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[9.1] Brookfield first became
a railroad stop in 1840 with the opening of the Housatonic Railroad. The BROOKFIELD1 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
9/24/1868. 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 9/10/2006. Initially Brookfield Jct. had a “large
tree” for a depot, according to James Montgomery Bailey’s History
of Danbury. Late in 1869, the HRR tore down its
13x30-ft Stockbridge, MA station and reassembled it here to serve both railroads as BROOKFIELD JUNCTION1. That situation
remained unchanged until 3/17/1889 [DN/03/18/1889/03; HC/03/20/1889/06]. At that time, the
HRR, which had leased the NYH&N in 1872 and purchased
it in 1882, reconfigured its tracks in the Hat City so as to make DANBURY4 superfluous. That station was lifted in one
piece and moved here on flat cars to become BROOKFIELD JUNCTION2. See Track 10, MP 10.6.1., with the first station becoming the freight
depot: see Track 16.
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| Brookfield Museum and Historical Society |
[9.2] 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.
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| Brookfield Museum and Historical Society |
[9.3]
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 rails between Brookfield Jct., a point southeast called Hobarts and a point southwest going toward Danbury that would
come to be called Berkshire Jct. The NY&NE was double-tracked starting in 1906 and the old HRR line that paralleled it from Hawleyville to
Hobarts was eliminated. In a slightly later project to increase capacity northward, the contracting firm of Holbrook, Cabot
and Rollins began work on double-tracking the line from Berkshire Jct. 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, 600-ft 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; RRC 18:297 (2/2/1910)]. 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 3/15/1908 and the double-tracking to Brookfield Jct. was finished by 5/7/1913 [NHRTIA 12.S.S.198/199] The store-front
BROOKFIELD1 was replaced in 1914 by a new combination depot, BROOKFIELD2, the structure that survives today as part of the
Craft Center [click here].
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[9.5] This is the structure
that served as the first Brookfield Jct. station. It was brought down from from Stockbridge, MA by the HRR
late in 1869 and reassembled here for the use of both the HRR and the NYH&N [DT/11/18/1869/02; DT/12/02/1869
/03]. It was said to measure 13x30 feet. In 1889, the Newtown Bee tells us that it was to be "moved
to the west, across the branch... [to] serve as a freight depot" when the HRR's Danbury passenger
station was moved here [NB/04/05/1889/02]. See Track 10, MP 10.2.7 for more.
[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 [SL32.1.15,18]. 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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| Brookfield Museum and Historical Society |
[9.7] 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.
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| Brookfield Museum and Historical Society |
[9.8]
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.
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| Photo - Copyright Brookfield Museum and Historical Society |
[9.9] 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 gully 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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| Photo - Copyright Brookfield Museum and Historical Society |
[9.11]
The hotel, which stood
across Junction Rd. from the railroad station, is shown here in this ca. 1900 shot. Note the planked platform along the railroad
track in the lower right. The hotel had rather a colorful history of its own in its 130-year history, including
upstairs 'entertainment' and the suicide of one of the owners. The hotel burned in 2006 and the site across Stony
Hill Rd. still remains vacant.
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| Brookfield Museum and Historical Society |
[9.12] Another view looking north at BROOKFIELD JUNCTION2, probably from just beyond the hotel, which is on the
right, and the turntable to the left. The white house is a familiar point of reference.
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| 1934 Connecticut Aerial Photograph Collection |
[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.
[9.14] This is the box
culvert on Pocono Rd. opposite the Pepsi distribution center. This simple, sturdy style of culvert is typical of those found
in the original construction on the HRR and other early nineteenth-century railroads.
[9.15] These two recent
shots are of what's left of the Brookfield Jct. turntable pit, where engine 504 (above) was being tended to. The
location is off Stony Hill Rd., near Sunset Hill Rd. and along the active track of the reincarnated HRR.
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