Track 2 - NH&D History

Track 2.0 - NH&D Historical Chronology

1864
NH&D chartered by General Assembly [06/09/1864]
1865
Public meeting at Tyler's Hall [11/16/1865]
1867
Corporation formed [04/24/1867]
City votes $200,000 stock subscription [06/17/1867]
Route survey finished [09/25/1867]
CRC Hearing at Merchants’ Exchange [10/08/1867]
1868
Contract awarded to George D. Chapman & Co. [01/01/1868]
1^st mortgage bonds issued [05/01/1868]
1869
City votes to guarantee 2^nd mortgage [01/25/1869]
Chapman quits [ca. 06/15/1869]
Willis Phelps takes over construction work [11/29/1869]
1870
2^nd mortgage bonds issued [02/01/1870]
1871
Hog Island injunction lifted [04/25/1871]
"The Derby road is done" [04/26/1871]
City loans $75,000 [07/25/1871]
CRC certifies NH&D as operational [08/04/1871]
Regular service begins [08/09/1871]
Ansonia turntable in use [08/11/1871]
Orange station opens [ca. 09/30/1871]
Turntable at Meadow St. [ca. 09/30/1871]
Ansonia freight house [12/09/1871]
Birmingham station opens [ca. 12/15/1871]
1872
Tyler City station opens [ca. 06/06/1872]
West Water St. freight house [ca. 06/29/1872]
1873
West Water St. engine house [ca. 09/27/1873]
Lease of basin strip and wharf rights [10/09/1873]
1874
Wharf built
West Haven station reported “almost utterly
ruined” by vandals [11/05/1874]
1875
Depot moves to 211 West Water St. [05/24/1875]
1877
Depot moves to State and West Water Sts. [03/13/1877]
1878
Depot moves to Meadow and West Water Sts. [07/01/1878]
1880
NRR freight-pooling agreement [02/01/1880]
New covered bridge at Derby Jct. [ca. 04/16/1880]
1885
Ansonia freight depot burns [06/07/1885]
Replacement built [ca. 06/26/1885]
1887
New NRR/NH&D Ansonia passenger station [ca. 01/12/1887]
City sells stock to HRR [07/19/1887]
NYNH&H cancels NRR freight-pooling [10/01/1887]
1888
CRC certifies Extension as operational [10/14/1888]
Golden Spike ceremony at Zoar Bridge [10/17/1888]
Depot moves to Commerce St., Extension opens [11/28/1888]
1889
West St. engine house opens [ca. 06/24/1889]
HRR leases NH&D [07/10/1889]
1892
NYNH&H leases HRR and NH&D [07/01/1892]
West River Branch opens [12/11/1892]
1896
NH&D Commerce St. station becomes RR YMCA [12/28/1896]
1903-1904 Derby Jct. station closed and NH&D r/o/w to
Ansonia becomes new double-tracked Naugatuck Division;
new triple-span bridge at Derby Jct., double-span at Ansonia;
Birmingham station replaced by new Derby station [10/18/1903]
1905
NH&D deeds property to NYNH&H [11/03/1905]
1907
NH&D surrenders franchise, merges with NYNH&H [03/26/1907]
1909
Great Campbell Ave. concrete bridge erected in West Haven [09/1909]
1922
NYNH&H gasoline rail cars debut on Derby line [01/08/1922]
1925
Local passenger service ends [06/13/1925]
Orange station becomes fire department headquarters
1932
Freight service ends, West Haven-Orange [03/09/1932]
1936
Tyler City station burns [07/04/1936]
1938
NH&D 1871 West River trestle abandonment [01/15/1938]
West River-Derby Jct, approved for abandonment [05/06/1938]
West River-Orange abandonment effective [06/15/1938] but
Derby Jct.-Orange center to be left in service
1939
West River-Orange center "physical abandonment accomplished" [01/25/1939]
1941
Derby Jct.-Orange center abandonment [05/26/1941]
1942
Derby Jct-Orange "physical abandonment"
NYNH&H sells Orange depot property to town [07/21/1942]
1948
Orange depot, then town garage, torn down
1953
Great Campbell Ave. concrete bridge demolished [08/06/1953]
1955
Floods necessitate removal of easternmost span of Derby Jct. bridge
[8/19/1955, 10/28/1955]
1966
NH&D/HRR station, RR YMCA since 1896, closed, to be demolished
for urban renewal [4/30/1966]
2010
Collapsing Oil Mill Creek/Two Mile Brook culvert torn down behind
Mt. St. Peter Cemetery [01-06/2010]

________________________________________________________________________________

Track 2.1: The Early Years, 1864-1871

[2.1.1] The New Haven and Derby Railroad was born as an afterthought. In 1845 the city of New Haven received and declined its first opportunity to become a terminus for traffic originating in the Naugatuck Valley. In that year the Naugatuck Railroad was chartered with the option of terminating at Bridgeport, Milford or New Haven.¹ Builder Alfred Bishop's offer to make New Haven the road's destination for a $75,000 stock subscription from the area was turned down and Bridgeport was chosen instead. In 1849 the Naugatuck opened from Winsted to Naugatuck Junction (Devon) where it met the line of the New York and New Haven Railroad which had opened a year earlier. That road offered to build an additional track from the junction to Bridgeport at its own expense and to grant free use of it to the Naugatuck in return for favorable traffic arrangements between the two roads.² This blow to New Haven, though not undeserved, did not come unchallenged. Some New Haveners had tried unsuccessfully in 1847 to get legislative approval for a Waterbury to Cheshire extension for the New Haven and Northampton Railroad which opened in 1848.³ This extension would at least have had the effect of channeling the traffic of the upper Valley into New Haven but a coalition of interests, including the Naugatuck's backers, citizens of the lower Valley and Bridgeporters, was able to prevail.⁴Though some Bridgeport residents were already up in arms about their city's contribution to its first railroad, the Housatonic, built by the same Alfred Bishop undertaking the Naugatuck, the coalition remained intact long enough to make Bridgeport, not New Haven, the transfer point for goods produced in the Naugatuck Valley.⁵

[2.1.2] About a decade later sentiment surfaced to make good New Haven's loss. It was led largely by New Haven resident and postal official Francis E. Harrison who in 1860 began to push for a railroad "to facilitate public travel and transportation of the mails between New Haven and the Naugatuck Valley."⁶ Distinguished supporters of the project included industrialists like Charles E. Atwater who was the owner of a large iron and hardware business in New Haven as well as Birmingham Iron and Steel Works in the Valley [See Track 4, MP 4.60] and political figures like Morris Tyler who would soon become Connecticut's lieutenant governor. A petition to the legislature introduced by Harrison resulted in incorporation on 9 July 1864 for a road that was to be built "from some suitable point in the town of New Haven, through the town of Orange, to some suitable point in the town of Derby." The corporators were William E. Downes and Robert N. Bassett of Derby and Cornelius S. Bushnell, Henry Dutton, Leonard S. Hotchkiss, Benjamin Noyes, Charles Peterson, Nathan H. Sanford, and Nehemiah Day Sperry, all of New Haven, the lattermost active in civic affairs and serving as the Elm City postmaster [click here]. Capital stock was authorized at $500,000 to $700,000 with three years given to spend $100,000 and five years to become operational.⁷ In November 1865 Harrison, Downes, and Atwater spoke on behalf of the railroad at Tyler's Hall in New Haven.⁸ On 5 June 1866 Mayor Lucien Sperry urged support for the road before the Court of Common Council.⁹ The sale of stock commenced on 2 November 1866 at the Merchants' Exchange and at the post office in New Haven and at Downes' office in Derby. With $200,000 raised,¹⁰the corporation was formed on 24 April 1867 with Henry Dawson president, Morris Tyler vice president, Atwater as treasurer and Harrison as secretary. Dawson served until 1871 when he was succeeded by Tyler who held the post until late 1874.

[2.1.3] This progress notwithstanding, difficulties began to appear which delayed the opening of the road. First, subscriptions to the road's stock began to lag. This necessitated the extension of the deadline in the road's charter for spending $100,000 for another year to 4 July 1868.¹¹ It also ultimately caused the city of New Haven to step in to aid the road. At the direction of the state legislature, the freemen of the city voted on the issue and decided 3256 to 473 in favor of a $200,000 subscription of the stock on 17 June 1867.¹² In return for this support the mayor and one alderman were to sit on the board of directors and the city was to get one vote for every four shares of the stock it owned. The city borrowed the money and issued municipal bonds to pay for the 2,000 shares worth $100 par value and which promised a 7% yield.¹³ At a stroke the city of New Haven gained a block of 500 votes and a controlling interest in the NH&D, and with this boost, progress continued. The search for a suitable right of way commenced on 17 May 1867 with Secretary Harrison and surveyor M.O. Davidson of New York City driving the first stake at the intersection of Columbus and West Water Sts. and planning to start out along a dried-up creek toward to city's western border.^13a The survey was finished by 25 September and application for approval was made to Connecticut's railroad commissioners. They scheduled a hearing for 8 October at the Merchants' Exchange and summoned all interested parties, notably the affected property owners, as well as the New York and New Haven and Naugatuck Railroads.¹⁴ The right of way was approved and the contract was issued to George Chapman and Co. on 1 January 1868, with completion expected by the end of year.¹⁵

[2.1.4] That date was shortly proven to be overly optimistic as more difficulties appeared in construction, finance, and legal challenges. Mortgage bonds had to be sold twice, first in the amount of $300,000, dated 1 May 1868 and, second, in the amount of $225,000 dated 1 February 1870.¹⁶ The city guaranteed both the principal and the interest on the latter issue, approved by the freemen of the city on 25 January 1869 by a vote of 3764 to 1321. The city got as security a first mortgage on the road's West Water St. property and a second mortgage on all other property.¹⁷ The legislature confirmed this vote on 3 July 1869.¹⁸This confirmation came after a lengthy investigation into charges of voting fraud and accusations of mismanagement by NH&D officials. Some of the opposition challenged the road's choice of the route through the city while others disliked in principle city involvement in private enterprise.¹⁹ At the height of this controversy opponents circulated a pamphlet claiming the road's charter to have expired which was, on the face of it, true.²⁰ The 6 July 1869 deadline set by the legislature has passed and the road was not operational. A suit was filed by the state attorney for New Haven County.²¹ The second-mortgage bond issue was held up by this action, in turn depriving the road of needed capital. As if this were not enough, Chapman quit without notice in June of 1869. Trouble with construction crews over non-payment of wages was blamed on him.²² He, in turn, sued the railroad for damages.²³ This was unquestionably the NH&D's darkest hour. A cry in a local paper, though uttered a year later when delays were still plaguing the road, is appropriate here "Oh", it implored fervently, "that we may live to ride over the Derby Railroad to ANSONIA (sic)."²⁴

[2.1.5] The NH&D, backed by the city, perservered. Lawyers for the road succeeded in arguing that the bond-issue approval by the legislature on 3 July 1869 was tantamount to an extension of the road's charter.²⁵ A new contractor was signed up late in 1869.²⁶ Willis Phelps of Springfield accepted a large amount NH&D securities as payment and work resumed on 29 November with completion expected the following year. It was soon discovered that Chapman had left much of the difficult work unfinished. A description of the NH&D route will make its challenges readily apparent. From below New Haven's first depot, designed by Henry Austin in 1847 and located on Union St. between Chapel and Wooster Sts., the NH&D's track curved southeast through Custom House Square at grade and then headed due west running north of and parallel to the NY&NH's route along the southerly edge of the city. The NH&D route ran through the city in deep cuts requiring several overgrade bridges to be built at the railroad's expense. Critics had argued for access on or adjacent to the NY&NH as eliminating the bridges and the grade crossings in the Custom House Square area, thus costing considerably less.²⁷ A more southerly route might have eliminated what proved to be the greatest construction obstacle for the road: the Allingtown cut just past West Haven road, Campbell Ave. today, in that village. This project required blasting through fifty feet of solid rock and would be the site of continued landslides, including one of 2,000 feet of earth in December 1870. The Journal said this project was more difficult than Reed's Gap on the Air Line and commiserated with the poor NH&D it called a "child of misfortune."²⁸

[2.1.6] More challenges followed. The generally westward direction of the road meant that a number of streams and valleys had to be filled or bridged. This miniature 'air line' had to construct substantial trestlework over the West River and meadows, the Platt River valley, the Wepawaug River, Davis Brook and, Oil Mill Creek to complete the ten-mile journey to Derby to meet the NRR on the east bank of the Housatonic River.²⁹ Part of the reason for the 2nd mortgage bond issue of 1869 was the building of the road an additional two miles or so to the center of Ansonia,³⁰ as specified in the contract with Phelps.³¹ While this was still within the NH&D's charter purview in the town of Derby, additional state approvals had to be obtained. The force behind this additional mileage was Ansonia's Jeremiah H. Bartholomew, who would become the NH&D's third and longest-serving president. The new thrust was meant to spur the lagging project with the promise of many times more revenue than the Derby Jct. terminus could ever have provided. The route chosen here was again difficult and costly but was to prove foresighted and lucrative.³² At Derby Narrows (today East Derby) the NH&D's track intersected the NRR at grade and headed across the Naugatuck River immediately above its confluence with the Housatonic River. Reaching the borough of Birmingham by this route, the NH&D headed north and recrossed the Naugatuck River into the center of Ansonia. This two-fold crossing of the flood-prone Naugatuck was an impressive feat in and of itself, but by pioneering its own route the NH&D bested the NRR by giving the many industries in Birmingham and Shelton better rail access and providing competing service for Ansonia's many factories as well. Though 'New Haven and Derby' was always the official name, the NHD&A livery on its the engines touted the broader reach and more northerly terminus.³³

[2.1.7] This bold change of plans came at a price. With the contractor delays and the portion to Ansonia not begun by the 1869 legislative deadline, the NH&D had to ask for more time. The NRR, perhaps realizing the competitive threat that the NH&D posed with its added mileage, seized this opportunity to mount a "vigorous opposition" based on the dangers it suddenly saw posed by the Derby Jct. crossing and the Ansonia tie-in. The railroad commissioners sided with the underdog NH&D and legislation was passed to enforce its rights. Arbitrators knocked the requested $60,000 in damages to a paltry $500, which the NRR reportedly declined.^33aThe NH&D was still badgered into buying an expensive Mansfield steel frog to be installed at Derby Jct. and it was also ordered to put a flagman there and compensate the NRR for the raising of its track two feet to give the NH&D bridge better clearance over the Naugatuck River.³⁴ Ironically, a sudden swell almost immediately cracked one of the newly constructed piers for the bridge to Hog Island.^34a That 'worthless' place in the river was the scene of some last-minute skullduggery in April of 1871 when the NRR put a certain Col. Pride up to buy property on the tiny island to block the Derby road and force it into court to pay damages. These misdoings were recounted in a lengthy letter to the Palladium entitled "The Trials of the Derby Road." The letter went on to detail how an NH&D contractor, probably Albert Spencer who was ballasting the road, was also barred from switching his construction cars from the NRR at Derby Jct., forcing oxen teams to drag them over the highway to the NH&D track.^34bThe NRR was widely criticized for its affront to the businesses of the lower Valley for whose specific convenience the NH&D was being built.³⁵ The Derby road's board of directors, which would grow to include Thomas L. Cornell, Franklin Farrel, Thomas Wallace, Jr., George P. Cowles, Edward N. Shelton, Royal M. Bassett and others, was a veritable 'Who's Who' of local manufacturers [See Track 3, MP 3.6]. Their support of the NH&D testified to the need and desire for rail service beyond what the NRR cared to provide. At the NH&D's annual meeting in June of 1871, New Haven Mayor Henry G. Lewis echoed these sentiments when he spoke of "the persistent and malicious opposition" of the NRR.^35a

[2.1.8] While the Hog Island injunction was being dealt with, the road was nearing completion. Phelps was said to have finished most of the work by September of 1870, except for the Allingtown cut, and to have departed when his contract expired in November. Treasurer Atwater set the record straight in February of 1871 saying that Phelps was still working and that he would finish, which he reportedly did in April. Loose ends and ballasting, however, would still take three more months for Supt. Quintard to complete.^35b He ran the first 'train' on 25 April, a probably just the Branford, from Orange to Ansonia.^35c Atwater's Birmingham Iron and Steel Works rang the big gong as workers turned out to give Quintard and the engine "a grand ovation." The Palladium proudly reported the next day "The Derby road is done," as the last spike was driven in New Haven. Rails across the square to link the NH&D to the Canal road were in place by July.^35d Excursions, operated at the risk of ballast contractor Spencer, ran on 8 June and 4 July. The first, an evening trip, was livened by lager beer from George Basserman's locally famed Rock Brewery [click here] and was pulled by the Branford, whose "well-known whistle" made jubilant citizens start "clapping their hands and shouting for joy." People carried signs saying "On to Derby" and "Derby in 30 minutes." Riders marveled at the depth of the Allingtown cut and the echoes of the woods "awakened by the neigh of the iron-horse." Returning the next day 'the long way' on the NRR and having to wait an hour at Devon for a train to New Haven, the advantage of the NH&D's shorter route was made abundantly more meaningful. The trips on 4 July carried 2,130 persons on platform cars. The line was inspected and certified as safe by the railroad commissioners on 4 August and the formal pre-opening excursion took place the next day.³⁶ This one saw the road's officials and Elm City political figures ride the line to Ansonia. The Derby Transcript account of this trip is amusing both for the pomposity of the language and for the good-natured provincialism it shows toward its visitors from the east who are described as "outside barbarians... from the rural districts of the Elm City... visitors from less favored places..."³⁷Regular service began on 9 August with the first train out of New Haven reportedly carrying 40 passengers.³⁸Christopher Kelly rode the return trip from Ansonia and recalled later that he and others had to get out and push the train up the grade at Turkey Hill.^38a In another peculiar event, Presidents Tyler, William D. Bishop of the NY&NH, and E.F. Bishop of the NRR were aboard a New York road dummy engine inspecting the NH&D when the locomotive reportedly "turned a complete somersault" two miles west of Orange center, fortunately not injuring anyone in the rollover [NHER/08/15/1871/02]. Its controversial history and shortcomings aside, this little railroad, more than any other, brought elation to the Elm City and fostered civic pride in a muncipal enterprise that had succeeded against great odds. The Palladium justly boasted that "six distinct railroads now have a terminus in New Haven," and a few days later noted that "the arrival and the exit of the Derby trains are still the sensations at the depot."^38bThe Courant, the esteemed newspaper of New Haven's rival and sister capital city, which incidentally only had four railroads at the time, acknowledged the accomplishment but said caustically that the ten-mile Derby road had taken "longer to build than the Union Pacific" [HDC/06/08/1871/02].

Track 2.2: The Independent Years, 1871-1887

[2.2.1] Despite its small size, the 'Little Derby' quickly began to provide reliable service to the communities it served. In the beginning, between its termini of New Haven and Ansonia, way stations were Orange, Derby and Birmingham and flag stops were West Haven, Alling's Crossing, and Turkey Hill.³⁹ On opening day, there was reportedly "... not a [station or] platform, not a ticket sold and the Conductor [Edward B. Bradley] took all cash fares ...,"⁴⁰ a duty he was relieved of by October 2 when Derby road tickets began selling at the Austin depot [NHJC/09/30/1871/02]. Capital was scarce with backers like Tyler and Downes using private funds to aid the road. The same newspaper that announced the letting of the contract to a Mr. Sprague of Derby for building NH&D depots also reported that the city was paying out some $8,000 for interest due in February of 1871 because it "was not paid by the company."^40a Beyond interest payouts, the city of New Haven raised its official investment to an even half million dollars when it approved a loan on 25 July 1871 of $75,000 to pay some of the road's creditors. The Courant said this money was "so the road can be equipped and put into running order."⁴¹ That was probably meant literally since, at the annual meeting earlier in July, there was said to be no cash for rolling stock. Perhaps the loan funded the earlier purchase of the two locomotives, the three passenger cars coming from the New Haven Car Co., plus two baggage, and 26 freight cars that would arrive in the NH&D's first year^41a [See also Track 3, MP 3.3, Note 1]. With this boost, traffic and revenue soon started rolling in. The first freight shipment, 80 tons of iron to go to Birmingham, arrived in late August, 1871.^41b The NH&D carried 6,000 passengers, about 300 per day, in its first full month of operation in September and 9,000 in November, 1100 tickets from Birmingham alone [NHDP/12/11/1871/02]. Adams Express service commenced on the line on November 1, as did the U.S. mail contract, meaning later post times and earlier deliveries on both ends of the line and in the upper Valley as well. Orange went to daily "railroad mail" from "thrice-weekly butcher's wagon mail service" [NHJC/11/02/1871/02].^41cMessrs. Hedges and Shirell, operators of the old stage line from Derby to New Haven, adapted to the new order of business by stationing their coaches at each end of the NH&D to provide connecting service with it [NHDP/09/17/1871/02]. The Derby road ran so efficiently on opening that the clocks at the stations were said to be regulated by the trains, not the other way around [NHDP/09/12/1871/02]. Steadily increasing revenues would be used for rolling stock, expanded facilities, and regular interest payments on the 1st mortgage bonds. By 1887 the roster would grow to five locomotives plus eight passenger, four baggage, 16 box, and 54 freight cars.⁴²[See full data on Track 3] The purchase of an additional locomotive, the Edwin Marble "on account of constantly increasing business," came almost immediately [NHDP/09/4,12/1871/02] with a third train added on 28 August and two more on 27 September.⁴³ The railroad commissioners said the road did an enterprising business for the year 1872 though its income just covered operating expenses.⁴⁴ Ten years later, in 1883, the gross earnings had increased $74,000 and the commissioners urged the road to apply more of this toward upgrading the right of way.⁴⁵ Trestles would be filled, newer bridges installed, and all rails would be steel by 1886 as the Derby road succeeding in its avowed purpose of carrying people and goods quickly and cheaply between New Haven and the Naugatuck Valley.^45a

[2.2.2] Facilities along the line appeared quickly. At Ansonia, the NH&D would always use the NRR station for its passengers at an annual rental of about $500 but it opened its own freight depot by December of 1871 [NHDP/12/09/1871/02] with an agent through 1892.⁴⁶ It also built an engine house [NHDP/09/28/1871/02] at Wallace Grove, which appears to have been on the property of industrialist and soon-to-be NH&D director Thomas Wallace, Jr. [See Track 4B, MP 4.66]. By a contract effective November 1, 1871, Ansonia become the transfer point for passengers going north and south to and from New Haven, thus guaranteeing the NH&D a share of that revenue [NHDP/10/19/1871/02; NHDP/10/27/1871/02]. The Birmingham station, built with the funds of corporator and later director William Downes⁴⁷was "rapidly being completed" and nearly ready to handle freight in mid-December [NHJC/12/15/1871/02]. Staffed by agent Sanford Chaffee through 1892, it stood west of the track at the northeast corner of Foundry and Second Streets.⁴⁸ Crossing the Naugatuck River, a small NH&D station was built at Derby Jct., probably also late in 1871. This was just south of the NRR's Derby station, sometimes called Derby-Birmingham.⁴⁹ A better connection at Derby Jct. was planned for early 1872 to enable through cars for New Haven to be transferred here, but this seems not to have been done until 1880⁵⁰ [NHDP/10/19/1871/02; see also Track 4, MP 4.57]. With the Ansonia transfer and the Derby road's better route in place, the "Stratford junction" was discontinued.^50a Even the disagreeable NRR gained from this, saving 31 cents per head from what it once paid the NY&NH [DTR/08/11/1871/02] to take passengers from that point. The east leg of the wye that had been installed through Tomlinson's cut at Devon in 1868, never utilized well enough to give satisfactory connections to New Haven, was removed.⁵¹ NRR freight for New Haven would be transferred thereafter at Devon, some possibly still having to go via the NRR's Bridgeport terminus. This kind of roundabout routing and the refusal of the NRR to handle freight jointly with the Derby road caused a decade-long struggle for the NH&D's right to do for Valley freight what it was doing for passengers. The Derby road went so far as to have bill introduced in the General Assembly [NHDP/01/16/1879/04; NHER/03/07/1879/04; NHDP/03/08/1879/04] to establish a track connection at Ansonia to receive freight there "without breaking bulk" and to stop the NRR from forcing northbound passengers to transfer at Derby Jct. rather than Ansonia, perhaps done deliberately to collect the extra fare north from that point and a practice which the Derby road decried for the the inconvenience it caused to their customers [NHDP/01/22/1879/04]. Protracted meetings to reconcile these differences went so far as to suggest that the NH&D and NRR consolidate, an outcome the NH&D directors were not opposed to as long as neither their traffic nor the the majority interest of the city of New Haven was harmed [NHDP/02/19/1879/04]. As legislative intervention loomed, the NRR and its allied NYNH&H gave up their efforts to monopolize freight traffic and a 99-year pooling agreement was signed, effective 1 February 1880. It stipulated that all New Haven freight for the NRR would go via the NH&D with revenues shared, 81.19/18.81% NRR/NH&D, to be settled on the 20th of every month, and with the percentages negotiable every five? years.⁵²This deal was reportedly brokered by Mayor Hobart B. Bigelow, dutifully looking out for his city, its citizens, and their 'municipal railroad.'⁵³ He also signed the supplemental contract between the NRR and the city of New Haven as the primary backer of the NH&D.⁵⁴ The first shipper to take advantage of the new through tariff was J.D. Dewell & Co. which sent two full cars of flour bound for Waterbury.^54a

[2.2.3] Though minimal at first as well, New Haven facilties would come to be its most important. Access to the Austin depot was on a short span of NH&N trackage and initially the NH&D also contracted with the Canal road to use its engine house, freight depot, yard, and dock on the eastern portion of the filled-in canal basin.⁵⁵ By late 1871, the NH&D installed a turntable at the foot of Meadow St.⁵⁶ Next came a 30x70-ft freight house with a corrugated iron exterior and a basement on brick footings in the marshy land below West Water St. [NHER/06/29/1872/02]. A major reconfiguration of the NH&D property took place in 1873. A three-stall brick engine house was erected and the turntable was moved farther north toward West Water St. to escape the encroaching tide. Old buildings were taken down to accomplish this, including one at the corner of State St. "... through which, by a narrow aperture, the trains over the Derby road have entered and emerged ever since the road has been operated..." [NHDP/07/03/1873/04; NHDP/09/27/1873/04]. With waterfront access crucially important, the NH&D planned to put in a spur down the west side of Custom House Square and use horses to draw cars to Long Wharf. Though an agreement was made with the NY&NH on 18 June 1868 for permission to cross its tracks there [HDC/07/22/1868/04],^56a this spur was not built. Instead, the NH&D established a pattern that would last until 1892, running short freight trains up to Fair St. and utilizing the Canal line to cross over the NY&NH to get to the waterfront. Rentals to both the Consolidated and the NH&N for this use show up on the NH&D's books.⁵⁷ Early on then, the NH&D was able to connect with the steamboats of the New York and New Haven Propeller Line and the New Haven Transportation Company to provide overnight service to New York for Valley goods.⁵⁸ In 1873, the industrious NH&D persuaded shipping magnate John H. Starin [click here] to upgrade his New Haven Line service to steamers that would carry both freight and passengers and, on October 9, 1873, it concluded a lease in perpetuity from the Consolidated, which controlled this part of the old canal basin, for the right to build a wharf and for the use of a strip of land for trackage down to it. The Derby railroad wharf, just west of the Canal Dock, was built in 1874. Often called Starin's wharf thereafter, this was where the Erastus Corning and the John H. Starin, both the older ship of that name and the steamer newly built in 1876, would begin to dock.^58a The Starin company would pay for further improvements to the wharf [NHDP/01/08/1880/04]. Early on then, a long-term alliance was initiated between the Starin line and the NH&D, both of which entities the Elm City would fight to protect as constituting a valuable service route independent of the Consolidated.⁵⁹This impact on freight traffic was also mirrored in NH&D passenger traffic, which local hackmen claimed was heavier than any other line in proportion to its length.⁶⁰ This influx quickly began to fuel support for abandoning the Austin depot which, in addition to now being more overcrowded, had become shabby as well.⁶¹The site chosen for the new union station was along the NY&NH tracks at the foot of Meadow St. A large NH&D parcel here was needed and appraised at $112,500 for sale per agreements of 23 January 1871 that also made permanent the NH&D's access to the waterfront.⁶² The new station opened on 24 May 1875 and all of New Haven's railroads except, ironically, the NH&D, began using it.⁶³ The Derby road, because of its independent entrance to New Haven from the west, had no convenient access to it. From 1875 to 1877 it rented space at 211 West Water Street. This meant passengers having to cross the street to access trains, so in March of 1877 it was moved temporarily to the southwest corner of State and West Water Sts. adjacent to the track [NHDP/03/13/1877/04]. Plans were announced in January of 1878 for its own depot one block west at the foot of Meadow St. with all the conveniences of the "modern" passenger station [NHER/01/17/1878/04]. This move was to save rental money as well.⁶⁴Work commenced in March [NHDP/03/09/1878/04; NHDP/04/15/1878/ 04; NHJC/05/21/1878/02] and the NH&D's first self-built and -owned station, opened on June 13. That 70x22-ft, two-story structure with Mansard roof stood north of the tracks in the southwest corner of Meadow and West Water Streets.⁶⁵ The waiting room, and ticket office with baggage room on the Meadow St. side took up the entire first floor and upstairs there were three rooms for use of the road's officials. Outside, a 12-ft wide covered platform flanked the east, west and track sides, with pavement for the remainder [NHER/06/12/1878/04; NHDP/06/13/1878/04]. The cost of the new depot was $4634.01, a figure the road expected to make back from rental savings in about four years.^65a NH&D passengers needing to get to Union Station continued to walk the short distance and had their baggage transferred free of charge.

[2.2.4] The picture one gets of the NH&D is varied. On either end, it was serving bustling industrial centers where it offered competition to roads many times its size, while in between it catered to small-town interests. That middle area was the town of Orange, which stretched from Derby to its New Haven border on the West River. The NH&D would be no less transformational here [NHDP/12/30/1874/04] where public excitement resulted in contributions of $1000 to build a station. Ground was broken early in September of 1871, with completion expected by the end of that month in time for the Orange Agricultural Society's fair [NHDP/09/07/1871/01]. With typical small town thrift and efficiency Postmaster Sidney F. Oviatt moved the post office to the depot and took on duties as stationmaster as well.^65bThe fair was a great success, due in large part to the new Derby road. Reduced fares and extra, late-night runs were enough to make the Palladium say: "Full moon, Felsburg's band, and pretty girls - we'll go" ... and come back on the extra 10:00pm trains the NH&D had put on to both New Haven and Ansonia. The paper also alluded to real estate for sale out there [NHDP/09/28/1871/02], probably meaning Tyler City, which was being marketed to the middle class for the advantages of suburban living and quick rail access to the nearby industrial centers. The Courant reported that a freight station at Tyler City was "nearly completed" late in 1871 and that a station would "soon be opened there."^65cOther articles verify that the passenger station was under construction in mid-1872 and was presumably finished in time for trains to begin stopping there in June.^65d In West Haven, about to become a borough within the town of Orange in 1873, a small depot was built on Front and Railroad Aves, a structure "almost utterly ruined by mischievous boys" in 1874.^65eThe rural character of this area is seen in the blizzard of 1888 when the three-car 7:00am train, probably headed for Ansonia, was marooned in the Platt River valley for almost four days. The 13 passengers were reportedly kept alive by the contents of the freight car: 600 pies, 300 lbs of pork products, and five gallons of oysters, the latter being a frequently shipped staple harvested from New Haven's harbor at Oyster Point [click here]. It would take 100 men to clear the 20-ft snow drifts in the Allingtown cut and reopen the line for milk from the Valley.⁶⁶ Period photos show pot-belly stoves and swinging kerosene lamps in four-wheeled coaches, that carried ice-skating parties up to Lake Ousatonic above the Derby dam, children commuting to school in the Elm City, and conventioneers — Masons, Oddfellows and Suffragettes — to and from the Valley.⁶⁷Timetables for the 1880s show six to eight trains daily each way. Among the road's conductors were Edward Bradley, who was still with the road in 1880 when the NH&D reportedly could boast of no accidents in eight years of operation,^67aHenry Bradley (relation?) [NHDP/09/28/1871/02], and Herbert S. Beers, promoted from brakeman in October of 1875.⁶⁸

Track 2.3: Dreams and Schemes: A Gateway to the West

[2.3.1] For as much as the NH&D served New Haven and the Valley in local terms, there was an air of greater destiny about the road from its inception. This aura was perhaps best embodied in the speculative venture known as Tyler City. This was a visionary railroad boom town, the kind one usually associates with the American West. This one was in the East and was touted as the "Gateway to the West." It was the brainchild of two New Haveners, Philander Ferry and Samuel Halliwell. The railroad undoubtedly stood to gain if the new city, which was named after the "energetic lieutenant governor and railroad president," prospered and certainly cooperated. After purchasing land in Orange from Lewis Bradley and E.H. Russell, the entrepreneurs built a two-story station and presented it to the railroad on condition that trains always stop there. Avenues were cut through the trees and named for railroad officials Atwater, Sperry, Harrison, Quintard, Marble, for local residents Russell and Bradley, and for the entrepeneurs themselves who laid the foundations for sumptuous mansions. Shortly thereafter, New Haven papers advertised 2000 lots for sale, offering a year's free passage on the railroad to every family head buying in the spring of 1872. An auction on 2 July sold $510,000 worth of land and, for a moment, Tyler City was booming. A school district was formed in 1873 with classes held in one of the two waiting rooms in the station until a school building was completed on 1 September 1874. A Tyler City post office was located in the general store operated by Charles Amesbury across the street from the station. The mansions were completed but, in spite of these auspicious beginnings, Tyler City began to fade. The notes lapsed and the property returned to its owners. Tyler City remained a stop on the railroad, however, and the name of the locale still endures.⁶⁹For the complete story of Tyler City, see Track 1.

[2.3.2] The idea of the NH&D as a passage to the West was not as unrealistic as it might seem. In fact the dream was ultimately realized though in ways that did not benefit Tyler City. Spurred by the general railroad fever of the 1840's and the desire to link New Haven with markets in the West, the New Haven, Danbury and Erie RR was chartered around 1848 to build a line from New Haven to any road that would connect with the Erie Railroad.⁷⁰ This project lapsed but a similar one appeared in 1868 under the name of the New England and Erie RR. This road was to link up on one end with a bridge over the Hudson to be built by the Hudson Highland Suspension Bridge Company at Bear Mountain and meet the New Haven and Derby on the other end.⁷¹ Many of the corporators of the NE&E which was organized in New Haven on 8 March 1879 were among the backers of the NH&D: N.D. Sperry, Edwin Marble, Henry S. Dawson, Francis E. Harrison and J.H. Bartholomew.⁷² In 1870, the NE&E, the NH&D and the bridge company, were authorized to consolidate but the NE&E never came to fruition.⁷³ Other early plans for continuing the NH&D westward included the Derby and Woodbury RR, among whose corporators one recognizes many familiar faces, a line from Birmingham to Bennetts Bridge near Sandy Hook, and an Ansonia and Southbury line to connect with an extension of the Boston, Hartford and Erie RR from Waterbury.⁷⁴ Although the New York and New England RR carried on the mission of the BH&E, none of the 'paper' roads did any building toward these objectives.

[2.3.3] The strategic importance of the NH&D, however, was by no means diminished. By the late 1860s another situation had arisen to insure that importance: a growing mistrust of and dissatisfaction with the NY&NH, especially in Fairfield County. This produced a call for a parallel, competing line into New York City which would have relieved some of the congestion on the NY&NH, expanded service, and provided some healthy competition. These schemes for a parallel seemed to resurface annually in different shapes and names until almost the end of the century. Most proposed to use the NH&D in some way. The first, the Derby and State Line, planned to build due west from Derby until it paralleled the NY&NH from Bridgeport. It had substantial support, including the city of New Haven which was looking to secure its investment in the Derby road, but the NY&NH managed to convince the legislature that another line to New York City was unnecessary.⁷⁵In 1871, a new general railroad law removed legal obstacles to the possible construction of a parallel. The NY&NH had opposed this law but compromised in return for legislative assent to its merger with the H&NH which took place on 6 August 1872 and produced the NYNH&HRR, aptly nicknamed the Consolidated. A significant omission in the new law, said done through the Consolidated's influence, was the power to cross navigable streams. In 1874, the New York and Eastern RR, a parallel proposed by Samuel E. Olmstead of Norwalk, signed an agreement to lease the NH&D and use its property in New Haven. Officers and city officials made an inspection trip on 2 May 1874 specifically looking at the point beyond the Allingtown cut where the NY&E would join the NH&D [NHER/05/04/1874/02]. They then went on to the end of the line and also visited the Ousatonic dam, guided by water company president E.N. Shelton, an NH&D director. While the Housatonic River was not considered navigable above Birmingham, the dam further reduced water traffic. When the NY&E was denied permission later in 1884 to bridge the river from Milford to Stratford, the NH&D at Derby was the only point where a crossing of the Housatonic was legally possible.⁷⁶ Even after the railroad law was amended in 1882 to include the right to bridge navigable waters, the NH&D was still not without value. At least two roads, the Hartford and Harlem and the New York and Connecticut Airline, the latter another Olmstead project, again proposed to meet the NH&D just west of the Allingtown cut and use its trackage into New Haven. Both of these parallels had their charters expire before they could become operational. Fighting between them for the NH&D was part of the reason and the Consolidated added fuel to the fire wherever it could.⁷⁷ By the 1890s it is said that all the parallels were dead except for two piecemeals, one of which was the NH&D and that "the Consolidated watched it and kept it a minor menace until a later date."⁷⁸

Track 2.4: The Housatonic Years, 1887-1892

[2.4.1] The latter part of the 1880s was to be a turning point for the NH&D through its own initiatives, actions of the city of New Haven, and moves made by the larger systems surrounding it. Basically the NH&D became something of a flash point in the struggle between the Consolidated and the Housatonic Railroad, the latter allied with the New York and New England RR, which had emerged from a reorganization of the BH&E in 1873. In 1881 the NY&NE finally opened a line from Waterbury to the Hudson River, something its predecessor was never able to do. The NY&NE and the HRR cooperated even more closely when the latter leased the Danbury and Norwalk RR in 1886 and began using its terminal facilities at Wilson Point to float car barges over the Sound to Oyster Bay from which point cars were brought into New York City on the Long Island RR. Passenger service known as the Long Island and Eastern States Line was also introduced along this route in 1891 with service to Boston via the Bethel to Hawleyville branch of the D&N and the NY&NE. With this arrangement, costly and clumsy though workable, the NY&NE finally had the New York City to Boston route it had long sought.⁷⁹The ambitions of these roads next turned to the lower Valley where the still independent NH&D could give their system access to New Haven, a third outlet on Long Island Sound, and a route into the capital of Consolidated territory. The city of New Haven sensed that this was the time to recoup its investment and be done with the controversial "Little Derby." A number of problems had arisen, mostly financial, to worsen relations between the city and the road. In 1884 the NH&D wanted to issue preferred stock, a move the city squashed out of fear that its control of the road would be lost.⁸⁰ The city also complained of the lack of return on its investment in the road and the payment of $300,000 in interest on the second mortgage bonds which the city had guaranteed.⁸¹ There was also the old sore point of the NH&D's route through the city which many citizens still complained of.

[2.4.2] To the city's satisfaction there were several offers for the city's controlling interest in the NH&D and it was able to take its pick. Among the bids were one by the NH&D's own president, Joel A. Sperry, as well as ones made by the NY&NE, the Housatonic Valley RR, the HRR and the Consolidated.⁸³With the backing of the railroad's stockholders, New Haven's Court of Common Council decided not to do business with the Consolidated in whose hands it was feared the NH&D would become just another arm of that monopoly.⁸⁴ The offer accepted was made by William H. Starbuck, president of the HRR. At $275,000 it was not the highest bid; the NY&NE had offered $300,000.⁸⁵ The overall terms of the agreement, however, were seen as most beneficial to the city. In addition to the purchase price the HRR agreed to: pay off the first mortgage bonds maturing in 1888 so that the city's second mortgage would become the first; to purchase all NH&D stock offered at $25 a share; to remove NH&D operations in the city to somewhere west of West Water St. except for a nightly train to Starin's Wharf; to keep the connection with that boat line in place as part of a shipping route to compete with the Consolidated; and, to complete the long-awaited link to the West.⁸⁶ The contract for the sale of the city's stock was signed by Starbuck and Mayor Samuel A. York on 19 July 1887, with the city's shares going into the hands of trustees E.G. Stoddard, Luzen B. Morris and Samuel A. Merwin, until the contract provisions were complied with.^87aThe threat of an injunction by parties opposed -- the Consolidated was said to be working behind the scenes -- was not enough to quash the transaction.^87b The last contract provision was accomplished rather cleverly. First, the NY&NE obtained the charter of the Housatonic Valley RR, which had been organized to build from Birmingham to Sandy Hook. Next, the NY&NE handed it over to the HRR. That road then was then assigned to construct a branch from the nearest feasible point on its line, Botsford, to Huntington, some 9.79 miles. It did so under the authority of its charter which allowed it to build branches of ten miles or less. In Huntington (today Shelton) it was to meet a branch of the NH&D which was built the rest of the way on the west bank of the Housatonic River, some 3.79 miles from Hog Island just across the river from Derby Jct.⁸⁷ This branch opened on 26 November 1888 and to further cement the ties between the two companies the HRR leased the NH&D for 99 years effective 10 July 1889. ⁸⁸

[2.4.3] As a part of the Housatonic system the Derby road became known as "The New Haven and Derby Division" and many changes were made in its operation. There was a marked change in the directors of the road as officials of the HRR were named to the board. These directors were either from Bridgeport or New York City in contrast to the NH&D's traditional directorate which was drawn either from New Haven or the Valley. The first president of the NH&D to reflect this change was William H. Stevenson of Bridgeport who was elected in 1887. The address of the principal office was also now listed as Bridgeport. Financially, the road's indebtedness was raised to further heights to cover improvements and roll over existing obligations. On 1 May 1888 an $800,000 bond issue was authorized and $575,000 issued to retire the first mortgage bonds ($300,000) and to pay for the extension to Huntington and improvements in New Haven ($275,000). The remaining $225,000 authorized was put aside to retire the bonds, now the first mortgage, held by the city of New Haven.⁸⁹ Also, pursuant to the sale of the NH&D, facilities were eliminated and operations greatly curtailed east of West Water Street. A new engine house was built and turntable installed on the southwest corner of West and Thorn Sts. in New Haven. A new freight house and yard was opened in the area bounded by Silver, Commerce, Minor and Cedar Sts. and streets that formerly crossed through the area, Hill and Lafayette were closed and Liberty St. was later bridged.⁹⁰ Finally, a new station and office building was erected on the west side of Commerce St. to which the old passenger station was moved and added as a wing on the south end.⁹¹

[2.4.4] In the Valley more changes were apparent. Stations were opened on the "Extension" as the new line came to be called. There was one, in Shelton, at the foot of White St. on the NH&D's portion though space was rented here. Actual stations were built first at Stevenson and later at Monroe on the HRR portion of the line to Botsford.⁹² Old photos show engines now lettered NH&D under the Housatonic, sometimes pulling HRR and NH&D coaches, on the Extension. One, in particular, was taken above Round Hill where the Boys Halfway River was crossed by a high trestle.⁹³ Round Hill is some two miles beyond the trackage which the NH&D 'owned,' showing that the NH&D operated trains on the entire Extension and met HRR trains at Botsford to exchange freight and passengers. Service on the main line between New Haven and Ansonia reached its peak at this time with ten and eleven trains daily each way by 1890 and with short runs between Ansonia and Derby Jct. to make connections with the Botsford trains. Total trains available at busy Derby Jct. were 14 inbound to New Haven and 12 return trips. More trains meant more personnel with conductors Phillips and Eaton joining Bradley and Beers.⁹⁴ Freight business was equally vigorous and diverse, relying most heavily on flour, coal, stone, sand, lumber and the finished metal products the Valley was most known for.⁹⁵In 1888 the NH&D began running trains exclusively for freight by turning engines around from passenger runs into New Haven. Figures across the board set records for the road at this time. In 1887 a high of 1,474,172 freight ton miles was recorded; in 1888, 3,189,459 passenger miles were logged; and, in 1889, record high earnings of $185,925 were achieved.⁹⁶ The railroad commissioners, moreover, praised the improvements made in the condition of the right of way of the New Haven and Derby Division of the Housatonic.⁹⁷

[2.4.5] The Consolidated, meanwhile, did not sit idly by. It reacted aggressively to these developments. Coincidentally, changes were taking place on the New Haven road, particularly the election of Charles P. Clark as president in 1887. Clark, who had formerly been associated with the NY&NE, knew well the strengths and weaknesses of that road and was determined to make the New Haven the railroad of New England. The New Haven quickly concluded a lease of the Naugatuck RR on 1 April 1887 lest it too fall into the hands of the NY&NE and its satellite HRR system. Not surprisingly, the joint pooling agreement between the NH&D and the Naugatuck was cancelled after being in effect since 1880.⁹⁸ Presumably, this signalled the resumption of competition for traffic in the lower Valley since now the two conglomerates, the Consolidated RR with its Naugatuck Division on the east bank between Ansonia and Derby and the Housatonic RR with the Ansonia branch of its New Haven and Derby Division on the west bank, were poised for combat. Though figures for the NH&D are increasingly mixed in with those of the HRR, the branch and the division undoubtedly held their own. There was even talk of extending the NH&D to Waterbury.⁹⁹ The Consolidated was worried enough about the value of the NH&D to its rivals that it had its engineering department plan a Derby to Woodmont line to offset the worth of the NH&D.¹⁰⁰ This was proven unnecessary when the New Haven was able to get control of the HRR itself and its leased lines, notably the D&N and the NH&D. Leases for 99 years were made effective 1 July 1892. The takeover was accompanied by an exchange of stock: one share of New Haven for every eight Housatonic, every four Danbury and Norwalk, every 13 New Haven and Derby shares.¹⁰¹

[2.4.6] The takeover was not without its dramatic aspects, especially in the 1889 legislative session. There, a bitter struggle between the Consolidated and the HRR ended in the Consolidated's favor. It thwarted the efforts of the HRR to amend its charter to allow it to build branches longer then ten miles. The current railroad law allowed thirty mile branches but the HRR was bound by the terms of its 1836 charter around which it had to maneuver with ploys like the 9.79 mile Botsford branch. The broadening of the charter would have allowed better connections between the various components of the HRR system. Specifically, it wanted to construct branches east and west out of Bridgeport to meet the D&N and the NH&D. To some extent this was a revival of the old parallel scheme, with the HRR, in fact, asking for an extension of the NY&CA charter. Editorial opinion across the state favored the underdog but this was not enough to stand up against the Consolidated's influence at Hartford.¹⁰² Harassment in the field was another of the tactics; it refused to sell tickets for the HRR at Norwalk and would only exchange cars for points north at Bridgeport, thus inconveniencing HRR passengers. It also disputed the delivery of HRR milk cars to New York City. Still yet, it put pressure on the NY&NE to give up control of the HRR under threat of discontinuing all joint tariffs.¹⁰³ These hostile actions, aided by some mismanagement on the HRR's part, led to the NYNH&H takeover. The railroad commissioners commented blandly that the independent operation of the HRR "has not proved a financial success."¹⁰⁴ The HRR was merged with the New Haven on 29 March 1898; the NH&D and the D&N were merged on 26 March 1907. Prior to that date, on 3 November 1905, the NH&D had deeded all its property and rights to the New Haven exclusive of its franchise to exist as a corporation. The franchise expired with the merger in 1907.¹⁰⁵

Track 2.5: The New Haven Years, 1892-1941

[2.5.1] Several changes occurred for the NH&D as it was integrated into the New Haven system. It, along with the Housatonic and its other leased lines, would soon constitute the Consolidated's Berkshire Division. Later in 1892 a connector, 1.66 miles long, was built from Union Station, New Haven to a wye connection with the NH&D at the West River. This gave Valley passengers and Berkshire trains access to Union Station for the first time.¹⁰⁶ This made the NH&D's station on Commerce St. superfluous and on 28 December 1896 it became a railroad YMCA.¹⁰⁷ The Silver St. freight depot was doubled in size and converted to a departure yard for New Haven freight while the Long Wharf depot was to be used exclusively for incoming freight.¹⁰⁸ The construction of the West River branch also resulted in the first abandonment of trackage on the NH&D, the controversial, grade level portion between Meadow St. and Fair St.¹⁰⁹ In the early years of next century a connection was made between the end of the NH&D line at Meadow St. and the trolley line that ran down the street. This allowed the Connecticut Company to store cars on some of sidings in the Silver St. yards. The YMCA was moved backwards some 50 feet in 1923 to accomodate the widening of Commerce St. which was renamed South Orange St. The "Y" was known from that time on as the "South Orange St. 'Y'." The alteration of streets in the area came as part of the changes that accompanied the opening of New Haven's third and present Union Station at the foot of South Orange St. in 1920.¹¹⁰

[2.5.2] Changes in New Haven were complemented by others on the Valley end of the NH&D, especially in the years 1905-1908. Double-tracking was completed on both the Naugatuck and Berkshire Divisions.¹¹¹ A three-track iron bridge was put in place from Derby Jct. to Hog Island, opening to four tracks on the island, two west to Shelton and Botsford, two north to Birmingham (by now called Derby) and Waterbury. The line from the island to approximately the Ansonia town line (Division St.) was relocated eastward about 300 feet. While this work was in progress, traffic was routed up the east bank on the Naugatuck line.¹¹² Once completed the double-tracked NH&D route became part of the Naugatuck Division with the old Naugatuck line was severed and relegated to secondary status.¹¹³ New two-track iron bridges were installed over the Naugatuck River into downtown Ansonia and over the Housatonic River into Shelton at this time. In the years that followed bridges were strengthened and repaired along the route from Derby Jct. to New Haven and new freight and passenger facilities were constructed in Ansonia and Derby.¹¹⁴

[2.5.3] Given its facelift the line of the NH&D continued to serve its clientele as a part, albeit a small one, of the New Haven system. The 1904 Orange Fair program listed schedule information and special excursion fares, including admission to the Fair, from stations as far away as Saybrook.¹¹⁵ A photo from the same period recalls a wreck on 14 October 1912 behind Merwin's slaughterhouse in Orange. The actual location was just west of the West River in what is now West Haven, which was a borough in the town of Orange until 1921. It shows NH engine 1731 plowed into a row of boxcars which had been backed out onto the main before the morning local from New Haven to Ansonia had passed. Engineer Thomas Quinn was credited with saving the lives of many of his passengers by sticking to his brake lever.¹¹⁶ Traffic charts for July 1913 show eleven passenger trains daily each way hauling a total of 25-28 cars while a lone daily freight averaged 35 tons out of and 151 tons into New Haven.¹¹⁷ During this period the NH&D route was used for service to Pittsfield. These trains, one of which was named the Pittsfield Express, made no local stops between New Haven and Derby Jct. By September 1918 traffic figures and patterns had changed on the line, perhaps due to the outbreak of World War I. Now the daily freight out of New Haven carried 609 tons and the inbound brought 103 tons.¹¹⁸ This seems to have been the peak for freight carried on the line. Around this time the Derby-Shelton loop was put in service enabling freights to go from Maybrook to Hartford up the Naugatuck Division and avoid the heavy grades via Sandy Hook. Maybrook to New Haven freights, of course, used the Naugatuck route via Devon and not the NH&D route.¹¹⁹ Passenger service evidently had seen its peak already in 1913 because by 1918 daily trains had dropped to four each way carrying a dozen or so cars. As early as 1904 the New Haven announced plans to drop some local trains which had been added a few years earlier because trolleys had emptied them. There was also talk that Ansonia would no longer be regarded a terminus for trains, but only a way station between New Haven and Waterbury.¹²⁰ Needless to say, besides trolleys, both local and interurban, the impact of the automobile was beginning to be felt in these years.¹²¹A newspaper article from 1898 even says that the Consolidated was considering third-rail electrification from New Haven to Botsford and Waterbury to Bridgeport, based on success at Nantasket Beach and from Hartford to New Britain.^121a

[2.5.4] The next decades saw the end of service on the line. Passenger was the first to go, the last train running on 13 June 1925.¹²² In the waning days of passenger service, the Mack railbus was used on the Derby line. By January 8, 1922, the railroad's first three gasoline-powered vehicles were assigned to the Derby branch, saving the company $36,000 in initial expense and 50% in operating expenses thereafter, according to the Courant.¹²³ With the end of passenger service, mail, which had been transported on the route for over half a century, was carried instead by the Orange Center Road bus from New Haven. The PUC was notified that freight service from West Haven to Orange was curtailed in a letter from the railroad dated 9 March 1932 with the extension of the "N.H. Yard Limit west of the Allingtown Hospital to just east of Tyler City" [Dkt. 5802]. The north leg of the West River wye, the original NH&D trestle over the river, was authorized for abandonment on 15 January 1938.¹²⁴ On 6 May the whole right of way from West Haven to Derby Jct. was approved for abandonment. The effective date of the portion "from 300 feet west of the New Haven Rendering Co. Switch in West Haven to Orange" was 40 days later, making it June 15, 1938. The grade crossings on this portion of the Derby line at Dunn's (MP 3.59), Dogman's (4.05), Milford Rd. (4.23), Old Colony Rd. (4.54), Bradley Ave. (5.28), and Ferry Ave. (6.17) were thus delisted by the PUC [Dkt. 6634] when "physical abandonment [was] accomplished" on 25 January 1939, though we had previously thought that the track was out by 1 July 1938. Due to opposition from local farmers and seed companies, a stay was granted for the remaining portion until 26 May 1941 when the go-ahead was given for the rest of the previously authorized abandonment "from Orange westerly to a point 300 feet east of Standard Oil Co. switch near Derby Jct. approximately 3.44 miles in length.¹²⁵ This took out the grade crossings on Orange Center Rd. (6.53), Turkey Hill Rd. (7.85) and Tynan's (9.11) [Dkt. 6997, fldr 2]. At this point all that remained of NH&D trackage was the Extension from Derby Jct. to Huntington, the partly relocated line from Derby Jct. to Ansonia, and, in New Haven, the line from the West River to Meadow St., plus, of course, the West River branch to the station that was added by the New Haven in 1892.

[2.5.5] From 1941 the situation remained unaltered for the next twenty years until things in New Haven began to change. In 1960 the abandonment of the easterly 1800 feet of track from Meadow St. to Cedar St. was authorized. This included the closing of the Silver St. yards. This facility was still in use in 1964 as the site of the venerable New Haven produce market. The redevelopment of the area, which included the construction of Lee High School and public housing, was delayed until the market was moved to the Long Wharf area. On 30 April 1966 the S. Orange St. "Y" closed its doors and was demolished shortly afterward.¹²⁶ Authorization came on 29 September 1967 to abandon the right of way from Cedar to Barclay St. although this portion is still railroad property today.¹²⁷ It was transferred as part of the New Haven's assets when the road was included in the Penn-Central merger on 1 January 1969. With the exception of the first 100 feet of the West River branch which was leased to the Connecticut Transportation Authority on 1 January 1971 as part of its New Haven line, ownership of the remnants of the NH&D passed to Conrail on 1 April 1976. The non-operating portion from Barclay to Cedar St. went to Conrail in error since it was supposed to have been kept by Penn-Central to lower the price of the properties being transferred to Conrail and to satisfy the PC's creditors. Nevertheless, it was transferred and, by another oversight, all of the remnants of the NH&D in New Haven passed to Amtrak due to the broad language of the Northeast Corridor Agreement. Maintenance, however, is the responsibility of Conrail as long as it uses the track. It does continue to switch industries along the Boulevard in New Haven but business is so poor that it has not bothered to regain ownership. The trestle to West Haven, the west leg of the old wye, is out of service, badly charred by fire. Conrail had reportedly begun paperwork to retire some of the rail at the ends of the branch but abandoned the effort on finding that Amtrak is the legal owner. The most recent news about the old right of way in New Haven is that the city is about to buy the Cedar St. cut and fill it. It has long been a dumping site and health hazard about which residents have complained and finally gotten results.¹²⁸

[2.5.6] The Valley portions of the NH&D's line are essentially no different than they were in the 1900s and are owned by Conrail. Since the flood of 1955 both the Naugatuck and Berkshire Divisions were rebuilt as single track lines with some minor relocations on Hogg Island which is now part of the mainland in Derby. The bridge from Derby Jct. is now minus its easternmost span as well as half the length of its original superstructure. The single track uses the westerly of the remaining spans.¹²⁹ The Derby to Ansonia relocated portion of the old NH&D sees local freight service as well as passenger operations, the latter as part of the Bridgeport to Waterbury line operated by Amtrak and the Connecticut Transportation Authority. The Extension sees local and through freight service, the latter only recently restored after the burning of the Poughkeepsie bridge in 1974 cut the connection between Maybrook and Cedar Hill. Now symbol freights move between New Haven and Selkirk via Hopewell Jct. and the Hudson Division.¹³⁰ The right of way from Derby Jct. to West Haven, though sold to Western Union by the railroad and since then divested by them, did continue in limited railroad use until the mid 1960s with cables on the pole line carrying the Maybrook dispatcher circuits, among others. In 1964, with its own communication system failing, the New Haven agreed to scrap it and rent telephone company equipment which was done in 1965. Thus, the NH&D's final service as a shorter, inland line of railroad communication ended.

Track 2.6: The NH&D in Retrospect

[2.6.1] In closing, it seems only proper to attempt to assess the importance of the New Haven and Derby Railroad. Historical opinion varies considerably on the worth of this road, the sixth and last built into New Haven. One writer has said that New Haven residents "sacrificed themselves to the Derby R.R." after losing the Naugatuck and that they cost themselves many times the $75,000 they were asked to put up for the Naugatuck project with "little prospect for return."¹³¹ There is no question of the validity of this claim although, writing in 1887, the author undoubtedly accentuates the negative. Another historian, writing in 1880; took a completely opposite view, saying that business on the road was equal to expectation, that the road was a great convenience and that its receipts would soon merit further outlay.¹³² Other sources take a middle position, saying that the NH&D was not too little but too late or that the road did not enjoy the prosperity it deserved.¹³³ In financial terms, though traffic and revenue seem to have risen steadily and satisfactorily, the road's indebtedness does seem to have been excessive. Large amounts of the annual profits came right off the top, so to speak, for interest payments. The road never even came close to retiring any of its bonds and, after it came under the control of the New York capitalists in charge of the Housatonic, that indebtedness was further increased. Much of the debt, of course, came from the original construction expenses and was inescapably connected with the route and purpose of the NH&D: to provide a direct route between the Valley and the city of New Haven. The NH&D did just that and did a fair job of it. Its route, of necessity, was a costly one and its penchant for independence, foresighted though it was in some regards, increased costs even more. Its route through the city of New Haven was excessively expensive and ultimately necessitated the building of its own stations in the city, again at extra cost. To be sure, the city would have gotten away much more cheaply if it had supported the Naugatuck project and made New Haven the terminus of that road. This circumstance surrounding the birth of the NH&D is an inescapable fact and one that came back to haunt the NH&D many times.

[2.6.2] In spite of the negative factors one can advance against the worth of the NH&D, a number of points can be brought out on the other side of the argument. It is easy to say now that the NH&D was superfluous now that most of it has been abandoned, but that attitude overlooks the need for transportation that existed in the nineteenth century and the consequent support, public and private, that most of these railroad projects enjoyed. Once people saw what a convenience a railroad was and what commercial opportunities railroads brought to hitherto-unknown towns, they eagerly sought them and advanced great sums of money to aid them. In Connecticut, as well as other states, laws were changed to allow towns to aid these roads, a practice which, not surprisingly, became excessive by the late nineteenth century when many roads were chartered merely for speculative purposes.¹³⁴ And, as much as railroads were often local affairs of a few miles, many were built with the thought in someone's mind that a little road would someday be of interest to a larger road. The potential value of roads like the NH&D must also be considered if one is going to assess its overall worth. In some cases, this potential value is more important to consider than the day-to-day profitability of the road. A number of these considerations ought to be applied to New Haven and its Derby railroad. Though their relationship was a stormy one, the city and the road aided each other, the one providing needed funds and the other increasing the city's commercial life significantly. One should recall that in 1886, moreover, the city had no shortage of offers for the NH&D. It is also worth pointing out that the city turned down the highest offer for the road in favor of the deal that satisfied the city in a number of other ways. This occurred in spite of rising resentment of the poor return on the city's investment in the NH&D. Evidently, the city was more interested in keeping the NH&D a competitive, independent route into New Haven than in getting back the most money it could on its investment. This could almost be seen as a payoff on the NH&D's earlier determination, costly though it was, to maintain an independent entrance to the city. The city of New Haven, moreover, did recoup in cash much of what it paid out in loans and interest on the road's bonds.¹³⁵ The NH&D's remaining indebtedness, furthermore, was more secure than ever with its takeover by larger roads. This is certainly true of the absorption of the NH&D into the New York, New Haven and Hartford RR at the turn of the century when New Haven stock was, literally, as good as gold.¹³⁶ Seen in this light, the gloomy account of the NH&D written in 1887 seems unjustified. One wonders whether the author was not writing before 1887, though the work was published then, since he omits the later history of the NH&D when it made good.

[2.6.3] If the impact of the NH&D on New Haven appears to have been favorable, what of its usefulness elsewhere along the line, particularly in the Valley? Here too there is evidence to support a positive role, perhaps even more so than in New Haven. Undoubtedly, the NH&D contributed to the growth of Orange, though, sparsely populated, small numbers of people were affected here. In Ansonia and Birmingham, however, the NH&D's contribution was more significant, especially for the latter town which had no direct rail service before the NH&D. The same holds true for Shelton which the NH&D reached in 1888. The NH&D provided a ready route for Valley produce, manufactured goods, and finished metal products to New Haven and points beyond. Of course, the Valley already had the Naugatuck R.R. but there are indications that the Naugatuck road catered to the interests of the upper Valley to the neglect of the lower. Moreover, competition, when there is ample business for it, is a valuable commodity in itself. In the context of thriving Valley trade it was undoubtedly a boon. It should also be remembered, in retrospect, that trackage today from Derby to Ansonia follows the NH&D's route while only vestiges remain of the original Naugatuck line. The opening of the Extension was another mark of achievement by the NH&D in cooperation with the Housatonic. It gave the Valley and New Haven an outlet to the West with the advantages of avoiding the congestion of New York City. Ultimately the New Haven RR acquired this valuable route. In the days of steam, access to the coalfields of Pennsylvania was a valuable, if not crucial, asset for any Eastern railroad. If not originally intended as such, the NH&D and the Extension pointed the way to those fields. The Extension, of course, formed a vital link in the Maybrook line which was for many years the backbone of New Haven freight operations, its "Gateway to the West", to borrow a phrase from the promoters of the NH&D.

[2.6.4] One final comment needs to be made on the significance of the New Haven and Derby and on the circumstances in which it was absorbed into the Consolidated. Ostensibly it came as part of the package when the New Haven captured the Housatonic in 1892. Even so, it is also possible that the New Haven road saw the NH&D as presenting a real threat or a significant enough challenge to convince it to move against the NY&NE/Housatonic alliance. Perhaps the NY&NE had finally attained a viable structure with its affiliates, more viable than it is usually given credit for. It had certainly achieved a victory, real as well as symbolic, when its satellite Housatonic road acquired the NH&D, an event which the proud New Haven probably saw as a humiliating invasion of its capital city. The New Haven's immediate hostile reaction in the form of harassment and bids for control of the Housatonic seems to bear this out. This reaction by the New Haven to the mobilization going on around it led to the acquisition of, first, the Naugatuck and, then, the Housatonic with its leased lines. Rather than a policy of "direct conquest" which one historian has seen rather inexplicably begun by the New Haven in 1887,¹³⁷ the evidence may well suggest it was reacting to moves made by its competitors. These moves centered in large part around the independent NH&D, its control by the city of New Haven and the city's wish that the NH&D stay independent of the Consolidated. It would not be going too far to say that, by selling the NH&D to the Housatonic, the city made it necessary for the Consolidated to take over that road to get the NH&D and to take over other roads in the process. With the acquisition of these various roads the isolated NY&NE was, of course, able to last only a few years.¹³⁸ Whether the New Haven coveted the NH&D for its assets, whether it sought the NH&D as part of a policy of "direct conquest," or whether the NH&D fell to the New Haven as a pawn in a struggle between railroad giants, the NH&D was valuable in its own right. That value was established as soon as the line was built into the city that was to become rail transportation capital of Connecticut. The value grew with the city and with the fortunes of the railroad that was to monopolize the transportation system of the city and of almost the entire state as well. The NH&D may have been born as an afterthought and it may now be a nearly forgotten component of the New Haven system, but it did play a significant role in the history of New Haven, the City and the Railroad, and in the development of rail transportation in southwestern Connecticut and well beyond.

[2.6.5] Notes

Abbreviations have been used for major sources to save space. Sources are arranged by these abbreviations in the Bibliography below.

1.     Wat: 368-369.
2.     Bak: 75; NRRAR [1850] says the offer was free use of an extra track built by the NY&NH
        from Naugatuck Jct. (Devon) to Bridgeport for 10 years beginning on July 1, 1849. From
        there the vessel Niagara was to be used until the NY&NH opened by late 1849 to take over
        the further transportation of goods and passengers to New York. After the free use of track
        expired, it is assumed that some rental charge was paid until the NYNH&H leased the NRR in
        1887.
3.     This route was eventually opened in 1888 as the Meriden and Waterbury RR with no
        connection to the Canal line until one was put in many years later under the NYNH&H.
4.     Wat: 363; Ost: 361.
5.     Har: 178; Wil: 309-312; HDC/03/07/1848/02, quoting the Palladium, says that Bridgeport, in
        "their individual and corporate capacity" subscribed $100,000 to get the terminus there.
6.     Orc: 332.
7.     PAC (1864): 188-191; OH: 199. Same as Private Laws V: 653?
8.     Orc: 333, 337.
9.     Ost: 361; RCCC 10: 65-66; Wat: 369.
10.    Stockholder Records; Orc: 333.
11.    PAC (1867) 265.
12.    RCCC 10: 378-379; RCNH 3: 112.
13.    RCCC 10: 461. The company's right to grant board seats and the block of
        votes to the city was challenged in court by an individual stock subscriber
        who refused to pay for the shares he had committed himself to:
        NHJC/11/16/1870.
13a. Connecticut Herald 05/18/1867/01
14.    Orc: 333 says the survey was completed in the fall of 1867; the
        commissioners were William A. Cummings, Samuel Fitch, and Albert Austin.
15.    NHJC/05/11/1870/02; Orc: 333 says the contract was awarded in winter 1867.
16.    At one point, Bunnell and Scranton, a New Haven brokerage firm, was
        offering for sale $130,000 worth of the NH&D's first mortgage bonds which it
        called an "excellent investment" and "perfectly safe." These had been held
        since their issuance in 1868 by a wealthy corporation which had divested
        them for needed capital. Exactly when this large block of bonds was up for
        sale is unclear but they were selling for $109.50 each plus accrued interest
        which was said to make them a 5% investment: see Ann.
17.    RCNH 3: 142-143.
18.    SLC (1869): 673-675.
19.    NHJC/06/02/1869; RCCC 10: 474-475; Kirk: 311; the city had already
        aided or was in the process of aiding the New Haven, Middletown and
        Willimantic R.R. at the same time the NH&D was being financed.
20.    NHJC/07/31/1869.
21.    NHJC/09/30/1869.
22.    NHJC/06/15,16,17/1869.
23.    NHJC/08/20/1869; the case was settled in the road's favor: NHJC/11/20/1878.
24.    NHJC/12/02/1870.
25.    NHJC/05/11/1870.
26.    NHJC/11/06/1869.
27.    NHJC/06/02/1869.
28.    NHJC/02/03/1870; 11/16/1870; 12/02/1870.
29.    The bridge and trestlework over the Platt River valley was 675 feet long and 37
        feet high at its deepest point; the Wepawaug River bridge was 50 feet high; the
        Davis Brook trestle was 300 feet long and 55 feet high at its deepest point; Oil Mill Creek,
        also, involved considerable work to fill and bridge; see Cont for description of work and
        road's dedication to "only the best" in materials and workmanship.
30.    The secondary sources are ambiguous, if not completely wrong, about the extension to
        Ansonia following after the line was opened to Derby Jct. Lars: 27 says it opened later in
        1871. The testimony of the Derby Transcript [DT/08/11/1871] to the excursion from New
        Haven to Ansonia on 5 August shows that the whole road opened then, as Wat, p. 369
        asserts. See also CRC (1871) 18: 267. The legislative act approving the extension was
        passed on July 5, 1870.
31.    RCCC 11: 320; NHJC/12/07/1868; NHJC/05/11/1870.
32.    The section of the road from Derby Jct. to Ansonia was almost entirely on trestle as the
        1876 DPL may shows.
33.    The roster of New Haven locomotives acquired from the Housatonic which in turn had
        gotten them from the NH&D [BRLHS 44 (October 1937): 67-68) shows the livery to have
        been NHD&A: See Track 3, MP 3.1.
33a. NHJC/05/11/1870/02; NHDP/03/22/1871/02; DN/03/29/1871/02; 34 PAC (1871): 195 speaks
        of layouts of the NH&D approved by the commissioners on 5 November 1867 and 23 March
        1870; they are, presumably, the rights of way from New Haven to Derby Jct. and from
        Derby Jct. to Ansonia; on the difficulties with the Naugatuck road, see NHJC/01/22/1870,
        NHJC/03/05/1870, and the next few notes.
34a.  NHER/03/22/1871/02; DN/03/29/1871/02
34b. NHJC/09/09/1870/02; NHER/02/02/1871/02; NHDP/04/04/1871/02; NHDP/04/28/1871/02;
        NHER/07/15/1887/01???
35.    NHER/04/22/1871/02
35a. HDC/06/14/1871/02
35b. NHDP/01/16/1871/02; NHDP/02/02/1871/02; HDC/04/04/1871/04; HDC/04/26/1871/04
35c. HDC/04/27/1871/04
35d. NHDP/04/26/1871/02; DN/04/26/1871/02; HDC/06/10/1871/01; NHDP/06/13/1871/02;
        NHER/07/01/1871/02
        NHDP/06/21/1871/02
36.    NHER/06/08/1871/02; NHER/06/09/1871/02; NHDP/07/06/1871/02; NHDP/08/04/1871/02;
        NHDP/08/05/1871/02; NHER/08/07/1871/02
37.    Wit: 27-28 quotes the Derby Transcript.
38.    Orc: 333; Ost: 362
38a.  AES/07/17/1907/06; NHER/08/09/1871/02
38b. NHDP/08/10/1871/02; NHDP/08/12/1871/02
39.    NHER/08/08/1871. When Tyler City was added in June of 1872, NHDP/06/06/
        1872/02 says stations named Sheldon's and Bradley's were to be discontinued,
        likely just east and just west of the new Tyler City station. Today's Racebrook
        Rd. was Bradley Ave. named after farmer Lewis Bradley and Sheldon's was
        probably Allings Crossing, both names deriving for the latter from another
        prominent local resident, J. Sheldon Alling, and located where the track crossed
        today's Dogwood Rd. This would account for the drop from nine to eight stations
        in 1872 and, going to seven stops when Turkey Hill was eliminated in 1881
        [CRC (1882) 29: 32].

40.    Mit: 587; there were also no car aprons or bridgings to allow safe passage from car to
        car; the company blamed this on a delay of equipment coming from the manufacturer in its
        reply to the commissioners who had pointed out the hazard: CRC (1872) 19: 37-38. Also,
        the right of way was in less than perfect condition from the start: NHJC/05/04/1874.
40a. HDC/02/02/1871/04; see Track 3, MP 3.4, Financial History for 1869 on this payout.
41.    RCCC 19: 64; HDC/07/26/1871/02. Another $50,000 was lent later, RCCC 19: 108-109.
        There was the threat of an injunction to forestall any more lending to the NH&D. The
        aldermen had just passed a resolution requesting that the superior court judge notify them
        before signing any injunctions so the city could be heard first. Previously injunctions had
        been issued without notice to the city: NHDP/0/28/1871/02.
41a. Springfield Republican 06/16/1871/10; NHDP/04/19/1871/02. HOTD: 334-335 says the
        stockholders at the annual meeting, November 15, 1876 honored Tyler as follows:
        "Resolved, that in the death of Mr. Tyler, the New Haven and Derby railroad company has
        lost a director whose services, far exceeding any requirement of official duty, were
        invaluable; whose counsel and whose means, in the darkest days of its history, largely
        contributed to preserve its road [italics are ours] to the public interests which originally
        induced its construction, and whose unrewarded services as the executive officer of the
        company for several years, should ever be held in kindly remembrance. That in grateful
        acknowledgement of our obligations to Mr. Tyler for his unwearying devotion to the welfare
        of the company we place these resolutions upon our records."
41b. HDC/08/31/1871/04.
41c. NHDP/10/07/1871/02; NHDP/11/06/1871/02
42.    Poor (1872/73): 205; (1888): 54.
43.    NHER/08/29/1871/02; NHER/09/26/1871/02.
44.    CRC (1873) 20: 29.
45.    CRC (1883) 30: 21.
45a. NHDP/07/04/1874/04 says that Maurice J. Reilly was under contract to rebuild all the NH&D
        bridges in New Haven with stone abutments. Work was to start around July 10 with the one
        at the Washington and Daggett St. intersection. These overhead bridges were to be the
        entire width of the streets, with the stonework five and one half feet thick at the bottom
        and three and one half feet thick at the top. The 'substantial' wooden bridges were to be 22
        feet wide, leaving enough space for two tracks. One has to assume that the original NH&D
        bridges were all wood and of smaller dimensions and strength than their replacements. These
        new bridges are the ones seen on the 1879 Bailey & Hazen bird's-eye map [click here] at
        Cedar, Howard, Washington, Hallock, Arch, and Columbus Sts. CRC (1875) 22: 183 has a
        figure of $2000.80 reflecting bridge repair expenses for the year ending on 9/30/1874 and
        CRC (1876) 23: 208 has a figure of $2116.20. Perhaps straddling these two fiscal years, the
        cost of the bridges may be these to figures or some part thereof.
46.    Rock 2: 377; the rental fee is in the CRC reports and usually ranges from $500 even to a
        very precise $560.04 in several of the years.
47.    See Halk.
48.    Rock 2: 377; see also the 1876 DPL map.
49.    See the 1898 DPL map which shows it in East Derby where Second St. crossed the river
        from Birmingham; presumably, freight for shipment on the Naugatuck R.R. was carted across
        the bridge to this depot from 1849 until the NH&D opened through Birmingham in 1871.
50.    DTR/08/11/1871/02; NHDP/10/19/1871/02; see also Track 4, MP 4.57. By late 1878, the
        NRR was taking through cars for points above Ansonia from the NH&D at Derby Jct. NHER
        cite?. NHJC/05/09/1872, 05/15/1872 says this connection was considered as early as 1872.
        These references need to be rechecked to better determine what the arrangements were.
50a. NHDP/09/30/1871/02; this may not have actually happened until the end of the year: see
        NHDP/12/30/1871/02 and Connecticut Constitution 01/03/1872/03.
51.    NHER/06/08/1871/02; see also Hal-2. Hall asserts, p. 18, that between 1879 and 1882 two
        bridges over the Naugatuck River in Ansonia were replaced by the Naugatuck road. The
        research done for this article shows only one bridge crossing the river in Ansonia and it was
        on the NH&D route, not on the Naugatuck which stayed on the east bank of the river from
        Derby Jct. to Seymour. The bridges Hall is speaking of are probably for inlets above Ansonia
        on the east side of the river. See Orc: 313 and the 1875 APL map.
52.    NHDP/01/29/1880/04; NHDP/03/11/1880/04.
53.    Bak: 89; OH: 200 per Secretary's Files 21-0-11 and 21-0-12; RCCC 25: 500-501.
54.    CYB (1880): 31; NHDP/01/13/1880/04; NHU/01/12/1880/05.
54a. NHJC/02/03/1880/02.
55.    Wit: 27; the NH&N had broken free of the NY&NH in 1869 after a twenty year lease
        expired which the New York road had used to coerce the NH&N into cooperation.
56.    NHER/05/20/1871/02; NHER/10/26/1871/02.
56a. Secretary's File 9-0-7, Union Wharf and Pier Co.
57.    CRC (1875) 22: 183; NHJC/05/13/1874; rentals to the NH&N are noted from 1873 to 1877,
        and from 1875 onward to the Consolidated, the latter apparently for the land on which they
        built the track to access the Derby railroad wharf from Fair St.; a spur planned earlier that
        appears to go to Long Wharf on the map in Wit, between pages 16 and 17, was never built.
        This was verified on a better copy of the original map in the NHMHS collection; see also Osb
        4: 495 and Mit: 587. Permission for this crossing of the NYNH&H is found in RRC 6:71.
58.    NHDP/07/08/1872/04; NHJC/05/12/1875/02; NHJC/11/17/1876/02: the latter speaks of this
        service as "the Derby and New York road (sic)," probably meaning the through service to
        New York via the Starin line. Day: 113 says the New Haven Line was inaugurated in the
        early 1870s as a towing line. In 1873 steamers Erastus Corning (built 1857) and an older
        J.H. Starin (built 1865 as the R.C. McCulloch) were put on to start making regular
        connections with the NH&D.
58a. Click here for an interesting legal case that mentions the NH&D's arrangements here,
        including the 1873 lease and construction of the wharf in 1874 [p. 501]. Also, there
        is a marvelous pamphlet entitled The Centennial Cruise [click here] that describes the
        inaugural runs of the new J.H. Starin in the year of the nation's hundredth birthday and its
        travels to Albany, Philadelphia, and Newport. Pages 122-124 describe a trip from New Haven
        to Greenpoint L.I. on September 7, 1876, apparently organized by the NH&D to celebrate the
        new ship. Guests included NH&D directors E.N. Shelton, Thomas L. Cornell, Franklin Farrel,
        and J.H. Bartholomew, NH&D president, through whose energies the event and perhaps the
        Starin association itself, may have come about. Resolutions voted at an impromptu
        'meeting,' included one that said: "That the thanks of the citizens of Birmingham and
        Ansonia are specially due to the New Haven and Derby railroad, for its generous
        contributions to this entertainment, and especially to the influence of the said road in
        obtaining the co-operation of John H. Starin in their transportation business, an enterprise
        that has brought relief to them from the burdens of a monopoly."
59.    NHJC/11/13/1875; Day: 112-114; Kirk: 135 says the NH&D operated this steamboat line to
        New York; this is implied elsewhere as well but nothing official actually shows the NH&D
        owning any boats.
60.    NHER/12/01/1871.
61.    NHJC/07/09/1869.
62.    Osb 4: 495; OH: 200 per Secretary's File 10-6-30; see also NHJC/05/13/1874.
63. These were the NHM&W which became the Boston and New York Air Line in 1875, the
        NH&N, and, of course, the Consolidated itself which combined the NY&NH, the H&NH and
        the Shore Line Rwy. The vacated Austin depot became a city market until gutted by
        fire on July 4, 1894: see NHER/07/05/1894/01; NHDP/07/05/1894/01; NHJC/02/11/1911;
        Wit: 22.
64.    NHJC/05/24/1875; NHJC/05/25/1875.
65.    Ost: 362; RCCC 25: 39; NHJC/11/20/1878; CRC (1879) 26: 25. The city had
        to release land sufficient for a depot from the mortgage it held on the Water St. property.
65a. NHER/11/19/1878/01
65b. Mat: 23.
65c.  HDC/11/27/1871/04.
65d. HDC/05/02/1872/02; NHDP/06/06/1872/02 .
65e. See the 1894 PL map at Track 4A, MP 4.30; on the damage: NHDP/11/05/
        1874/04; this station is also mentioned a little later in the Daily Constitution
        [12/12/1874/04]. The damage had probably been fixed by then.
66.    NHER/03/16/1888/01; Wood: 107 says this train was bound for New Haven, but assuming
        the 7:00am time is correct, this would have been the train for Ansonia according to
        timetables of the period.
67.    NHER/11/24/1871/02; NHER/12/02/1871/02; NHDP/08/10/1871/02; Lars: 27; Blak: 8. This
        latter photograph is explained on Track 5 at MP 5.20.2.
67a.  Perhaps this claim is valid for after May of 1872 or means no loss of life. There certainly
        were accidents damaging locomotives and cars. See Track 3, MP 3.2.0, Notes 5 and 6, MP
        and MP 3.3, Note 4.
68.    Orc: 338; .
69.    Wood: 101-103; Mat: 23 has a map of Tyler City and a small vignette of
        the Tyler City station; see also Prend and NHER/11/15/1871; NHER/11/29/1871,
        NHJC/05/24/1873.
70.    Kirby: 76; Wat: 368.
71.    Poor (1868-1869): 162; the bridge company became known as the Hudson Suspension
        Bridge and New England Railway Company in 1870. See also Kirby: 79; an 1885 sketch of
        the bridge can be seen in Hal-1.
72.    PAC (1868): 375-380; the charter was renewed through 1884 in 1876: PAC (1876: 23. See
        also NHJC/03/08/1870 and Wat: 370.
73.    PAC (1870): 58; renewed PAC (1876): 105.
74.    PAC (1869): 127-130; (1873): 21; (1879): 42 which extended the Derby and
        Woodbury's charter until 1884; see also NHJC/06/09/1869.
75.    CLD, 1869, Nos. 22a, 22b; RCCC 11: 218, 11 July 1868; see also Plea.
76.    Wat: 370.
77.    Bak: 86-87; the NY&CA's line appears on the map of New Haven County in
        Rock even though the road never became operational; see also Kirk: 86 and
        Kirby: 82-83; NHJC/05/04/1874 says that the NH&D had signed a lease with the
        New York and Eastern for use of the NH&D's facilities in New Haven.
78.    The other was the Harlem and Port Chester RR. See Kirk: 88
79.    The New England Terminal Company was organized to operate the carfloats; the whole
        operation was ultimately unprofitable: Bak: 58-62; Har: 207-209.

80. RCCC 30: 187 speaks of this in 1884; RCCC 32: 319-321 speaks in 1886 of an
        investigation of the actions of council members in 1884 which involved something called the
        "Derby Road Compromise." Though no corruption was uncovered, the railroad's supporters
        did succeed in getting a favorable vote from the council on the compromise.
81. RCCC 30: 237, 265, 294: investigations were called for repeatedly into the NH&D's
        indebtedness to the city which was said to amount to $294,765.25; CRC (1886) 34: 185
        shows a comparable figure of $219,140 plus the $75,000 loan.
82.    RCCC 28 shows that on November 16, 1882 the Board of Public Works was ordered to
        survey a route that would bring the NH&D into New Haven along the tracks of the Con
        solidated; the council later concluded that, for the time at least, such a relocation was
        unnecessary and detrimental to the city: RCCC 32, 1886, p. 76.
83. RCCC 32: 444, 460; RCCC 33: 5, 7; see also RRG/03/11/1887; 06/03/1887; 06/10/1887.
84.    RRG/04/01/1887/224.
85.    Bak, p. 91 says the Consolidated offered $300,000 but the only offer of that amount seems
        to be from the NY&NE: RRG/06/10/1887/404.
86.    RCCC 33, p. 1-4; the date of the sale was July 13, 1887; the date of the sale was
        challenged and possibly delayed, however: RRG/07/22/1887; RRG/07/29/1887.
87.    RRG/02/04/1887; Bak: 91; OH: 200-201.
87a. NYT/07/20/1887/05
87b. NHER/07/15/1887/01
88.    OH 200: per Secretary's File 10-6-6. See also Blak: 10; Rock 2: 377 says the NH&D became
        part of the Housatonic system late in 1887 meaning, apparently, that financial control
        passed to the Housatonic at that time.
89.    Poor, 1890, p. 34.
90.    SLC (1886): 385 sets a May 14, 1887 deadline to avoid use of the Custom House Square-
        Meadow St. area; SLC (1893): 885 speaks of a contract between the city and the railroad
        to close the streets.
91.    Wit: 28; CRC (1889) 37: 14. The 1889 PL map shows the new arrangement, a stub-end
        track to Commerce St. in addition to the mainline, for the first time.
92.    See photo of proposed design in IRNV on p. 41.
93.    In some of the shots in the Fogg collection there is an NH&D locomotive #33. With the HRR
        takeover and the opening of the Extension, the A for Ansonia was dropped as that
        line became only a branch. See Track 3, MP 3.1 for the renumbering of the locomotives.
94.    AES/01/13/1890/01; SR/03/19/1891.
95.    CRC (1889) 37: 215.
96.    Poor, 1888, 1889, 1890.
97.    CRC (1890) 38: 13-14.
98.    OH: 200. See also NHER/08/04/1887/01. The contract was said to be legally binding until
        1978. Apparently it was mutually agreeable to cancel it.
99.    Rock 2: 478 notes the two operations in the Valley in 1892 and remarks that a
        new station at Ansonia had been recently built for the use of the two roads. It
        was completed in January of 1887. See also RRG/09/16/1887/659 and Cram. The
        latter shows the NH&D line into New Haven labeled as the Housatonic, even
        though both were leased by the Consolidated by this time, in 1895.
100.  Kirby: 85.
101.  OH: 201; Bak: 92-93.
102.  Bak: 92-93; Har: 209; RRG/04/29/1904/318; see also Comm.
103.  Bak: 63; see also Pierce for the NH's obstruction of the NY&NE.
104.  CRC (1891) 39: 13.
105.  OH: 204, per Secretary's File 1-18-2; SLC (1905): 869-871 and (1907): 40-41.
106.  Blak: 10; CRC (1892) 40: 14.
107.  NHR/05/01/1966,4-1,5.
108. CRC (1892) 40: 20.
109. The 1893 PL map shows for the first time the NH&D main cut back to Meadow St. and the
        West River branch in place.

110. This is counting the Austin depot (1848-1875) as the first and Union Station (1875-
        1920) as the second; see note 107 again.
111.  Blak: 16; Curt: 10.
112.  AES/03/10/1904.
113. This is why, at the time of its inclusion into the New Haven system (1905), the NH&D only
        owned trackage from Derby Jct. to New Haven (10.7 miles) and from Derby Jct. to
        Huntington (3.79 miles): see Stan, p. 8; the station on the old Naugatuck line was its
        original Derby depot, which by now was called East Derby. Ring, p. 8-9 claims that this
        was the departure point for passenger service to New Haven. While the station does appear
        on a 1914 local timetable map, the table itself indicates that service was still via Derby as
        been in the past. The author also claims that service to New Haven lasted into the 1950s
        and that trackage on the east bank of the Naugatuck River was NH&D; these claims are
        both in error.
114. Of these structures only the Derby station, later called Derby-Shelton, still
        stands, built in 1903 when the double-tracking and relocation project was
        completed. The name change came about, presumably, when passenger service
        to Shelton and Botsford ended, probably in 1925 when NH&D service from New
        Haven to Ansonia was also eliminated. A 1937 timetable shows no Shelton
        service by that date. A new station was planned for Ansonia but apparently was
        never built: AES/05/12/1906. See NHAR (1909): 9 and (1913): 11-15 for
        improvements in Derby and Ansonia. See also Track 4B.
115. Mat: 28-30.
116. Blak: 2.
117. Char: 25, 27.
118. Char: 26, 28.
119. Sometimes the NH&D route was pressed into service like on June 21, 1898 when a derailment
        at Devon blocked the bridge over the Housatonic as well as access to the Naugatuck
        Division. Trains detoured north out of Bridgeport, down the Extension and into New Haven
        via the NH&D: RRG/07/08/1898/494. Also see Blak: 16.
120. AES/03/05/1904; Ansonia, however, seems to have remained a terminus at least until
        1914.
121. Employee timetable #76 (1919) shows two trains daily each way between New Haven and
        Derby Jct. and two more between New Haven and Botsford. On Sundays there were only
        two each way from Derby Jct. to New Haven. It also indicates that some trains, like the
        1435, which arrived in New Haven at 9:39am, was backed from the West River wye into
        Union Station and that the 1440, which departed at 7:05pm, was backed out to the wye.
        Also, it is noteworthy that the West Haven stop on this line was called "Concrete" by this
        time both here and on the USRA map, probably indicating that no station building existed
        here any longer.
121^aNHER/12/27/1898/02
122. From an NHR article sometime in 1979 or 1980 which cites a report of the Regional
        Planning Agency of South Central Connecticut for the date.
123. Pav: 36-37 does not mention the use of buses on this line; Ring: 9 does, local
        residents recall them, and newspaper articles corroborate HC/01/08/1922/A5;
        01/17/1922/01; 04/23/1922/10. There is a great illustration of the new Mack railbus in the
        first article. It noted that these new vehicles had "air breaks" (sic), that the first three
        railbuses had just been put into service on the Derby line, and that more were to be used on
        the company's other "side lines."
124. ICC docket 11822, effective November 29, 1937.
125. ICC docket 11823, dated May 6, 1938 and May 26, 1941; another obstacle in keepirg the
        Orange-Derby Jct. section open was the construction of the Wilbur Cross Parkway. The
        state highway department refused to construct a bridge over the parkway since the one
        they had put up in Bridgeport for the old Housatonic line, at a cost of $30,000, was never
        used by the railroad.
126. See note 107.
127. ICC docket 10489.
128. NHR/09/14/1980; NHR/09/27/1980; NHR/01/23//1981.
129. The tower at Derby Jct., SSB 253, was torn down ca. 1961 after the Maybrook
        line was single-tracked and CTC was installed. See Nell: 15.
130. Rails Northeast (September 1980) 73: 4.
131. Wat: 368.
132. Orc: 333, 336.
133. Ost: 362; Rock 2: 377.
134. It was reported in 1875 that the total railroad debt of towns in the state was $5,561,000:
        HDC/06/17/1875; see also Kirk: 311
135. The city received $275,000 in cash; CRC (1888) 38: 318 says that at the time of the
        sale the road owed the city $463,174.74.
136. This was before the difficulties encountered by the New Haven RR around 1914, of course in
        which the obligations of various roads like the NH&D which had been acquired through
        mergers a large part; see Well who presents a scathing indictment of the financial
        mismanagement in the Morgan-Mellen era.
137. Bak: 88.
138. Bak: 63-70; Har: 210-214.

Bibliography

Alphabetized abbreviations used in the notes precede entries. Information in brackets pertains to known locations of sources. There may be additional locations. Links to many of these locations are on the home page.

1. Primary Sources

Ann      Announcement of Sale of New Haven and Derby First Mortgage Bonds by Bunnell and
           Scranton. [Yale]

-----    Annual Reports of the New Haven and Derby Railroad Company. [Yale has 1882-1885;
           some also at NHMHS]

App      Application to the Railroad Commissioners of Connecticut by the New Haven and Derby
           Railroad Company. New Haven, 25 September 1867. [Yale]

CLD    Connecticut Legislative Documents. 1869.
            No. 22a: "Minority Report of the Committee on the Derby and State Line
            Railroad"
            No. 22b: "Majority Report of the Joint Standing Committee on Railroads on
            the petition for a railroad from Derby to the State Line"'
            No. 25: "Report of the Joint Standing Committee on Railroads upon the
            petition of the City of New Haven praying for a confirmation of votes."

Comm   Comments by the State Press on the Railroad Question now before the
           Legislature of Connecticut. 1889. Contained in: Pamphlets on Railroads in
           Connecticut [Yale]

Cont     Contract and Specifications for the New Haven and Derby Railroad Company.
           New Haven. 1867. [Yale]

CRC      Connecticut Railroad Commissioners. Annual Reports. 1854-1911. Their work
           was subsequently taken up by the Public Utilities Commission. [CSL]

CYB      City Year Book of the City of New Haven.

-----    Freight Receipts. New Haven and Derby RR Co. [NHMHS]

-----    Handbook of the New Haven and Derby RR. [Yale]

-----    Index Map of Deeds of the Naugatuck Railroad. [NHMHS]

-----    Index Map of Deeds of the New Haven and Derby Railroad. 1903. [NHMHS]

OH       Official History of the New Haven Railroad. Typescript, bound, 4 vols. New Haven. 1915
           (?). [NHMHS]

-----    Pamphlets concerning the financial history of the New Haven and Derby
           Railroad. [Yale]

NHAR    New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company. Annual Reports.
           [NHFPL has 14-54 in 4 vols.; NHMHS has all]

Plea      A Plea on behalf of the Derby and State Line Railroad. 1868. [Yale]

PAC      Private Acts of Connecticut.

RCCC     Records of the Court of Common Council of the City of New Haven.

RCNH     Records of the City of New Haven.

RRC       Records of the Railroad Commissioners. 40+ vols. [CSL]

SLC       Special Laws of Connecticut.

-----    Stockholder Records. [NHCHS]

-----     Timetables. Issued by various railroads; also carried in newspapers and compiled in
            travel guides like Snow's Pathfinder, etc.

2. Secondary Sources

Bak      Baker, George Pierce. The Formation of the New England Railroad Systems. Cambridge,
           1937.

Blak      Blakeslee, Phillip C. Lines West: A Brief History. New Haven, 1951. No pagination
           but pages are referred to by number beginning with the one about the author. Also
           online.

Cav      Cavanaugh, H.F. Diesel Locomotives of the New Haven Railroad. N.J. International, 1980.

Char    Characteristics Charts: NYNH&HRR-CNE 1923 - NYNH&HRR 1959. Wallingford CT, 1978. No
           pagination, but pages are referred to by number beqinning with the first chart.

Cram    Cram's Standard American Railway Atlas of the World, 1896. New York, 1895.

Curt     Curtin, Thomas. "The Berkshire Line". Shoreliner 10.3 (1979), p. 6-23.

Day      Dayton, Fred E. Steamboat Days. New York, 1925.

DCB      Derby, Connecticut: 300th Anniversary Commemorative Book, 1675-1975. Derby CT,
           1975.

-----    Gillespie, C.B., ed. Souvenir History of Derby and Shelton, Connecticut. Derby CT, 1896.

Hal-1    Hall, Ronald. "The Hudson Suspension Bridge -Legend, Myth or Partial Reality," Shoreliner,
           10.4 (1979), p. 12-13.

Hal-2    Hall, Ronald. "The Naugatuck Railroad." Shoreliner, 11.2 (1980). p. 6-20, part 1; articles
           included as part 2 are listed elsewhere by authors' names.

Halk      Hallock, Edwin. "The First Railroad.'' This essay appeared in a Derby newspaper, probably
           the Transcript, after the Consolidated took over the Housatonic and the NH&D in 1892.
           [NHMHS]

Har       Harlow, Alvin F. Steelways of New England. New York, 1946.

IRNV     Illustrated Review of the Naugatuck Valley. New York, 1891.

Kirby     Kirby, R.S. "Notes on some Abortive Connecticut Railroads.' Annual Report of the
           Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers, 1935, p 71-86.

Kirk       Kirkland. Edward Chase. Men, Cities and Transportation: A Study in New England History,
           1820-1900. Cambridge, 1948.

Lars      Larsen, Dorothy A., ed. Ansonia: Bicentennial -1976. North Haven CT, 1976.

Mat      Mattia, Joy P., ed. History of Orange: Sesquicentennial 1822-1972. Orange CT, 1972.

Mit       Mitchell, Mary Hewitt. History of New Haven County. Boston, 1930.

Nell      Nelligan, Thomas. "Naugatuck Operations in the Sixties." Shoreliner 11.3 (1980), p. 14-15.

Orc      Orcutt, Samuel. The History of the Old Town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642-1880.
           Springfield MA, 1880.

Osb      Osborn, Norns Galpin. History of Connecticut in Monographic Form. New York, 1925.

Ost      Osterweiss, Rollin G. Three Centuries of New Haven, 1638-1938. New Haven, 1953.

Pav      Pavlucik, Andrew. The New Haven Railroad: A Fond Look Back. New Haven, 1978.

Pierce   Pierce, Merle. "The New York and New England Railroad." Shoreliner 4.4 (Fall 1973),
           part 1.

Poor     Poor, H.V. and H.W., eds. Manual of the Railroads of the United States. New York, 1868-.

Prend    Prendergast, William J. Exploring Connecticut. Stonington CT, 1965. Pequot Press,
           Connecticut Booklet 9.

-----    Reid's and Price, Lee and Co's Consolidated Railroad Guide. Providence Rl, February
           1879-; becomes Price, Lee and Co., New England Railroad Guide in 1883. [Yale]

Ring      Ring, J.O. "Operations on the Naugatuck." Shoreliner 11.3 (1980), p. 8-11.

Rock     Rockey, J.L., ed. History of New Haven County, Connecticut. New York. 1892.

Sher     Sherwood, A.F. Memories of Old Derby. Derby, 1924.

Stan     Stanford, R. Patrick. Lines of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. 1976.

Wat      Watrous, George D. "Travel and Transportation," Chapter 22 in History of the City of
           New Haven to the Present Time, ed. E.E. Atwater. New Haven, 1887.

Well      Weller. John L. The New Haven Railroad: Its Rise and Fall. New York, 1969.

Wil        Wilson, Lynn Winfield. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut, 1639-1928. Hartford CT.
           1929.

Wit       Withington, Sidney. "New Haven and Its Six Railroads." Railway and Locomotive Historical
           Society Bulletin 56 (October 1941), p. 10-29.

Wood    Woodruff, Mary R.. ed. History of Orange, North Milford, Connecticut, 1639-1949.
           New Haven, 1949.

3. Periodicals

AES      Ansonia Evening Sentinel

DJ        Derby Journal

DT        Derby Transcript

NHER     New Haven Evening Register [Yale, NHFPL; online via Newsbank by subscription,
            1878-1900]

NHJC     New Haven [Morning] Journal Courier [Yale]

NHR      New Haven Register [Yale, NHFPL]

RLHSB   Railway and Locomotive Society Historical Bulletin

RRG      Railroad Gazette [Yale]

SR        Seymour Record

4. Maps

1868NHC Atlas of New Haven County, Conn. F.W. Beers. New York, 1868.

1876DPL   Map of Birmingham. [Derby Public Library]

1898DPL   Map of Derby, Shelton and East Derby. [Derby Public Library]

1875APL   Map of Ansonia. [Ansonia Public Library]; no longer available there, but see Track 4, MP
              4.65 or click here.

PL           Price & Lee Co. New Haven maps issued annually in city directories. Prior to its
              incorporation in 1891, this was Price, Lee and Co. from its establishment in 1876.

USRA       Valuation maps issued in 1915 by Federal Railroad Administration. Some of these are
              now online via the Dodd Research Center at UConn. Click here.


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