Share of the New York and New England Railroad Company, issued March 6, 1893
The New York and New England Railroad (NY&NE) was a railroad connecting southern New York State with Hartford, Connecticut; Providence, Rhode Island; and Boston, Massachusetts. It operated under that name from 1873 to 1893. Prior to 1873 it was known as the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad, which had been formed from several smaller railroads that dated back to 1846. After a bankruptcy in 1893, the NY&NE was reorganized and briefly operated as the New England Railroad before being leased to the competing New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1898.
The corridor from Providence, Rhode Island, west into New York was originally chartered as three companies. The Providence and Plainfield Railroad, chartered in June 1846, would run from Providence to the Rhode Island–Connecticut state line. The Hartford and Providence Railroad, incorporated in May 1847, would continue west to Hartford, Connecticut, and the New York and Hartford Railroad, chartered and incorporated in May 1845, would continue to the New York and Harlem Railroad at Brewster, New York. In 1849, the two Connecticut companies merged to form the Hartford, Providence and Fishkill Railroad, with a modified charter to continue past Brewster to Fishkill, New York, on the Hudson River, and in 1851 the Rhode Island company was merged into it. Later that year the first section opened, from Hartford east to Willimantic. Extensions opened east to Providence in 1854 and west to Waterbury in 1855. The HP&F went bankrupt on January 1, 1858, and was run by the trustees until 1863, when it was leased by the newly formed Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad.
Southwest from Boston: 1847-1867
1867 New Haven, Middletown and Boston Railroad map
On May 1, 1849, the Southbridge and Blackstone Railroad was incorporated to extend the line west from Blackstone to Southbridge. The Midland Railroad was incorporated May 2, 1850, to build a new entrance to Boston, merging with the existing one south of Dedham. The two companies were consolidated with the Norfolk County Railroad on December 12, 1853, to form the Boston and New York Central Railroad, which had the intent of continuing southwest through Connecticut all the way to New York City. The first section of this extension was incorporated in May 1853 as the East Thompson Railroad, forming the Connecticut portion of the Southbridge and Blackstone.
The extension from Blackstone southwest to Mechanicsville, Connecticut, on the Norwich and Worcester Railroad was completed in 1853. In January 1855 the new main line to Boston was opened, but was closed six months later until December 1856 because of an injunction due to the danger of the numerous grade crossings. The new line ran to a terminal at the foot of Summer Street in downtown Boston via South Boston. The full line was first operated as one on June 1, 1855, but again failed quickly. On August 6 operations were restarted on only the original Dedham-Blackstone line, operated by the Boston and Providence Railroad as a branch. On March 2, 1857, the trustees took repossession, ending the operation by the B&P. The East Thompson Railroad leased the line, reopening it again in full for about a year before another failure. At that time, all but the original Dedham-Blackstone line and Medway Branch were closed until 1867. The closed lines were sold in November 1858 to the Midland Railroad, but were not operated due to bad condition. The Midland Land Damage Company tried again in 1862, changing its name to the Southern Midland Railroad in 1863 without success.
Combined routes from Providence and Boston: 1863-1898
New York and New England Railroad's White Train between New York and Boston, c. 1890
In May 1863, the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad was chartered to take over operations of the failed lines and continue the line west to Fishkill, New York, with a car float from there to the Erie Railroad at Newburgh. It quickly leased the Hartford, Providence and Fishkill Railroad from its trustees, giving it a line from Providence west to Waterbury. In September of that year it acquired the former Boston and New York Central Railroad, but did not operate it yet; the old Norfolk County Railroad continued operations by its trustees.
In the meantime, the New York and Boston Railroad had built a line from Brookline, Massachusetts (outside Boston) southwest to Woonsocket, Rhode Island, crossing the Norfolk County Railroad in Blackstone. On January 4, 1865, the BH&E absorbed that company, making its Woonsocket Division. On December 13 of the same year, various Erie Railway men were elected to the BH&E board, placing it under partial control of the Erie.
On February 11, 1867, the BH&E leased the Norfolk County Railroad, finally reopening the full line from Mechanicsville to Boston. That same year, the branch to Southbridge (part of the original Southbridge and Blackstone charter) opened. The Norwich and Worcester Railroad was leased in 1869, finally giving it a route to Boston, using the N&W from the Providence line at Plainfield north to the old Norfolk County Railroad at Mechanicsville. In August 1872 a direct connection from Willimantic on the line to Providence northeast to Mechanicsville opened, completing the direct line to Boston. The Willimantic stop also afforded a transfer to the New London Northern Railroad for Palmer, Massachusetts, and Brattleboro, Vermont, to the north, and for New London to the south.
Various sources note the Boston Hartford & Erie as failing and falling into receivership in 1870, yet it was during the Panic of 1873 that 89 of the country's 364 railroads went bankrupt. The New York and New England Railroad Company was chartered by special act of the Massachusetts legislature on April 17, 1873. Such was the mess of the Boston Hartford & Erie's mortgages and land titles that the NY&NE did not enter into possession of any of the BH&E "system" until sometime in 1875. Alvin F. Harlow in Steelways of New England states that the NY&NE did not get possession of the Hartford Providence & Fishkill line until 1877.
Through its entire existence (1873–1895) the NY&NE was always bedeviled by uncertainty in its land titles. Symptomatic of this: the $20 million common stock of the NY&NE originated as the $20,000,000 principal amount of the "Berdell Bonds"; the chartering legislation said the NY&NE was to "succeed to the rights of the Berdell Bondholders". There was a 10% assessment levied on the Berdell Bondholders as part of the chartering legislation, which also appropriated the necessary monies for the state to pay its assessment on its $3 million of Berdell Bonds. For some reason $1,000 of Berdell bonds were never issued so for years the NY&NE had $19.999 million of common stock outstanding.
Through all this the receivers of the BH&E and the later management of the NY&NE continued to hold on to the BH&E's Norwich & Worcester lease which was a major part, if not the principal prop to the entire system's existence. The N&W and its related Norwich Line steamers (passenger and freight) made money, enough that the NY&NE could afford to pay 8% (reduced from 10% by negotiation ca. 1885) on the N&W's capital stock.
Also in 1881 the New York, Westchester and Putnam Railway was completed, running north and east from New York City to the NY&NE at Brewster. This company had been previously involved with the BH&E in building a through line between New York and Boston, even being called the New York and Boston Railroad at first, and with its opening such a through line was formed. For some time such a traffic arrangement was made, lasting through the NYW&P's absorption into the New York Central Railroad in 1894.
There was a December 31, 1883/January 1, 1884, receivership that got referred to at the time as the "Midnight Receivership" which featured the NY&NE officers trying to find a federal judge to issue a receivership order before the end of the year. This receivership was over by 1886.
Cyrus W. Field had become a major figure behind the NY&NE by 1886 but after the state of Massachusetts refused to sell him the $3 million in stock it held (instead disposing of the shares to a rival group because of concern about Field's close association with Jay Gould) Field sold his holdings in the NY&NE. The Massachusetts sale of NY&NE stock was part of a deliberate policy on the part of Massachusetts to get out of owning railroads; the sale of the Hoosac Tunnel line to the Fitchburg in 1887 was also done under this policy, a declared policy of Massachusetts Governor Andrew.
The new NY&NE President in 1887 was Jabez A. Bostwick, a Standard Oil partner of John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller's brother William sat on the board of the New Haven. With Rockefeller lieutenants in both camps one wonders whether the NY&NE-NYNH&H "rivalry" may have been a Standard Oil "Divide & Conquer" policy to get low rates and other benefits out of both roads who together controlled nearly all rail business in New England south of the Boston and Albany Railroad (running through Massachusetts from Boston to Worcester, to Springfield, Pittsfield and on to Albany, New York).
The final bankruptcy of the NY&NE happened on December 27, 1893, and the company was reorganized on August 26, 1895, as the New England Railroad; Stuart Daggett in Railroad Reorganization states the 1895 NY&NE reorganization featured a hefty 20% assessment on NY&NE common. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad leased the company for 99 years from July 1, 1898, at 3% on the preferred (normal dividend) and common stock. The New England Railroad was merged into the New Haven in 1908.
Many sources state that most of the NE stock had early on been acquired by the New Haven, probably bought in 1895 when NY&NE stockholders who did not want to forfeit their shares for non-assessment dumped their shares on the market. Baker in Formation of the New England Rail Systems claims there was a mini-Northern Pacific type corner in 1894 in NY&NE common when parties "Friendly" to the Boston & Albany tried to buy controlling influence in the NY&NE and the New Haven had to buy a large position in NY&NE common. Both parties apparently wound up together buying more NY&NE common than actually existed; worse, the New Haven had had to pay high prices for near worthless shares.
The most well-known and prestigious train of the New York & New England Railroad was the New England Limited of 1891, a crack Boston - New York passenger train. In 1891, the Pullman Palace Car Company refitted the train with luxurious new cars decorated in white and gold, inspiring the advertising department to call it the White Train and folks along the line to call it the Ghost Train as it sped through their towns after dark. It caught the romantic imagination of New Englanders and even after it was long gone, Lucius Beebe, a Bostonian and noted railroad writer, felt compelled to memorialize it.[2][pageneeded] Famed author Rudyard Kipling memorialized the train in a popular verse:
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad: 1898-1969
Much of the major foundation of the line of the NY & NE was the legacy of the Hartford, Providence and Fishkill Railroad, whose mainline ran from Providence, Rhode Island, west to Plainfield, Connecticut, to Willimantic, to Vernon, to Hartford, to New Britain, to Waterbury, to Danbury, and finally to Brewster, NY.[4] Several portions of the line in Connecticut, including Danbury to Hawleyville and Waterbury to Bristol, were double-tracked in the late 1910s.[5] This work included the construction of the Pequabuck Tunnel, which opened in 1910.
Until 1955 the NY, NH & H ran passenger trains from Boston to Blackstone, to Putnam, joining the above line at Willimantic and continually finally to Waterbury. This included the weekday limited stops Nutmeg train.[6] The last remnant of service on this line was a Hartford-Waterbury segment that ended in the 1960s.[7]
As time passed and sections were abandoned, the former NY&NE main lines became minor branches. In 1965, the city of Bristol, Connecticut, paid $15 million to build a new spur (partially using a segment of the pre-Pequabuck Tunnel mainline) to a new General Motors plant on Chippens Hill to convince the company to keep its operations in the city.[8]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2019)
Branches
In addition to the two main lines to Boston and Providence, splitting at Willimantic, numerous branches and auxiliary lines existed.
Dedham
The original Boston line ended at Dedham with a connection to the Boston and Providence Railroad. In 1883 what had become a branch to Dedham was abandoned. Prior to that, a new branch just to the east had been built in 1881, and was supplemented in 1890 by a connection to the south.
Medway
The Medway Branch Railroad from the main line at Norfolk west to Medway was incorporated in 1849 and opened in 1852, being immediately leased to the Norfolk County Railroad. It closed in 1864, two years after the New York and Boston Railroad reached Medway.
The Hopkinton Railway was organized in 1870 and opened in 1872, running from Milford north via Hopkinton to the Boston and Worcester Railroad at Ashland. The Providence and Worcester leased it until 1885. In 1884 the Milford and Woonsocket bought the Hopkinton, and the two ran as one.
On April 1, 1897, the New England Railroad leased all three companies.
A short section from Franklin to Forge Park/495 is in use by MBTA Franklin/Foxboro Line service, while the section from Forge Park to Milford remains in freight use. From Milford to Ashland is abandoned and being converted to the Upper Charles [Rail] Trail. A 1.4-mile (2.3km) segment of the Upper Charles Trail completed in 2011 uses the right-of-way from I-495 to the Hopkinton line.[9] In July 2020, the state awarded $50,000 for design of the Trolley Brook Trail, a 1⁄2-mile (0.80km) segment of rail trail on the right-of-way in Ashland.[10] It will be the first segment of the 7 miles (11km) of the trail in Ashland.[11]
Until 1955 the line served as the basis for Boston-bypassing run-through train, the East Wind from New York to Bangor, Maine, via the Norwich and Worcester line.[14][15][16]
The Rockville Railroad was incorporated in 1857 and opened and leased to the Hartford, Providence and Fishkill Railroad in 1863. It was a short branch from the main line at Vernon north and east to Rockville.
South Manchester
The South Manchester Railroad was chartered in 1866 and opened and leased to the Hartford, Providence and Fishkill Railroad in 1869. It was a short branch from the main line at Manchester south to South Manchester.
Within the last 10 years, funds have been set aside for a rails to trails conversion. As January 2014, the easternmost segments spanning from Garfield Avenue/Cranston Street (near Amtrak's Northeast Corridor), West Warwick (former Riverpoint/Hope Railway spur point) and Coventry have continuous pavement totaling to approximately 14.2 miles[17]
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated principally in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of the New York and New Haven and Hartford and New Haven railroads, the company had near-total dominance of railroad traffic in Southern New England for the first half of the 20th century.
The Providence and Worcester Railroad is a Class II railroad operating 612 miles (985 km) of tracks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, as well as New York via trackage rights. The company was founded in 1844 to build a railroad between Providence, Rhode Island, and Worcester, Massachusetts, and ran its first trains in 1847. A successful railroad, the P&W subsequently expanded with a branch to East Providence, Rhode Island, and for a time leased two small Massachusetts railroads. Originally a single track, its busy mainline was double-tracked after a fatal 1853 collision in Valley Falls, Rhode Island.
The Central New England Railway was a railroad from Hartford, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts, west across northern Connecticut and across the Hudson River on the Poughkeepsie Bridge to Maybrook, New York. It was part of the Poughkeepsie Bridge Route, an alliance between railroads for a passenger route from Washington to Boston, and was acquired by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad in 1904. The New Haven ran the CNE as a separate company until finally merging it in 1927. The vast majority of the system was abandoned by the 1930s and 1940s. Surviving portions of the Central New England Railway are operated by the Central New England Railroad and the Housatonic Railroad.
The Norfolk County Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts, United States. Chartered as two different companies in 1846 and 1847, it completed a rail line between Dedham and Blackstone in 1849. A branch to Medway, Massachusetts was built in 1852. The railroad was leased by the Boston and New York Central Railroad, succeeded by the Boston and Providence Railroad and the East Thompson Railroad, before the Norfolk County Railroad returned to independent operation in 1858. In 1866, the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad leased the Norfolk County. The Rhode Island and Massachusetts Railroad was completed in 1877 from Franklin southward to Valley Falls, Rhode Island, and became a branch of the Norfolk County mainline. The northernmost portion of the main line from Islington to Dedham was rerouted to the east in 1881, and the original alignment abandoned two years later. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad assumed operation of the Norfolk County lines in 1898.
The Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad was a railroad in Dutchess County, New York, United States. Its line ran 58.9 miles (94.8 km) northeast from the Hudson River in Fishkill to the Connecticut state line near Millerton. The Dutchess and Columbia Railroad (D&C), was chartered in 1866 to link rural villages with the Hudson River Railroad and New York and Harlem Railroad. The under-construction line was leased by the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad (BH&E) in 1868. The first segment opened in July 1869, and it reached Pine Plains the following February.
The New York, Providence and Boston Railroad, normally called the Stonington Line, was a major part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad between New London, Connecticut and Providence, Rhode Island. It is now part of Amtrak's high-speed Northeast Corridor.
The Southern New England Trunkline Trail (SNETT) is a rail trail in Massachusetts. The trail passes through the towns of Douglas, Uxbridge, Millville, Blackstone, Bellingham, and Franklin and is one of the longest trails in southern Massachusetts. It is designated for use by pedestrians, equestrians and non-motorized vehicles, with motorized off-road vehicles excluded.
The Connecticut Company was the primary electric street railway company in the U.S. state of Connecticut, operating both city and rural trolleys and freight service. It was controlled by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, which also controlled most steam railroads in the state. After 1936, when one of its major leases was dissolved, it continued operating streetcars and, increasingly, buses in certain Connecticut cities until 1976, when its assets were purchased by the state government.
Franklin/Dean College station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station located in Franklin, Massachusetts near Dean College. It serves the Franklin/Foxboro Line, for which it was the terminus from 1966 to 1988. The station has a mid-sized park and ride lot to serve town residents; Forge Park/495 station is intended to serve commuters from other nearby towns. The 1912-built station building still serves as a waiting hall and café, open during morning commute hours on weekdays. Franklin/Dean College station has a single side platform serving the line's single track; it is not accessible.
Forge Park/495 station is a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) commuter rail station served by the Franklin/Foxboro Line. It is located off Route 140 near Interstate 495 in Franklin, Massachusetts, United States. A park and ride station serving southwestern Boston suburbs and northeastern Rhode Island, it is the outer terminus of the Franklin/Foxboro Line. The station has two side platforms serving a single track, with an accessible mini-high platform and a station building on the south platform.
The Blackstone Viaduct, or the New York & New England Railroad Viaduct is a historic viaduct in Blackstone, Massachusetts. The viaduct was built in 1872 by the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad and the American Bridge Company. The viaduct is 1,600 feet (490 m) long structure, consisting of masonry arches and earthen embankments in the Massachusetts portion of the village of Waterford. It runs from the Blackstone River in the east to a still-watered section of the defunct Blackstone Canal to the west. The most prominent portion of the structure is an 800-foot earthen embankment running west from the river that is 25 feet (7.6 m) high, and then a 375-foot (114 m) multiple-arch masonry bridge constructed out of granite which was sheathed in concrete in 1918. The structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
The Norwich and Worcester Railroad (N&W) was a railroad in the U.S. states of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Its north-south mainline ran between its namesake cities of Worcester, Massachusetts, and Norwich, Connecticut,. The Providence and Worcester Railroad (P&W) owns the ex-N&W line and operates freight service.
The Boston and New York Air-Line Railroad was a railroad in Connecticut. Envisioned as a direct route between New Haven and Boston, it was hampered by difficult terrain in eastern Connecticut and did not find much success. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad leased the company in 1882. The tracks between Portland, Connecticut and Willimantic, Connecticut were abandoned in 1965, while the remainder of the line is operated by the Providence and Worcester Railroad.
The Southbridge and Blackstone Railroad was a railroad company that was the precursor to the Willimantic, Connecticut–Blackstone, Massachusetts line of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (NYNH&H). It was chartered in 1849 to build a line from Southbridge, Massachusetts, to Blackstone. In 1853, with construction underway, it was merged into the Boston and New York Central Railroad (B&NYC). The B&NYC used the charter of the East Thompson Railroad, another of its constituent lines, to alter the routing: west of East Thompson, Connecticut, the merged line continued southwest to Mechanicsville, Connecticut, where it met the Norwich and Worcester Railroad. The Mechanicsville–Blackstone line opened in 1854.
The Woonsocket Union Railroad was a railroad in Rhode Island. It was incorporated in Rhode Island in 1850 to build a rail line from the Massachusetts state line near Woonsocket through the towns of Smithfield, Burrillville, and Glocester to the Connecticut state line.
The Nutmeg train was a unique east-west train through Massachusetts and Connecticut which did not travel along the Atlantic Coast; in the course of following its route it connected several of Connecticut's medium-sized cities. Operated by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (NH) from 1950, it took a route from Boston's South Station, running through southwestern Boston suburbs but making no stops until Blackstone, Massachusetts, then through northeast Connecticut along the path of the old Southbridge and Blackstone Railroad, divisions of the old New York and New England Railroad to Hartford's Union Station, and finally to Waterbury's Union Station. Running directly through northeastern Connecticut, it made a shorter trip than the itineraries through Springfield, Massachusetts that the New Haven offered.
Blackstone station was a railroad station in Blackstone, Massachusetts. Opened in 1847, it was a stop for Providence–Worcester service until 1960, and Boston commuter service until 1966.
The Southbridge Branch was a railway line in Connecticut and Massachusetts, United States. It ran 16.9 miles (27.2 km) between Southbridge, Massachusetts and East Thompson, Connecticut, via Webster, Massachusetts. Originally planned to be part of the Southbridge and Blackstone Railroad, it was ultimately built in 1866–67 by the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad. It became part of the New York and New England Railroad in 1875, and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1898. Passenger service ended in 1930, and the eastern portion of the line was abandoned in 1937. The western half continued to be used for freight service; it passed to Penn Central in 1969, and to the Providence and Worcester Railroad (P&W) in 1976 as the Southbridge Running Track. The P&W stopped serving the line in the 1980s, but did not abandon it until 2004. Much of the western half of the line in Massachusetts has been converted to the Quinebaug Valley Rail Trail.
The Providence and Springfield Railroad was a railroad in the U.S. states of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. It was originally chartered as the Woonasquatucket Railroad in 1857, and renamed to the Providence and Springfield Railroad in 1872. Construction started in 1872, and the line opened between the Olneyville neighborhood of Providence and Pascoag, Rhode Island, in 1873.
↑ Beebe, Lucius (1965). Two Trains to Remember: The New England Limited and the Air Line Limited. Privately printed.
↑ Morgan, Bryan, ed. (1973). The Great Trains. New York, New York: Crown Publishers Inc. p.162. Archived from the original on 2010-12-05 – via Air Line Rail Trail website.
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