Track 9 - Brookfield

Brookfield and Its Railroads, 1840-1941

This subject has been one of much writing and continuing local interest over the years. This testifies to the town’s appreciation of its past and perhaps to its fascination with railroads as well. The purpose here is to add a few details and tie things together in conjunction with the history of railroads in Danbury on Track 10. Please see references there beyond what will be documented separately here. The Brookfield Museum and Historical Society [click here] has a fine collection of maps, newspaper clippings, artifacts, and other materials for those interested in pursuing colorful Brookfield’s railroad history.

[9.1] Brookfield first became a railroad stop in 1840 with the opening of the Housatonic Railroad. The Brookfield station was located in the Iron Works or Four Corners district. It was a combination depot for both passengers and freight and the town’s sole rail stop until 24 September 1868. On that day, the New York, Housatonic and Northern RR opened 5.5 miles of track and began running trains to Danbury from a connection with the HRR that was soon dubbed Brookfield Jct. The NYH&N never got to its intended terminus at White Plains but the connection to Danbury made the junction a busy place to catch HRR trains south to Bridgeport and New Haven and north to Pittsfield and Albany. The traffic created enough business for a hotel, which was built here opposite the station and stood until it burned on 10 September 2006. Initially Brookfield Jct. had a “large tree” for a depot, according to James Montgomery Bailey’s History of Danbury. Late in 1869, the HRR disassembled its 13x30-ft Stockbridge, MA station and rebuilt it here to serve both railroads. The fate of this first Brookfield Jct. station is unknown. It was replaced on March 17, 1889 [DN/03/18/1889/03; HC/03/20/1889/06]. The HRR, which had leased the NYH&N in 1872 and purchased it in 1882, reconfigured its tracks in Danbury so as to make the station it had built in 1882 on White St. superfluous. That station was lifted in one piece and moved here on flat cars, somewhat precariously, to become the second and last station at Brookfield Jct. See Track 10, MP 10.6.1.
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[9.2] Clickable photo. The engine is NYNH&H #812, superheated by 1913, but the smoke box is still the shorter version. The 812 was rebuilt in the mid-1920s with a new frame and longer smoke box. Charlie Dunn also notes that the 812 was the last NYNH&H steam locomotive to leave Grand Central Terminal when the switchover to electricity took place in 1907. Richard Fleischer adds: "The steel baggage and steel baggage-RPO cars were delivered in 1914-1915. And Number 812 did not have the electric headlight required by the ICC to be installed on engines built before July 1, 1918, at the first shopping after July 1, 1918, or before July 1, 1920. So this photo would have to be from 1915 at the earliest to 1920 at the latest." There were [Lord, p. 58, see below] reportedly 40 trains per day passing through Brookfield Jct. in the early 1900s.

[9.3] Clickable photo. This photo is a real gem. Though it is not the focus of the shot, there is an engine steaming on the turntable in the middle left. It has been suggested that the only the engine is blurred because it was perhaps being turned as the shutter was closing in a timed shoot, and that the darker shadows ahead of the engine may be ghost images of the crew turning the engine. The lettering on the sign behind the engine says D.M. READ CO. BRIDGEPORT CONN. The bottom line says DRY GOODS, superimposed over what appears to be a dragon motif. Read's, as most of us called it, was a long-time Bridgeport retail institution, founded in 1857 and lasting until 1995. Click here. The advertising in Brookfield, on what appears to be an early billboard, is a testament to its good merchandising instincts as well as the fact that the HRR line, now part of the NYNH&H, could take passengers to the Park City for shopping. Our clever photographer is apparently on the the top of a boxcar, the roof and brake wheel of which are seen at the bottom of this fascinating shot. We think this dates to the 1890s with what appears to be a coupling link on the front of the engine at the station. An added bonus is what looks like a Dutch clock, a timing device to keep trains from following too closely, to the right of the engine. These were used by the HRR and also by the NYNH&H.
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[9.4] By 1892 the New York, New Haven & Hartford was in control of most of the state’s railroads, including the HRR. Under the new owner service to points north and south remained much as before. By 1898 the NYNH&H also had purchased the New York and New England RR, which had built via Hawleyville to Danbury in 1881, along Brookfield’s southern border. This had created a triangle of track between Brookfield Jct., a point southeast called Hobarts and a point southwest going toward Danbury that would come to be called Berkshire Jct. Much of this was double-tracked starting in 1906 with the old HRR line that paralleled the NY&NE from Hawleyville to Hobarts eliminated. The contracting firm of Holbrook, Cabot and Rollins began work on the line from Danbury to New Milford on October 1, 1909. With a force of 200 men working 60 hours per week, expectations were to finish by January of 1911. A 25-ft deep, eighth-mile-long rock cut just below Brookfield Jct,, described as a "small edition of the now famous Culebra cut on the Isthmus of Panama," was blasted with dynamite to eliminate a curve and save a quarter of a mile in track distance [NHER/07/02/1910/03; see also RRC (2/2/1910) 18:297]. The line was relocated slightly eastward to improve gradients, straighten tangents, and eliminate grade crossings. Bridges like the ones at Junction Rd. and the one over the tracks at Rte. 25 were put in at this time. Interlocking station #199 at Berkshire Jct. was put in service on March 15, 1908 and the double-tracking to Brookfield Jct. was finished by May 7, 1913 [NHRTIA 12. S.S. 198/199]. [add7/15] The Brookfield railroad station was replaced, probably in 1914 by a new combination depot, the structure that survives today as part of the Craft Center [click here]. According to Robert F. Lord's Country Depots in the Connecticut Hills [New Hartford, 1996: p. 58] the earlier structure "resembled an old country store and was used primarily for freight before it was destroyed by fire." He gives no year for that event. Newspaper articles [DT/10/07/1869/02; DN/04/28/1870/02] say that a 20x50-ft depot was being brought down by the HRR in 1870 from Pittsfield to be located just above the American Hotel. Perhaps this was the replacement for the 1849 structure that burned. With whatever building still stood here in 1914, Brookfield was a stop for the duration of passenger service.

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[9.5] Two views of the Brookfield station, on Rte. 25 just east of where it meets and ends at Rte. 7, in what was called the Four Corners or Iron Works district. The station, built ca. 1914, survives today as part of the Craft Center. The fate of the earlier station built ca. 1840 when the HRR opened, is unknown. The track and that location were originally just north and slightly west of here along Tucks Rd., before the double-tracking and relocation ca. 1913.

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[9.6] The changes were reportedly intended to make this station Brookfield’s only rail stop thereafter but Brookfield Jct. was on passenger timetables until late 1925. While not a precise indicator, the Connecticut Register and Manual, for 1926 (with the date of March 26 on the title page) still lists Brookfield Jct. as a station and the issue of 1927 (May 3 on title page) does not. The junction did serve as a mail delivery point on the railroad until 1940. The picture of the junction station in the BMHS collection, seen above, shows it looking closed, but still standing in 1932. It also appears to be on the 1934 aerial photograph. It has not yet been determined exactly what or when its fate was. The double-tracking from Berkshire Jct. to New Milford wss reduced back to a single track in 1928 and the rails were taken up in 1937 [Shoreliner 32.1.15,18]. The 2.3 miles of track to Hobarts, part of the original HRR line, was not formally abandoned until 30 June 1940. There reportedly had been no rail traffic on it since 1935. The salvage value of $8257 was a trifle among the assets the receiver was looking to sell off for the then-bankrupt New Haven RR. Passenger service via Danbury was discontinued on 30 April 1971 by the Penn Central RR, into which the NYNH&H had been folded after its second and final bankruptcy in 1968. The second track on the NY&NE, part of the New Haven’s storied Maybrook freight line, was taken up in the 1960s.
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[9.7] Clickable photo. NYNH&H #504 being turned on the Brookfield Jct. turntable. This engine was formerly HRR #54 until renumbered as #504 in 1892 and as #1411 in September of 1904. The photo is thought to be closer to the 1904 end of the date range. Interestingly, this was Phil Blakeslee's engine in the Allingtown siding accident of 1907. See Track 4, MP 4.37-4.38. Apparently it was repaired and put back on the road again, even though the newspaper said the fronts of both engines were smashed in as if they were putty. This engine ran until it was retired on February 1, 1924.

[9.8] Clickable photo. A view from Stony Hill Rd. a little north of the station. Note the small freight depot this side of the passenger station. It's hard to tell, but if this building measures 13x30 feet, it could be the 'missing' 1869 passenger station that the HRR brought down from Stockbridge, Mass. and reassembled here for the use of both the HRR and the NYH&N. The fate of that structure is unknown. The considered opinion here is that the date range for this scene is 1905-1913 and probably closer to 1910 based on the engines and consists. The nearer engine is a 4-4-0 and the farther one a G-4-a 4-6-0.

[9.9] Clickable photo. This shot is north of the station but a little closer to it and from a somewhat different angle than the one just above. Here you can see the end of the wooden-plank platform, about even with the front of the locomotive. The cut-off building at the left has to be the freight depot. The billboard in the upper left may be the same as in the turntable shot above, possibly even with the same D.M. Read advertisement. The four-windowed white house also corresponds to that view. A closer look at the lettering on the tender shows it reading NYNH&H and it is probably a three-digit number on the engine. The consensus opinion dates this shot to ca. 1905, with the ladies' outfits corroborated in a Sears catalog of that time.
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[9.10] Freight service is provided today through Brookfield via a HRR reincarnated in 1983 and there is talk periodically of extending Metro-North passenger service from Danbury to New Milford. Vestiges of the older days remain: the turntable pit and station curbings at the Brookfield Jct. opposite the site of the old hotel on Stony Hill Rd near Sunset Hill Rd., the 1840s square-cut stone culvert opposite Pepsi on Pocono Rd., and traces of the line to Hobarts along Stony Hill Rd. going south from Junction Rd. Additionally, the gulley between the track and the old culvert appears to be the former roadbed, unused after the 1911-1913 relocation and double-tracking.

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[9.13] This is the view from the air in 1934. The Brookfield Jct. station building is still seen at the down arrow and the passenger platforms are visible as well. The freight depot is gone. The hotel is across the road (left-facing arrow). The turntable pit is at the right-facing arrow. The turntable itself appears to be gone. Timetable pamphlets and the NHRHTA's Characteristics Charts (1917) show a 60-ft. turntable in place here until 1926. The two gray lines converging from below in front of the station are the tracks to Berkshire Jct. (left) and to Hobarts (right), the latter being the old HRR line to Hawleyville and Bridgeport.


				TylerCityStation.Info Track 9 - Brookfield



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