A train at Holyoke, Massachusetts along the New Haven and Northampton main line in the 1890s. This portion of the line is now operated by the Pioneer Valley Railroad.
The New Haven and Northampton Railroad (founded as the New Haven and Northampton Company, also known as the Canal Line) was a railroad originally built alongside a canal between 1847 and 1850 in Connecticut. Leased by the New York and New Haven Railroad from 1849 to 1869, the railroad expanded northwards to Massachusetts and its second namesake city in 1859. Upon the end of the lease in 1869, the company expanded further into Massachusetts, reaching as far north as Shelburne and Turners Falls.
After a fight for control of the company by several other railroads in the 1880s, the New Haven and Northampton was leased by New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1887. The company continued to exist as a lessor until October 26, 1910, when it was formally merged into the New Haven system. In the 20th century, much of the line was gradually abandoned, though two portions continue to see freight service as of 2021. The vast majority of the abandoned line is now part of either the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail (FCHT), with the right of way owned by the State of Connecticut, or the proposed New Haven and Northampton Canal Greenway which includes the FCHT.
The New Haven and Northampton began in the 1820s as a canal company.[1][2] It operated a canal which, upon its opening in 1835, provided a connection between New Haven, Connecticut, and Northampton, Massachusetts.[1] Despite the belief of its promoters that the canal would carry a significant amount of business, the expected levels of traffic never materialized, thanks in large part to the completion of the parallel Hartford and New Haven Railroad a few years after the opening of the canal.[2] Additionally, the canal was only operable for eight months of the year, as it closed during the winter.[1]
In the early 1840s, the canal was bought by New Haven businessman Joseph Earl Sheffield, who came to the conclusion that the struggling canal could work much better if it were converted to a railroad.[2]
As a railroad
Formation
Following authorization in May 1846 by the Connecticut General Assembly to switch from a canal company to a railroad company, work began on building a railroad along the canal right of way.[2] Starting in New Haven, the railroad reached Plainville, 27 miles (43km) away, by the end of 1847. In 1850, it was joined by the Hartford, Providence & Fishkill Railroad's line between Hartford and Waterbury.[3] The first trains ran in January 1848, though construction continued northwards to Granby.[2]
Expansion and lease by the New York and New Haven Railroad
On January 11, 1848, the New York and New Haven Railroad leased the line between New Haven and Plainville for 20 years effective on July 1, 1849, for a price of $45,000 per year.[2][3] Meanwhile, the New Haven and Northampton continued to build north. In 1849, the Canal Line made an attempt to reach Springfield, Massachusetts, and requested charters from the Massachusetts and Connecticut legislatures authorizing such an extension. This ran into intense opposition, both from the competing Hartford and New Haven Railroad, and from legislators in both states.[4] Opponents argued that the New Haven and Northampton's charter authorized it to build a railroad "on or near" the right of way of the previous canal. This granted the company the freedom to diverge slightly from the canal's route where necessary by terrain or other obstacles, but also constrained them to follow the canal's general route, from New Haven northward towards Granby, and therefore not towards Springfield.[4] The matter went to the Connecticut Superior Court, where a judge ruled that the railroad could not build towards Springfield, as doing so would violate its charter.[5]
Between 1849 and 1850, two branch lines were constructed. The first was between Farmington and Collinsville, where it connected with Samuel W. Collins's Collins Company, a major manufacturer.[6] The other was a short extension connecting Simsbury to Tariffville.[2] Both opened in 1850, as did the extension of the main line to Granby. Almost immediately after they opened, the New York and New Haven leased these as well, effective April 25, 1850, for an additional $40,000 per year.[3]
The New York and New Haven was motivated to lease the Canal Line as leverage in negotiations with the Hartford and New Haven. If the New Haven and Northampton were built to Northampton, it would be in direct competition with the H&NH's line between New Haven and Springfield, Massachusetts.[2] These negotiations concluded with the New York and New Haven agreeing that the Canal Line would not build north of Granby, and only limited connecting service was to be made available with the HP&F in Plainville, since traffic could potentially travel between New Haven and Hartford via a transfer in that city. In return, the Hartford and New Haven contributed approximately $12,000 a year towards the New York and New Haven's payments for its lease of the Canal Line.[3] This arrangement upset the communities along the Canal Line, such as Southington, which were left with poor service to and from Connecticut's capital city.[7]
In spite of the "gentlemen's agreement" between the Hartford and New Haven and the New York and New Haven, the Canal Line's proponents were determined to still reach Northampton. To this end, in 1849 an officially unrelated company was created under the name of the Farmington Valley Railroad, which received a charter from the Connecticut legislature to build a rail line northwards from Granby 4.5 miles (7.2km) to the Massachusetts state line.[2][3] Soon after it opened, the New Haven and Northampton acquired a 1,000 year lease of the new company for $10,000.[3]
Building in Massachusetts proved to be more difficult, as several railroads in that state were determined to keep the New Haven and Northampton confined to Connecticut, most of all the Hartford and New Haven.[2] The New Haven and Northampton's charter allowed it to build in Connecticut, but it lacked an equivalent charter from the state of Massachusetts. Two more small companies were established in 1852 and promptly received charters from the Massachusetts General Court; the Hampden Railroad was to build from the state line to Westfield, Massachusetts, while the Northampton and Westfield Railroad would build from Westfield to Northampton.[2] In 1853, these two companies merged to form the Hampshire and Hampden Railroad, the name derived from the Hampshire and Hampden Canal which was once the Massachusetts portion of the Farmington Canal.[2] The combined line between Granby and Northampton opened in 1856, and remained independent until October 1, 1859, when the New Haven and Northampton acquired a 999-year lease of the Hampshire and Hampden in exchange for agreeing to assume $200,000 of the latter company's bonds.[3] All three of these smaller companies were formally consolidated with the New Haven and Northampton on July 1, 1862.[8]
In 1867, construction began on a branch from Northampton to Williamsburg. The eight-mile (13km) branch opened in 1868.[2]
Independent operations
The former New Haven and Northampton depot in Northampton, Massachusetts, c. 1880s
The New York and New Haven Railroad's lease of the New Haven and Northampton expired in 1869, and was not renewed.[2] From the start, the New York and New Haven had been suffering a significant loss from its lease of the Canal Line, losing between $35,000 and $45,000 per year.[3][7] By 1860, the New York and New Haven had lost over $250,000 from the lease, while the Hartford and New Haven lost a further $120,000.[3] Thus, the New Haven and Northampton was an independent company for the first time in 20 years. The company quickly began to expand its lines at this time, nearly immediately starting construction on an extension of the Collinsville Branch to Pine Meadow, the site of a tool manufacturer.[6] This extension opened for traffic in 1870, and was further expanded to New Hartford, Connecticut, in 1876.[2] Construction between Collinsville and New Hartford was along a narrow gorge following the Farmington River. It was reported that construction along the river was so difficult that the area was nicknamed "Satan's Kingdom".[6]
In Massachusetts, the New Haven and Northampton built a branch from North Westfield to Holyoke in 1871, a distance of nine miles (14km).[2] Here, the company connected with the Connecticut River Railroad.[2]
The New Haven and Northampton began a switch from iron to steel rails in 1872, which were stronger and better able to handle increasingly heavy trains.[9]
In the early 1880s, two additional branches were built. The first was the 18-mile (29km) long Shelburne Falls Extension, built in 1881 between Northampton and Shelburne via South Deerfield.[2] The following year, the nine-mile (14km) long Turners Falls branch was built between South Deerfield and Turners Falls.[2]
Assumption of control by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
The station in Avon, Connecticut, seen circa 1907 to 1915. This building is preserved in Avon approximately half a mile north of its original location.
A battle for control of the New Haven and Northampton began in 1880, when the Boston and Albany Railroad, an east–west line in Massachusetts, chose a new president. The new president, William Bliss, had a plan to compete with the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (formed by the merger of the Hartford and New Haven and the New York and New Haven in 1872). Bliss sought to take control of the New Haven and Northampton to secure a competing route for traffic between New York City and Boston. For the new few years, the Boston and Albany began purchasing shares of the Canal Line, driving a more than three-fold increase in share price.[10]
The president of the New Haven Railroad was said to have learned of rumors about the Boston and Albany's plans from a mention in a Springfield newspaper in March 1881. The New Haven's executives were greatly alarmed, as "For years they had been haunted by the bugaboo of a parallel railroad between New Haven and New York, and here it was about to be materialized as a part of a new through line from New York to Boston."[10] The executives decided to buy the shares still held by Joseph Sheffield, who controlled more than half the company's stock. Upon visiting him, Sheffield told the New Haven's representatives that he would sell to them, but only for $100 per share (equivalent to $2,682in 2020). Despite the steep asking price, the New Haven agreed to buy all of Sheffield's shares for a total price of $1,229,800 (equivalent to $32,979,843in 2020), much to the anger of the Boston and Albany, which had also been attempting to obtain his shares.[10] Now having control of a majority of the Canal Line's stock, the New Haven installed new directors which supported its interests.[10]
The New Haven leased the Canal Line in 1887, ending its independence.[2] While the Canal Line was only mildly profitable for its new owners, the New Haven judged the costs of allowing a competitor such as the Boston and Albany or the New York and New England Railroad to take control to be far higher.[11] The New Haven and Northampton continued to exist on paper until it was finally merged into the New Haven on October 26, 1910.[12]
20th century
Entering the 20th century, the New Haven and Northampton was considered a secondary route compared to the parallel New Haven–Springfield Line. The first cuts to the railroad came in 1919, when the branches to Shelburne and Turners Falls were both placed out of service.[2] While freight service resumed on the Turners Falls branch a few years later, the tracks between Shelburne and South Deerfield were formally abandoned in 1925.[2]
The Turners Falls branch and the remaining portion of the Shelburne Extension were both abandoned in 1943, but the final four miles (6.4km) of the former line were purchased by the Boston and Maine in 1947 and returned to service.[2]
In 1956, the New Hartford branch was cut back to Collinsville.[2] The Collins Company, the line's biggest customer, shut its doors in 1966, leading the remainder of the branch to be abandoned two years later.[2][13]
The former New Haven and Northampton right of way is now a trail in Hamden, Connecticut, and bears the logo of the former railroad.
The New Haven was merged into the Penn Central Transportation Company on January 1, 1969. That year, the main line was cut back from Northampton to Easthampton, and the Williamsburg Branch abandoned in its entirety.[2] In the middle of the 1970s, the railroad line's connection to the Northeast Corridor was severed due to low clearance under a bridge which made it impossible for modern railroad cars to access the line.[2] Traffic to and from the southern portion of the line had to be routed via Plainville from this time onwards.[2]
Penn Central went bankrupt in 1970, and the federal government got involved, ultimately creating Conrail in 1976. The remaining lines were included in Conrail, with the exception of the segment between Simsbury and Westfield, which was abandoned.[2] This left the former New Haven and Northampton as two separate lines. To save the five miles between Avon and Simsbury, the state of Connecticut agreed to subsidize Conrail operations over that segment.[2]
Conrail sold its Connecticut portion of the Canal Line to the Boston and Maine, while the Massachusetts lines went to the newly formed Pioneer Valley Railroad.[2] The line between Avon and Simsbury was abandoned at this time, and the Boston and Maine further cut the line back to Plainville in 1991. Meanwhile, the southern portion in Connecticut was cut back to Cheshire in 1987.[2]
21st century
In the 21st century, the remaining Connecticut portion of the Canal Line is operated by Pan Am Railways between Plainville and Southington, while the Pioneer Valley Railroad operates the remnants in Massachusetts. The majority of the abandoned right of way in Connecticut and Massachusetts has been railbanked and converted into several different rail trails, chiefly the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail.[14]
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated principally in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of the New York and New Haven and Hartford and New Haven railroads, the company had near-total dominance of railroad traffic in Southern New England for the first half of the 20th century.
The Farmington River is a river, 46.7 miles (75.2 km) in length along its main stem, located in northwest Connecticut with major tributaries extending into southwest Massachusetts. The longest route of the river, from the origin of its West Branch, is 80.4 miles (129.4 km) long, making it the Connecticut River's longest tributary by 2.3 miles (3.7 km) over the major river directly to its north, the Westfield River. The Farmington River's watershed covers 609 square miles (1,580 km2). Historically, the river played an important role in small-scale manufacturing in towns along its course, but it is now mainly used for recreation and drinking water.
The Providence and Worcester Railroad is a Class II railroad operating 612 miles (985 km) of tracks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, as well as New York via trackage rights. The company was founded in 1844 to build a railroad between Providence, Rhode Island, and Worcester, Massachusetts, and ran its first trains in 1847. A successful railroad, the P&W subsequently expanded with a branch to East Providence, Rhode Island, and for a time leased two small Massachusetts railroads. Originally a single track, its busy mainline was double-tracked after a fatal 1853 collision in Valley Falls, Rhode Island.
The Central New England Railway was a railroad from Hartford, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts, west across northern Connecticut and across the Hudson River on the Poughkeepsie Bridge to Maybrook, New York. It was part of the Poughkeepsie Bridge Route, an alliance between railroads for a passenger route from Washington to Boston, and was acquired by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad in 1904.
The New York and New England Railroad (NY&NE) was a railroad connecting southern New York State with Hartford, Connecticut; Providence, Rhode Island; and Boston, Massachusetts. It operated under that name from 1873 to 1893. Prior to 1873 it was known as the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad, which had been formed from several smaller railroads that dated back to 1846. After a bankruptcy in 1893, the NY&NE was reorganized and briefly operated as the New England Railroad before being leased to the competing New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1898.
The Norfolk County Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts, United States. Chartered as two different companies in 1846 and 1847, it completed a rail line between Dedham and Blackstone in 1849. A branch to Medway, Massachusetts was built in 1852. The railroad was leased by the Boston and New York Central Railroad, succeeded by the Boston and Providence Railroad and the East Thompson Railroad, before the Norfolk County Railroad returned to independent operation in 1858. In 1866, the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad leased the Norfolk County. The Rhode Island and Massachusetts Railroad was completed in 1877 from Franklin southward to Valley Falls, Rhode Island, and became a branch of the Norfolk County mainline. The northernmost portion of the main line from Islington to Dedham was rerouted to the east in 1881, and the original alignment abandoned two years later. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad assumed operation of the Norfolk County lines in 1898.
The New York and New Haven Railroad (NY&NH) was a railroad connecting New York City to New Haven, Connecticut, along the shore of Long Island Sound. It opened in 1849, and in 1872 it merged with the Hartford & New Haven Railroad to form the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. The line is now the Metro-North Railroad New Haven Line and part of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.
The Housatonic Railroad is a Class III railroad operating in southwestern New England and eastern New York. It was chartered in 1983 to operate a short section of ex-New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in northwestern Connecticut, and has since expanded north and south, as well as west into New York State.
The Central New England Railroad is a railroad in and near Hartford, Connecticut. It began operations in 1995 on former Conrail trackage.
The Farmington Canal, also known as the New Haven and Northampton Canal, was a major private canal built in the early 19th century to provide water transportation from New Haven into the interior of Connecticut, Massachusetts and beyond. Its Massachusetts segment was known as the Hampshire and Hampden Canal. With the advent of railroads, it was quickly converted to a railroad in the mid-19th century and in recent years has been converted to a multi-use trail after being abandoned for years.
Connecticut Route 10 is a state highway that runs between New Haven and the state line near Granby. It continues north of the state line as Massachusetts Route 10, which in turn continues directly to New Hampshire Route 10.
The Connecticut Company was the primary electric street railway company in the U.S. state of Connecticut, operating both city and rural trolleys and freight service. It was controlled by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, which also controlled most steam railroads in the state. After 1936, when one of its major leases was dissolved, it continued operating streetcars and, increasingly, buses in certain Connecticut cities until 1976, when its assets were purchased by the state government.
The Farmington Canal Heritage Trail is an 81.2-mile (130.7 km) multi-use rail trail located in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Simsbury station is a former railroad station in the center of Simsbury, Connecticut. Built in 1875, it is a distinctive example of a railroad station with Italianate styling. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 26, 1976 as Simsbury Railroad Depot. Presently, it houses a restaurant, called "Plan B".
The Boston and New York Air-Line Railroad was a railroad in Connecticut. Envisioned as a direct route between New Haven and Boston, it was hampered by difficult terrain in eastern Connecticut and did not find much success. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad leased the company in 1882. The tracks between Portland, Connecticut and Willimantic, Connecticut were abandoned in 1965, while the remainder of the line is operated by the Providence and Worcester Railroad.
Farmington Canal State Park Trail is a Connecticut state park forming a portion of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail in the towns of Cheshire and Hamden. The developed section of the trail within state park boundaries runs over 17.0 miles (27.4 km) from Lazy Lane in Southington to Todd Street in Hamden and includes the historic Farmington Canal's restored Lock 12, located south of Brooksvale Road in Cheshire. The paved, multiple-use trail is used for hiking, biking, jogging, in-line skating and cross-country skiing.
The Connecticut Central Railroad was a railroad in Connecticut and Massachusetts, which connected East Hartford, Connecticut and Springfield, Massachusetts. Founded in 1871, it was built between 1874 and 1876, and operated independently until being leased by the New York and New England Railroad in 1880. In the 21st century, the line remains in service between East Hartford and Scantic, Connecticut, and out of service to the Massachusetts state line, beyond which it has been abandoned.
The Turners Falls branch was a railway line in Franklin County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It ran 9 miles (14 km) from a junction with the Shelburne Falls Extension at South Deerfield, Massachusetts, to Turners Falls, Massachusetts. It was originally built in 1868 by the New Haven and Northampton Railroad, later part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The Boston and Maine Railroad, which had its own branch to Turners Falls, acquired the Turners Falls branch from the New Haven in 1947 and abandoned its own line. The B&M subsequently abandoned the branch in 1985. Part of it is now the Canalside Rail Trail.
↑ "History". Farmington Canal Heritage Trail & Farmington River Trail. Archived from the original on 2021-10-15. Retrieved 2021-10-15.
↑ Connecticut Department of Transportation (2012). "Connecticut State Rail Plan"(PDF). CT.gov. Archived(PDF) from the original on August 19, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
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