Yesterday I featured the only outstanding New Haven Line branch station on our Tuesday Tour, Springdale. Now that the branches are complete, I thought it might be nice to post one of my favorite images from each station in a single gallery. It gives you a quick idea of what each branch is like, and a glimpse into the life of a commuter from each station. The locales photographed vary from outstanding examples of historical stations and well-known landmarks, to bare-bones, concrete platforms that are just barely stations. Each branch terminates at a historically-important station, though only one of the three is being used in its original capacity as a passenger station.

The photographs below were taken on eight separate days, ranging from early March to mid-October.

The New Canaan Branch:

The New Canaan branch is the shortest of the three (8.2 miles), and the closest to Grand Central. It is also the only branch that is currently electrified. The branch first came into being when chartered as the New Canaan Railroad in 1866. By 1890 it had become a part of the The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.

The awesome: New Canaan station may be the nicest station of all three branches (one could argue that Waterbury is more iconic, however it is no longer in use by the railroad, whereas New Canaan is).
Most underwhelming: Everything other than New Canaan.

The Danbury Branch:

Of the three New Haven Line branches, the Danbury Branch has the most stations, with a total of seven. Though the line continues further north, Metro-North service terminates at Danbury. The original Danbury station still exists, though it is not used by Metro-North. Service first began here in 1852, and the rail line was known as the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad. In the late 1800′s the line was leased to the Housatonic Railroad, and later the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. By 1925 the track was electrified, but due to a poor economic situation, it was de-electrified in 1961.

The awesome: Danbury’s original station, yard, and turntable, now occupied the Danbury Railway Museum. Bethel’s old station is now a bike shop (I never got a photo of it). Cannondale’s old station is also lovely.
Most underwhelming: Without a doubt, Merritt 7. It is the only New Haven Line station without the typical Metro-North station sign, and is probably the most bare-bones station listed here.

The Waterbury Branch:

The Waterbury branch is Metro-North’s easternmost branch, and it diverges from the main line just east of Stratford. Although service terminates in Waterbury, the tracks do continue further north, and are used by the Railroad Museum of New England. Waterbury is located 87.5 miles from Grand Central – making it the furthest from the city in rail miles. The branch was originally chartered in 1845 as the Naugatuck Railroad (named after the river the tracks run alongside), and construction was completed by 1849. It was merged with the The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1906. Today, the branch has a reputation of serving both commuters and many sketchy people.

The awesome: Waterbury’s historical station (no longer used by the railroad) is one of, if not the most iconic structures in the city. The Naugatuck Historical Society is housed in their old station, which is also nice. You can get cool photos of the railroad bridge in Ansonia.
Most underwhelming: Beacon Falls and Ansonia. Oh, and don’t leave your car or any other valuables at Waterbury.

Do you have a favorite?

If I had to pick the branch that I liked the best, I’d have a difficult time of it. New Canaan is certainly my favorite station, but the rest of the branch is relatively boring. The Danbury branch has the adorably-cute Cannondale, and the old station which is now a museum. The sketchy people of the Waterbury branch make me weary of choosing it as my favorite, despite the fact that I like that little railroad bridge over the Naugatuck river. It is, however, undeniable that Waterbury has the most recognizable old station – though it is debatable whether people actually realize it was once a train station. We can settle this right now, with a poll. Vote for your favorite branch here:

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Photo of Springdale station, April 1933

Springdale station, June 1966. Although this older station had a canopy, it was taken down when newer, high-level platforms were constructed. The station was renovated in 2010, and a canopy installed, protecting commuters from the elements.

Springdale is about 37 miles from Grand Central, and has an average travel time of just under an hour during peak periods. During off-peak hours a transfer at Stamford is most likely necessary, increasing travel time to around an hour and a half. The station doesn’t have much in terms of amenities (there are no TVMs, for example), but it does have a brand new 400-foot canopy that was built in 2010, at a cost of around a million dollars. The canopy does quite a bit to make the station look more substantial and attractive, something that fellow branch line stations Glenbrook and Talmadge Hill lack (Glenbrook, however, seems to be next in line to get an upgrade).

On today’s Tuesday Tour we’ll be taking a quick look at Milford station. Milford is actually the first New Haven Line station I had ever been to, many years ago. In terms of photography, however, it was one of the last stations I photographed earlier this month. At about 63 miles from Grand Central, it is at the end portion of the New Haven main line. Travel time to the city is around an hour and a half or more.

Years ago the platform at the station was only long enough to accommodate four train cars, however it has been since elongated and can now fit ten cars. There are three tracks at the station, and two platforms for accessing these tracks. One can cross over to the opposite side by taking a stairwell and walking under the tracks. Although the high-level platforms generally discourage idiots from attempting to cross over the tracks, it has probably happened, hence the spray-painted note from the “Railroad Police.”

Metro-North conductor Bobby has some nice observations about the changes at Milford, which are certainly worth taking the time to check out.

 
Old views of Milford station, circa 1950.

Train approaching Milford station. Freight house is visible on the right (it is also visible in the first shot above, in the far background)

When it comes to uses for old, repurposed train stations, Milford has been converted into something a bit different. The old station now goes by the name of the Eastbound Theatre, and is in use by the Milford Fine Arts Council. The side of the building facing the tracks has a sign that reads “Milford Center for the Arts.” Checking out a play at that theatre must be an interesting experience every time an express train passes by.

Glenbrook station, 1935

If there was ever to be a competition for the most seemingly mundane station on the New Haven Line, the station our tour visits today, Glenbrook, would be high on the list of contenders (likely along with Ansonia). Glenbrook is along the New Canaan Branch, just north of Stamford, and about 35 miles from Grand Central. The four-car platform is wedged between two grade crossings, and faces the backs of several buildings. Besides the bus stop style shelters on the platform, there is no canopy, and no protection from the elements. Like the rest of the stations along the branch (with the exception of New Canaan) there are no ticket vending machines at Glenbrook. The only other things one can actually find on the platform are the typical station trash bins, a few wire benches, and a newspaper vending machine that looks like it is never filled.

Mural at Glenbrook Station

Beneath the unremarkable exterior of this small railroad station, however, is a story. Most of the building backs the platform faces are just grey concrete – a few of them have advertisements – but one has a mural. The mural that faces the platform was commissioned by the wife of former Glenbrook commuter Sean Rooney, and it depicts his favorite golf course. Every morning Rooney would wake, just as many of us commuters do, and head to the station to await the morning Metro-North train to get to work. But unlike many of the other commuters with whom he waited on the platform, one evening ten years ago Rooney never managed to catch that train home. Rooney worked on the 98th floor of the World Trade Center’s south tower, and died when that building collapsed on September 11th, 2001. The mural’s colors are not only a tribute to the life of a man, a fellow commuter, but bring a small bit of life to an otherwise grey and drab railroad station.

Renderings of the completed Fairfield Metro property [image credit]

Many of the stations that I feature on this site have a rich history that I really enjoy to dig in to. There is nothing that I love more than to unearth old photographs or drawings of stations from nearly a century before I was born. Today’s featured station is the complete opposite of that, as it is brand spankin’ new. In the years since Metro-North’s takeover, a handful of new stations have opened on all three of the main east of Hudson lines. The Harlem Line has pushed further north, reclaiming once-lost territory up to Wassaic. The new Yankee stadium station is the Hudson line’s gem. But the newest station of them all is Fairfield Metro – the first new station on the New Haven main line in many, many years.

Former Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell at the site of the under construction Fairfield Metro in April 2010 [image credit]

   
Construction photos of Fairfield Metro in May 2010 [image credit]

Construction at the Fairfield Metro site in September 2010 [image credit]

Although the opening of a new station is not greeted with quite as much pomp and circumstance as yesteryear, people are still convinced that this new station is “transformational” for Fairfield. Unfortunately, the project has lingered and has been surrounded by controversy for many years: the soil at the site was contaminated, the developer went into foreclosure, the project was millions over budget, and the residents of Fairfield absolutely hated the station’s name.

And months before even being scheduled to open, Fairfield Metro was already covered in graffiti [image credit]

Eventually, everything did manage to fall into place, and an opening date of December 5th was announced. An official ribbon-cutting ceremony to symbolically open the station was held last Friday, and was attended by Connecticut’s governor Dannel Malloy. Train service commenced yesterday, marking the official opening of Metro-North’s newest station.

 
  
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy and Fairfield Selectman Michael Tetreau at the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday. [Image credit, credit 2]

Two days before train service officially began, I got a chance to check out the new station. It is situated between the original Fairfield station and Bridgeport, and 53 miles to Grand Central. The average travel time to and from the city is around an hour and fifteen minutes. Fairfield Metro is the third station for the town of Fairfield, and will hopefully alleviate some of the parking difficulties at the original Fairfield station, where the waiting list for a parking pass supposedly has over 3,000 names. It is estimated that Fairfield Metro will serve 2,500 to 4,000 daily passengers. In terms of amenities the station is currently bare-bones, but when the whole metro center is complete it is planned to have a coffee shop, newsstand, florist, bank, dry cleaners, various restaurants, a health club, and even a park.

Although the town didn’t get to name their station (otherwise we’d probably be calling it Black Rock), they did get to name the new street on which the station lies. Fairfield Metro can be found on 61 Constant Comment Way. And yes, it is named after the tea.

Postcard view of the station, labeled as Saugatuck. This card was postmarked 1915.

Today’s stop on our ongoing tour of the New Haven Line is Westport, a lovely station with a miniature identity crisis. Although Metro-North refers to this station simply as “Westport,” historically it has been called “Westport & Saugatuck.” The old station building that still remains – built around 1880 – also lists the name as “Westport Saugatuck” on the front. However, it seems that many of the locals refer to the station simply as “Saugatuck,” the name of the portion of Westport where the station resides. For consistency’s sake, I’ll use the Metro-North designation of “Westport” hereon.

Old train tickets listing the station name as Westport & Saugatuck

Much of Westport’s charm derives from the lovely station building, which was renovated in 2004. The station still contains the original ticket window, however Metro-North no longer staffs this window and tickets are sold through on-platform TVMs. Besides the obvious waiting-room and bathrooms the station contains, it also has a small book swap shelf, courtesy of the Westport Public Library (this is the second New Haven Line station I’ve featured with a book swap shelf. Redding was the first. I absolutely love the idea). During the aforementioned renovations an additional tunnel under the tracks was installed, with elevator, as to meet ADA guidelines. Though the main station is on the New York/westbound side of the tracks, another station building exists on the opposite side, which is used as a taxi stand and contains a car rental office. This building looks significantly more beat-up, and is covered in a layer of paint that has cracked over the many years.

 
  

1950′s photographs of Westport station

Photo of a 1912 train wreck that occurred near the station.

Westport is a lovely little station, surrounded by an interesting neighborhood, of which residents are extremely proud – despite the many changes over the years. Thanks to the railroad (which first arrived in 1848), getting to Westport station is relatively easy. The station is about 44 miles away from Grand Central, and travel time is about an hour and ten minutes.

Welcome to Talmadge Hill – the station just south of New Canaan on that eponymous branch of the New Haven Line. Although New Canaan station is quite charming, the remainder of the stations on the branch are fairly regular and unremarkable, and this station is no different. Talmadge Hill is small – the platform accommodates four train cars – and it straddles the space between Talmadge Hill Road and the Merritt Parkway. The majority of the platform is of typical concrete – however the north end on the Merritt Parkway side is a metal grate, which was added on later. From this side of the platform you can get a pretty good view of the Merritt, and the steady stream of automobiles that pass under the railroad tracks. Because of the station’s placement between these two roads, lengthening the platform any further would be extremely difficult. Trains picking up passengers at the station extend out into the road at the grade crossing, temporarily halting traffic on Talmadge Hill Road.

Photo of Talmadge Hill in 1954

Although I mentioned most of the New Canaan branch stations are unremarkable in comparison with New Canaan itself, Talmadge Hill provides a stark contrast. Where New Canaan is beautiful, historical, and most obviously cared for, Talmadge Hill is apparently not. There is a bit of graffiti on the station name signs, and the platform has stencil-lettered tags that say “Authorised Graffiti Area” in black paint. Even the underside of the platform has been tagged and painted over – though you’d never see it from a train. Clearly Talmadge Hill isn’t the worst station in the Metro-North system, but it certainly isn’t the best.

Older Larchmont station that was replaced by the current station

1955 sketch of the replacement Larchmont station

Today’s stop on the tour of the New Haven Line is Larchmont, one of the handful of stations on the line located in New York state. Larchmont, situated about 18 miles from Grand Central and in between New Rochelle and Mamaroneck, is a rather unique set-up. The station and platform run parallel to Interstate 95 – and the parking garage for the station is constructed over the highway. The older station was demolished around the 1950′s when the highway was being constructed, and was replaced with what we have now.

  
 
  
 
 
The photos above are all from the collection of the Larchmont Public Library

Larchmont has all the newest Metro-North train tech, with both video boards in the overpass that list the next nine trains, as well as announcement boards over the platform that identifies the next train and where it will be stopping. These are standard at larger train stations, such as Harlem-125th and White Plains. There is a small station building, but it was closed during my visit. Which is unfortunate, because there was an Arts for Transit mosaic in there which I didn’t really get to see. I still must wonder why the heck Arts for Transit places artwork in station buildings that are most often closed. The forty foot long mosaic is by artist Joy Taylor and is titled The Four Seasons.

Taylor isn’t a stranger to Metro-North and Arts for Transit – she submitted a proposal for the sculpture at Wassaic station, which was ultimately not selected (the piece by Anne Huibregtse that was selected was a perfect match for the station). From the photos on the internet I’ve seen, the mosaic looks beautiful, however I never got a good look at it. You’ll find a single photo of the mosaic below (taken through the window of the locked station), along with the rest of my photos from Larchmont station.

On this Tuesday’s tour we’re taking a quick look at the New Haven Line station East Norwalk. It is far smaller, and much less interesting than its neighbor South Norwalk, which we’ve already featured on the site. East Norwalk is 42 miles from Grand Central, and has a travel time of a little over an hour to the city.

From visiting Harlem Line stations, I’m very familiar with the “normal” station layout where the east and westbound platforms are across from one another. Usually these stations also have a relatively easy way of passing from one side to the other – either a passageway under the tracks, or a stairwell that links the two above the tracks. East Norwalk, however, is a deviation from the norm. Quite a few of the New Haven Line stations do not have east and west platforms directly across from one another, and this is true here. Also, passing to the opposite platform is not easy at all – it requires you to descend a stairwell, walk around, cross a busy street, and then reascend on the other side.

Photos of the East Norwalk station, taken in 1955. Note the low-level platforms, and the fences protecting the inner two express tracks.

As I said, our tour of East Norwalk will be rather quick – I didn’t take too many photographs while I was there. But there are photos of both sides of the platform, and in a few you can see how far the other side of the platform is. The station building visible in a few of the photos is on the westbound side.

When I first started out doing a little bit of research on the railroad station in Rye, I was rather disappointed. I was coming up dry in a lot of areas – I couldn’t really find anything tremendously noteworthy about the station to write about. Apparently, I hadn’t looked hard enough, as the information I eventually found turned out to be an absolute gem. In fact, it is downright crazy, and I’m warning you in advance. This may have been the most amusing research investigation I have, or will ever go on.

Enter artist Matt Mullican. Mullican is the artist behind the recently installed Arts for Transit mosaic in the Rye station. I’ve already gone on record with my opinion of art being installed in frequently closed train stations, so I wont get into that again. Thankfully, there are plenty of windows in the Rye station, and I was able to get a few shots of the work inside through them. Apparently the mosaic is based upon the works of designer and architect Marcel Breuer. If you’ve ever been to IKEA in New Haven, you probably remember some odd looking building right next to it – it is the last remaining portion of the Breuer designed Pirelli Tire Building. Breuer also designed pieces of furniture that look like they could be sold in an IKEA, and he almost gave us this abomination:

So why exactly did Mullican pay homage to Breuer in his mosaic? Apparently Breuer was the architect for the (original) Rye train station. Arts for Transit has used the talents of countless artists, many of which have a rather diverse body of work. I’d be willing to go out on a limb here and say that Mullican definitely deserves a spot on the list of most interesting artists the program has employed. In his artist statement regarding the piece, it is said that “Mullican is concerned with the relationship between perception and reality.” And although not completely relevant to this post, the following YouTube video was too good for me to not post.

How does one perceive reality while under hypnosis? Oh my, what is he doing to the floor?

Back on the subject of railroads, Rye is one of the handful of New Haven Line stations in New York state. It is 24 miles from Grand Central, and during off-peak hours takes about 50 minutes to get to the city. However, during peak hours some trains make the journey in as little as 35 minutes. During the summer months many take the train to Rye station, enroute to the Playland amusement park. Besides that, Rye is pretty much a station like any other. Below you’ll find some old video clips I found on YouTube, and of course, the photos I took on my recent exploration of Rye.

Old footage I found on YouTube of Rye and other New Haven Line stations.