After spending the majority of Sunday taking photos at New Haven Line stations, I have to admit that some of the stations are pretty cute. In fact, I want to take some of them home with me (and not this one). If one day you head over to Cannondale station, and you find that the building is missing, well, it might be in my backyard. In all seriousness, the station is quite adorable. Unfortunately it is currently empty and unoccupied – the small cafe that was inside shut down at the end of 2009. CDOT was looking to have a new tenant by summertime of 2010, but obviously that has not panned out.

Cannondale is one of the small stations located on the Danbury Branch, in the Cannondale section of Wilton. The station is located approximately 50 miles away from Grand Central. Cannondale’s claim-to-fame is having a company named after it – the Cannondale Bicycle Corporation. Their original logo featured the station and the tracks.

Photo credit to Scott who owns the bike.

On weekdays, Cannondale has around eleven trains total that head to Grand Central. In most instances riders have to change at either South Norwalk or Stamford, but there are three commuter express trains that head direct to Grand Central in the early-morning peak period.

That is pretty much all I can think of to say about Cannondale right now – I’ll be back again next week with another New Haven Line station to look at. As of right now I’ve been to roughly half of all the NH Line stations, including all of the Danbury and Waterbury branches. By the time I finish I might never want to look at a train station again :P

Do you want to let everyone on the train know how well educated you are? Some “well educated” fashion may be just what the conductor ordered… It has always been my dream to have a “stupid people” clothing line… actually, no, I just made that up. But here are three delightful shirts that you can actually own – you can not only be the most well educated train rider, but by far the most fashionable!

Interested in being the best-dressed on your train? Get your own shirt by clicking on the design you want below!

As a member of a younger generation in the US, trains for me are merely a method of transportation – a means for me to get to work, or to get into the city. I do know, however, that trains were not always for people, but for moving goods (of course there still are freight trains, but they are not nearly as abundant as they once were). Many local areas have identities based upon either the rail, or the items that were once produced there… though in most cases the rail is no longer there, or the items are no longer produced there. Canaan, for example, was known as a railroad town, at the junction of the Housatonic Railroad and the Central New England Railway. Despite the fact that rail service there ended long ago, and even after the historic station was partially destroyed by fire, Canaan still fiercely holds on to that identity.

Other towns hold onto their old identities as nicknames – Waterbury is the Brass City and Danbury is the Hat City. This week we’re hopping back to the Waterbury Branch, to take a look at Naugatuck. Naugatuck’s identity was based upon the rubber industry that operated there, and the railroad used for transporting it. The railroad arrived in Naugatuck in 1849, and much of the town’s success was based upon it, and the rubber. One of the last vestiges of that industry may be some old factory buildings, and the appropriately named street, Rubber Avenue, located not far from the railroad station.

Metro-North’s station in Naugatuck, located 82.5 miles from Grand Central, is the same small variety seen in the other stations we’ve been to on the Waterbury Branch. There is a small bus-style shelter, and there are no ticket machines. Platforms are low-level and accommodate one train car’s door for entering and exiting. Located alongside the station is the original Naugatuck station, which is now occupied by the Naugatuck Historical Society. The station was built in a Spanish Colonial Revival style and designed by architect Henry Bacon. Work on the station began in 1908, and it was completed in 1910. It remains in good condition, and is quite attractive. There is a museum inside, but I never got a chance to check it out while I was there.

By now you’ve likely seen the video that last week became a viral sensation – namely a woman arguing with a conductor (and getting kicked off of) a Metro-North train. Uploaded Tuesday by YouTube user Zanzibar78 (real name Casey, age 33, who has now gone “missing”), the video was picked up by a wide range of websites, including the Huffington Post, Gawker and Gothamist. The person that uploaded the video likely had no clue how popular it would get, and has since shut their YouTube account down. But of course, this is the internet. Nothing ever really gets deleted here. Other people who downloaded the video have reuploaded it… and in case you didn’t actually see the video, here it is:

Again, I must say, this is the internet. And most unfortunately for the obnoxious woman, the video was sent to so many people (especially locals) that by Friday afternoon she had been identified. I’m going to refrain from posting her name, but it isn’t hard to find via a google search. Information from her internet profile coincides with information she stated in the video (namely, she’s originally from Garrison), so the ID is likely accurate. Her LinkedIn profile as well as her presence on Twitter and Facebook have been deleted, but need I say it again? This is the internet. People took screenshots of it all before the deletion, and you can find those easily via search as well… including some rather strange photos taken from her Photobucket account before that too was deleted. Someone has even made a fan page for her on Facebook, touting some of her best quotes.

Does this whole situation sound familiar to you, though? It does to me. Have you heard of the “Dog Poop Girl“? The woman was a subway rider in Seoul, South Korea, where she would occasionally take her dog. One day, the dog pooped on the floor of the subway, and despite other passengers asking her to clean it, she refused and got off the train. Someone, of course, took pictures, and she too was identified and harassed via the internet.

And yes, I said harassed – as much as I love this video, as much as I know that maybe, just maybe, this girl will have some sense knocked into her, I also know that someone will take it too far. It doesn’t take much to figure out her address, or even her phone number. But all of that would be, most definitely, going too far. The whole internet now is familiar with what education this girl has had – but she is now becoming “well-educated” in the school of internet vigilantism.

Here is my public service announcement to everyone – you should be nice to your conductor. If you’re an asshole, your picture might just wind up on the internet… especially since there are plenty of sites like Subway Douchery, and Kiss My Commute that would just love to post your picture. Even I’ve been known to post pictures of obnoxious people from time to time. Honestly though, I really shouldn’t have to say this. When you get off the train in the evening, why don’t you say “Good Night”? Or in the morning say “Good Morning.” And maybe “Please” and “Thank You” too. It isn’t hard. After all, it is a conductor that gets your drunk ass home on New Years, and put up with so many people’s crap on a day to day basis. I’ve heard people say things to conductors that I would never even type on this blog (and I certainly have no qualms about using the f-word, these are way beyond that).

Seriously though. Good morning, good night, please, thank you – this is basic stuff you should use throughout your life – not just on the train. Be a nice person, and don’t wind up on the internet. You probably won’t enjoy it if you do.

Despite only having returned from Africa a few weeks ago, I’m all ready for another vacation. Thankfully, I’m taking tomorrow off and will be spending the long weekend relaxing in the Poconos. I’m not even going to bring my laptop – though having my newly-acquired Blackberry somewhat defeats the purpose.

The one thing I couldn’t resist though, was to check and see if there were any interesting old rail stations nearby the place I’m staying. I found a beautiful one on the internet – only to find out that it was gutted by fire several years ago. What is it about train stations and fires? As if we didn’t have enough to worry about from people wanting to tear down history in the name of progress, fires have ravaged quite a few train stations that I’m familiar with. Canaan Union Station was the victim of an arson, Pawling’s station burned in 1984, and even beautiful Sharon had a fire, though it was later restored. The old Ontario and Western station that I happened to stop at last weekend was also the victim of a blaze, and for many years has just sat, lonely and abandoned.

Photos from YouTube video by kizzo11

There is something about HDR photos that somehow lend themselves to portraying the character of an abandoned ruin. Somehow they just feel more lonely, and a bit creepy. I’m not quite sure if I even like these photos, as they might be a little too much. But they do show the character of a once-beautiful station, constructed in 1892, until its apparent “death” in 2004. In the time between then it served as a station, then much later a nightclub, and as a home for various shops. But perhaps, there is hope for this place after all. The Middletown Community Health Center is looking to restore the station over the next three years, at an estimated cost of five-million dollars. Hopefully this place will have a happy ending after all.

Over the past few weeks I’ve posted quite a few of the stations on the Waterbury Branch, so I figured I would hop back over to the Danbury Branch. As I’m sure you’ve noticed these station tours don’t go in any particular order, it just based upon which stations I’ve happened to photograph. I’ve started both the Waterbury and Danbury branches, and I still have quite a few stations left to do, especially on the main line. And of course, that is when I hope I’ll get a chance to ride one of the new M-8′s.

Today we’ll take a short visit to the Danbury station, the terminus of Metro-North’s service on the Danbury Branch. Although the tracks continue further north, Metro-North does not operate beyond here, though making stations in Northern Danbury, Brookfield and New Milford has been proposed. Danbury station is located 65 miles from Grand Central, and has a platform that will accommodate three train cars.

Slightly more interesting than the more modern Metro-North station is the original Danbury Union Station, which is now occupied by the Danbury Railway Museum. The station, built in 1903, is known for being in the movie Strangers on a Train. Metro-North stopped using the station in 1993, and in 1994 restoration began. The restoration on the station was completed in October of 1995.

Ah, Zimbabwe. What exactly can I say about you? You have beautiful landscapes and interesting people, but your president-for-life (not officially, there are “elections”) has run your economy into the shitter…

Case-in-point: I am now a trillionaire.

Mind you, I was told if you wanted a loaf of bread (back when the Zimbabwean currency was actually used – the country now uses either the US Dollar or South African Rand for transactions), you’d need to wait in line at the grocery at 4AM, and of course have that one trillion bill in hand. Despite how poor some of these people are, I really have to say that Zimbabwe has some amazingly talented folks. Young kids that sat around and painted, or people that churned out drawings and carvings in order to sell to the tourists to make a buck… or trade for just about anything (clothing, shoes, pens, bubble gum, they were very much intrigued with sticky-notes). I certainly wished I had brought along more things that I could have given to people – I did trade my brand-new flip flops for a carved wooden basket, and a bag of fruit and a few dollars for a very large carved giraffe (which was a joy to bring home on the plane!!).

One of the ways Zimbabwe makes their money is charging exorbitant fees for entrance. They probably don’t care who comes knocking on their door, as long as they pay the money for the visa. Bringing your own car? There’s another fee for that, too. Because the fees were so high, when I crossed the border into Botswana (and later, back into Zimbabwe), the driver dropped us off at the border, and we had to walk across for another driver. The cars and drivers don’t cross – far too expensive for that. So in terms of train travel, there really aren’t many passenger trains that do cross the border – the fees for cars are high enough, I could only imagine the charge for a train (though there are fancy tours like Rovos Rail that do cross the border, the cost for some of these tours is more than I make in a year, so my assumption is that border crossing charges do somewhat inflate that price).

There is, however, a steam train company in Victoria Falls that goes onto the Victoria Falls Bridge, and sits there so passengers can view the sunset. When investigating about this train, I was quoted a price of $90 dollars per ticket. Just so you are aware, it is probably around a mile from the train station to the bridge – and there was no way in hell I was paying $90 dollars for that (that is a damn expensive mile!). So I never did take a train in Zimbabwe, but I did get some pictures at the station. Included are also some photos of the Victoria Falls Hotel. The hotel is located right next to the station, and they have a private entryway to the platform, on which they seriously roll out a red carpet. For anyone who might ever happen to be in the area, I suggest checking out the hotel. Even if you aren’t staying there, you can still check it out and have tea or a meal. There is a good view of the Victoria Falls bridge from there, and the walls have plenty of old photos of trains and the Victoria Falls station.

On Saturday my family had a surprise birthday party for my father, and I was the one tasked with getting him out of the house while everybody assembled at my parents’ house. Due to the fact that I don’t drive, this was somewhat easy – I just had to get him to give me a ride somewhere. Somehow, I convinced him to go over to Ansonia station so I could take photos, and then to pick up some tools to work on my railroad sign/lights. I punched in the address for Ansonia in the GPS, and when we arrived my Dad was like, “So, where’s the station?” I pointed and said that it was right in front of us. He was confused, “No really, where is it?”

Needless to say, the Ansonia station is very small. I almost don’t even want to call it a station, it is a railroad stop. There is a track, a small low-level platform, a canopy and bus-stop style waiting area, and that is about it. Well, actually there were crows that were probably feasting on something a train had run over, and stacks of Watchtower magazines left by the delightful Jehovah’s Witnesses (people with propaganda love train stations!). On the 71 mile ride to Grand Central, you’ll have plenty of time to read that aforementioned propaganda – especially since there are no direct to Grand Central trains on the Waterbury Branch. Slightly more interesting than the station was the railroad bridge just south of the station, where the tracks cross the Naugatuck River. I waited for the late north-bound train, and didn’t even get that spectacular of a photo.

You know how I said I really liked Chatham? Well, I’ve recently discovered that I like Millerton even more. Millerton is quite charming – and if the railroad still ran there I would probably consider even living there (but the commute would probably kill me). My most recent visit was only the second time I’ve been to Millerton, and of course I had my camera. This time I was able to get photos of the original train station there, built in the 1850′s, though it has been moved at least twice since then. Today the former station operates as a florist.

Millerton itself was a town created pretty much around the railroad. The New York and Harlem Railroad ran through, as well as the Central New England. In fact the name Millerton came from the civil engineer tasked with the construction of the rail, Sidney Miller. Though both of those railroads are long gone today, the town hasn’t lapsed into loneliness and disarray. The Main Street area bustles with people checking out the shops, or using the rail trail. So many towns today are filled with chain and big-box stores and are utterly devoid of character. Millerton is the complete opposite – full of family-owned shops, and old-fashioned in a charming way, yet doesn’t feel dated.

Though the rail is no longer there, the converted rail trail is an attraction that brings in locals and visitors from beyond. The other day I read an article discussing options for bikers from the city that wanted to get out, ride, and make a day of it. By Metro-North, one has two pretty good options for spots: Poughkeepsie on the Hudson Line, and Wassaic on the Harlem Line. Although the article knocks the Harlem down in terms of the view on the journey (I know, I know, the Hudson River is beautiful), it ultimately determines that the Harlem journey is probably the best choice for the biker. The Hudson option provides around 5 miles of trail on which to ride, where the Harlem extends for nearly 11 miles, terminating in the village of Millerton. If you ask me, I’d take Millerton over Poughkeepsie any day, no contest.

In other news, I figured that I would mention the Harlem Valley Rail Ride, which appropriately begins in Millerton and covers some of the original route of the Harlem Division (and of course is now part of the rail trail). The ride will be held this year on July 24th. For anyone that needs, there will be a bus that will pick up riders and their bikes from the city and take them to Millerton. Riders have a choice between 25, 50, 75, and 100 mile routes.

A portion of the fee for entry goes to the cause of supporting and maintaining the Harlem Valley Rail Trail. For more information, be sure to check out the Harlem Valley Rail Ride website.