcester)
1.1	Atwell Ave	Northeast Corridor	on a train
1.9	Dike Street Station	Northeast Corridor, remains of Weybosset Mill	on a train, also on foot
about 2.4-2.7	Abandoned section (milage numbers are fuzzy here, but there's about 0.3-0.4 miles abandoned trackway)
about 2.6-21.6	Washington Secondary Rail Trail Paved in decent condition, tree roots have caused bumps
2.6	Arlington	abandoned roadbed north of Depot Ave, Beginning of Washington Secondary trail, old spur	on foot or bike
3.3	West Arlington		on foot or bike
4	Cranston		on foot or bike
4.8	Knightsville		on foot or bike
5.6	Meshanticut		on foot or bike
7.2	Oak Lawn		on foot or bike
8.4	West Pontiac		on foot or bike
9	Natick		on foot or bike
11	River Point	Bradford Soap Plant and Trestle over South Pawtuxet River, Old Caboose, paved path	on foot or bike
11.6	Arctic	Interesting mills, river views, stone walls	on foot or bike
12.1	Centreville	Interesting mill, millstones, stone walls	on foot or bike
13.0	Quidnick	Bridge remains, trestle	on foot or bike
13.4	Anthony	Anthony Mill, old bridges, extant rail sidings	on foot or bike
14.4	Washington	Extant rail siding, switching equipment
18.1	Coventry Center	Coventry Center Station, Route 102 bridge, paved path	on foot or bike
21.6	Summit	Rough, moguled roadbed, flooded roadbead
21.6-26.2	Future secton of Washington Secondary. Currently right of way is clear, but in poor condition
24.1	Greene	Rough, moguled roadbed, new trestle over Buck's Horn Brook, Greene Station Site, Greene Station.	on foot or mountain bike
26.2	RI/CT State Line
26.2-33	Moosup Valley State Park Rail Trail. Some sections paved and others dirt, improvements ongoing in 2023
27	Oneco	Roadbed in varying condition, from flooded to rough moguled to new graded to paved. There is a new bridge over Providence road that uses the old abutments, including one with a stone culvert. The junction of the former spur to the Oneco Quarry is easy to find and walkable to huge abutments for a bridge across the Moosup river.	on foot or bike
29	Sterling	viaduct with culvert, milepost, new improvements	on foot or bike
33	Moosup	Paved rail trail, old eastern bridge open to the public. Route obliterated in the village, some of old western bridge still extant. The line is totally abandoned west of the western bridge until a significant way past Route 12.	on foot
33-35	This section appears totally abandoned and is under the control of CT DOT.
35-58.5	Active Rail -Providence and Worcester's Willimantic Line. Milepost zero is at Plainfield
35	Plainfield	The line is totally abandoned from Moosup to the Rawson Quarry. Past this is the start of active Providence and Worcester Trackage. Site of Plainfield Junction Depot	car
38	Packerville	RR crossing, Butts Bridge Rd Overpass	car
40	Canterbury	Aspinook Pond/Quinebaug River, trestle, station site	car and kayak
45	Versailles	Stone Arch Bridge, Station Site and abandoned paper mill spur	car
48	Baltic	station foundations, Rte 97 crossing	car
51.5	Scotland	Station site, bridge over Merrick Brook	car
55	South Windham	Station site and siding	car
58.5	Willimantic	Amtrak Platform, Willimantic River Bridge, Connecticut Eastern Rwy Museum, Columbia Jct Roundhouse, Versailles Operator's Shanty, Willimantic River Bridge	museum guest
58.5-59.8	Active Rail (New England Central) and Museum trackage (Eastern Connecticut Railroad Museum.)
59.8-60.2	Active Rail (New England Central)
60.2-81	Hop River State Park Trail - high quality dirt
64	Hop River	Ruined Eastern Hop River Bridge (Bridge 2.53) many telegraph poles, mile markers, Route 6 overpass, Extant Hop River Station	foot or bike
67	Andover	Modern tunnel, vintage trestle, christmas tree farm, replacement bridge over highway	foot or bike
73.5	Bolton	dramatically steep cuts, tunnel under highway	foot or bike
78	Vernon	junction with Rockville Branch, 1849 road tunnel, remains of turntable and water tower, excellent curation of artifacts	foot or bike
spur	Rockville Branch	well maintained rail trail
79	Talcottville	well maintained rail trail, structure remains, remains of 2nd track	foot or bike
81-86	Out of Service Tracks (Connecticut Southern)
81	Manchester	Ruined Platforms, current head of Out of Service Manchester Branch, junction with South Manchester Railway, abandoned track	foot or bike
spur	South Manchester Railway	High quality dirt hiking path, currently all the way to Center Street	foot or bike
83	Buckland	Buckland Depot	car
86	Burnside	School Street Crossing (end of OOS segment)	car
86-89.5	Active Rail (Connecticut Southern)
88	East Hartford	Junction with Amory Branch, Small Yard	car
89.5-90	Active Rail (Amtrak, CTRail Hartford Line)
90	Hartford	Union Station	foot
90-99	CTfastrak Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
92	Parkville		bus, foot
93	Charter Oak		bus, foot
94	Elmwood	Elmwood Fastrak Station	bus
95	Newington	Newington Depot, Newington Junction Fastrak Station	bus
97	Clayton	hiking/biking paved trail adjacent to bus corridor	bus, foot, or bike
99	New Britain	Downtown New Britain Fastrak Station, Active Rail	bus
99-122	Active Rail (Pan-Am Southern- operated by Berkshire & Eastern)
104	Plainville	Diamond with the Canal Road, Plainville Yard, active rail	car
106	Forestville	Forestville Depot, active rail	car
108	Bristol	Main Street Bridge, station site, active rail	car
112	Terryville	tunnel route, active rail	foot
spur	Terryville (loop station)	Original Station on spur (which was former mainline)	car
115	Tolles	station site, bridge abutments, active rail	car
120	East Waterville	station site, road bridge, large viaduct and culvert, active rail	car
122	Waterbury	Waterbury Union Station, interesting bridges	train, car
122-126	Abandoned. Rails are intact in many places in Waterbury but most bridges have been removed.
126-136.3	Larkin State Park Trail (State Bridlepath) - high quality dirt rail trail
127	Allerton Farms	remains of huge trestle, Hop Brook viaduct, small culvert, interesting viaducts and cuts	foot, bike, horse
129	Bradley's	bridge abutment, viaduct	foot, bike, horse
131	Towantic	lakes, rock cuts	foot, bike, horse
134	Oxford/Southford	well maintained rail trail, viaduct, amazing stone arch over Eightmile Brook	foot, bike, horse
136.3-147	Abandoned. Some impressive architecture remains, like the abutments over the Pomperaug and Housatonic Rivers
137	Southbury	very little, on or near the I-84 right of way	car
139	South Britain	very little at station site, on or near the I-84 right or way, replica station (offsite), bridge abutments over Pomperaug River	car
141	Sandy Hook	abandoned right of way, remains of trestle over Lake Zoar, bridge abutment	car
144	North Newtown	bridge abutment	car
147	Hawleyville	tunnels	foot
147-159	Active Rail (Housatonic Railroad)
153	Danbury	Danbury Union Station, Danbury Railway Museum	museum guest
157.5	Mill Plain	depot moved to Danbury Railway Museum	on foot and museum guest
159	CT/NY State Line
159-188	Out of Service Tracks- abandonment in progress (Metro North Beacon Line) & Empire State Trail With Rail.
169	Towners	"crooked" bridge over Metro North Harlem line, wildlife refuge, station site, stone culvert, remains of Maybrook Line	foot or bike
188	Hopewell Junction	split of Metro North Beacon Line and Empire State Trail, depot, NYNH&H tower, museum, caboose	car, foot, bike, museum guest
spur	Maybrook Line to Poughkeepsie	Poughkeepsie Bridge, now open as "Walkway over the Hudson"	foot or bike
188-201	Out of Service Tracks- abandonment in progress (Metro North Beacon Line.)
194	Fishkill Village	Old Main St Crossing, Route 9 Crossing, station site	car
198	Matteawan	former station	car
199	Wicopee Junction	NY&NE tracks (critically endangered) D&C right of way	foot
spur	former D&C line to Dutchess Jct	ruins of Tioronda Bridge, station site	foot, train
201	Beacon (Fishkill Landing)	park at former docks, abandoned rail, junction with Metro North Hudson Line at RIVER switch	train, foot, kayak

Important Links:

USGS Historical Maps
Google Maps
Google Earth
Edward Ozog's Rhode Island Rail Lines Site
MBTA Providence Line
Washington Secondary
Tyler City Station- catalog of all Connecticut train stations
Moosup Valley State Park Trail
Providence & Worcester Railroad
Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum
Hop River State Park Rail Trail
Vernon Rail Trail
Connecticut Southern Railroad
CTFastrak Busway
Berkshire & Eastern (Pan Am Southern) Railroad
Larkin Bridlepath State Park Trail
Housatonic Railroad
Joe Brennan's Danbury Railroads
Danbury Railway Museum
Empire State Trail
Hopewell Junction Museum
Penney Vanderbilt and KC Jones All About Railroads
Dutchess County Aerial Photos
--
back to tim's page

(c) 2016-2024 Timothy M Dowd. Last Modified @ 22:48 EDT on 2024-05-07
Made with KompoZer v0.8b3 (20081229)