Despite the fact that I’ve been a Harlem Line rider for most of my life, I didn’t actually live in New York until two years ago (sorry regular readers, I’ve probably said that a million times). I grew up in a small farm town in Connecticut called Southbury. The place would be miserably boring, except for the fact that Interstate 84 bisects the town, making it easier to get to the more populated areas of Waterbury and Danbury. Southbury is just about equally distant from those two, with Danbury to the west and Waterbury to the east. But Danbury and Waterbury branch trains were hardly as frequent and reliable as those on the Harlem Line, so we always took a ride to either Brewster or Southeast and boarded the train from there.

Southbury isn’t much of a farmtown anymore, however. Many of the farms have been sold for commercial purposes. The place where I used to pick pumpkins as a child is now a strip mall, complete with grocery and office supply stores. A once-grassy hill is now home to a chain pharmacy. After the place had been constructed, a few finishing details were added to the outside of the building: one of which was the address. 14 Depot Hill. Apparently the construction workers were hardly typographers, and didn’t place the ‘p’ on the proper baseline, making it look like ‘DePot.’ It prompted an editorial in the local newspaper, reminding the town of why exactly the road was called Depot Hill – it was once the location of a long-gone railroad depot.

I had known there was a railroad past in the town. In school it was briefly discussed – including the head-on collision between two trains that supposedly was the end of the railroad. After reading much on the subject of rail history, I seriously doubted this. Railroading wasn’t the safest occupation, and accidents happened frequently. I hardly believed an accident would cause the line to be shut down. But on December 10, 1892 two trains did collide – and the engineer and conductor on one were thrown in jail for apparently forgetting they were scheduled to wait on a siding for an oncoming train to pass. It didn’t mark the end of the rail line, though.

Southbury’s station was part of the New York and New England Railroad, which operated from 1849 to 1898. In 1898 the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad leased the line. Service to Southbury continued until 1948. Today there is hardly any evidence that a railroad ran through the town, except for Depot Hill, and a few remaining portions of the railroad trestle bridge that spanned Lake Zoar. Some of the former rail bed has been converted into the Larkin State Bridle Trail. Below are some photos of the railroad around my old town that I found in a few books and such. Most of them aren’t the best quality.

I am not 100% sure that the railroad bridge shown in the last historical picture corresponds with the remaining trestles that are there today (two bottom photos). The geography doesn’t quite match… though it is possible that the photo was taken before the Stevenson Dam was erected, which presumably altered that area, creating Lake Zoar. If anybody knows more about this, or actually has a photo that is definitely of that railroad bridge, leave me a comment!

On my childhood journeys over the river and through the woods to get to my grandmother’s house, I always passed by the train station in New Milford. I never thought about stopping until more recently, where I snapped a few photos. This Housatonic Railroad station doesn’t get much action, though there have been thoughts to extend the Danbury Branch the three more miles up to New Milford. Then again there have also been suggestions of eliminating the Danbury Branch altogether. Oh wait, never mind.

Today the station serves as the New Milford Chamber of Commerce, which hosts various events. The day I was there, there was a book signing and tons of people, so I didn’t go in to take any photos. An upcoming event that may be of interest, however, is the 23rd Annual Hands On Train Display, which will be in the station from December 18th to December 31st, 12 pm to 4 pm daily. The event is free, but is closed on Christmas day.
For more information about the event, click here.

 
Photo Credits: Danbury Railway Museum Newsletter

The Danbury Railway Museum always hosts holiday events, and Christmastime is no exception. Santa’s Railway rides will be running Saturdays December 11 and 18, starting at noon, and Sundays December 5, 12, and 19, starting at 12:30. Trains are every half hour, and run until 3:30. Reserving your tickets in advance is suggested. Admission is $8, which includes the ride, a gift, and of course, a visit with the big man himself, Santa Claus.
For more information, or to reserve tickets, click here.

To some of you this may be new, to some perhaps common knowledge, but I must admit, I get asked these questions quite frequently and figured I’d answer publicly. Can you use your Metro-North ticket on other lines? Is there a ticket that will allow you to ride all of the Metro-North system? I was asked these questions most recently by a coworker (Eric this is for you!). I didn’t think that you could, but I wasn’t 100% sure, and I told him I would get the official word. As for a ticket that would let you ride any Metro-North train, well I didn’t think it existed – but yes, it does in fact exist.

Below are two official “Conversion charts” for Metro-North tickets. Because the system spans the two states of New York and Connecticut, there are some catches. Any ticket on the Harlem and Hudson lines, as they are both in New York, are completely interchangeable. If the two zones that you leaving and arriving from correspond with the zones on the alternate line, the ticket is valid. My ticket from Goldens Bridge to Grand Central on the Harlem Line would also be valid from Peekskill to Grand Central on the Hudson Line, as both Goldens Bridge and Peekskill are in Zone 6. However, because parts of the New Haven line are in Connecticut, taxes and fees are paid to/by the state for each ticket. If you buy a single ride on the Harlem Line and try to use it on the New Haven, you circumvented that. Thus tickets (with the exception of weeklys and monthlys) purchased on the Harlem and Hudson Lines are not valid on the New Haven. Similarly, ones bought on the New Haven can’t be used for the Harlem and Hudson.

But, here’s the catch: It is permitted to use your monthly or weekly from the Harlem and Hudson on the New Haven line, and the other way around. So if you were to purchase a weekly ticket from Wassaic to Grand Central (the furthest fare zones apart) you could effectively ride any train to any location on all three lines for the whole week. Or in the case of the monthly, for an entire month.

Despite living rather close to Danbury, I had never visited the Danbury Railway Museum. Today I decided to change that, and went exploring to the museum. It was quite an incredible day, the temperature really warmed up compared to last week. And the sky was amazingly blue, and quite beautiful.

The inside of the museum was not too bad, though it felt more geared towards children. There were a lot of model railways, with buttons you could press to operate. I did like their collection of uniforms and conductor hats. I must admit though, the fun part of a trip to any train museum are the trains themselves. I spent a lot more time out and exploring the trains and the rail yard, than I did inside. The fact that a young child of about four kept following me and pulling on my pant leg inside probably played a bit in that decision as well.

If you’re interested in finding out more information about the museum, or taking a visit, you can get to their site by clicking here. Looks like they are in desperate need of a new website though, as it totally looks like a circa-1997 geocities website! The museum is definitely worth the visit though, and I’ll certainly have to go back after April. They do run trains on which you can ride, but they don’t do so during the winter, apparently.

[nggallery id=14]