Railroads and the Port
CENTRAL VERMONT IN COLOR
George F. Melvin and Jeremy F. Plant
Scotch Plains, NJ, Morning Sun Books, 2000
The subject is not fall foliage, but color photography of the rail link between the port of New London and Montreal by way of Massachusetts and Vermont. The line was established in 1871 by the Central Vermont Railway, a subsidiary of Canadian National Railway. It was the dream of entrepreneurs who wanted a railroad that would bring prosperity to landlocked Vermont as a "land-bridge" between New London and the Great Lakes. The New London Northern Railroad, which operated between its namesake and Millers Falls, Massachusetts, was leased by the CV in 1871 to complete the long-planned route. Trains operated between East New London and points north, local freights serving the mills of the Thames Valley and through trains operating into Quebec to interchange with the CV's parent company. Photographs of trains in the Thames Valley and the terminal facilities in East New London are of particular local interest.
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THE AMBASSADOR (magazine)
Central Vermont Railway Historical Society
Newspaper reports about upgrading the track between the Port of New London and Brattleboro, Vermont to accommodate heavier freight cars have prompted this installment of our series. From 1849 until 1995, the Central Vermont Railway and its predecessors provided freight service from New London to Massachusetts, Vermont, and Quebec. During the line's heyday freight trains arrived or departed twice daily, some with as many as 75 cars. Passenger service was still offered as late as 1966.
The McGuire Library has acquired selected back issues of The Ambassador, the CV Railway Historical Society newsletter, containing articles about the New London facilities and port operations near the Central Vermont Pier, including the now-vanished roundhouse. At one time cargo from trains was loaded onto freight boats operated by the railroad which carried it to points east on Long Island Sound and New York City.
Postscript (2021): The Connecticut State Pier and the former Central Vermont Pier are currently being reconfigured as a staging area for offshore wind turbine installations. What the effect of this change will mean for the shipping lines that have called here for many years, or the New England Central Railroad (the latest successor to the Central Vermont), has not yet been reported.
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William J. McChesney and Jeremy F. Plant
TRACKSIDE EAST OF THE HUDSON 1941-1953
Scotch Plains, NJ. Morning Sun Books, 1998
Viewers will be forgiven if they don't recognize the lower view on the cover. The photographer is standing on a building near the water at New London's Union Station ca. 1950 and a New Haven Railroad train for Boston is pulling in. The small railroad yard has given way to today's Waterfront Park and Fisher's Island ferry terminal, and South Water Street now follows the Northeast Corridor tracks toward the Custom House in the distance. The Providence & Worcester, a successor to the New York, New Haven & Hartford, now and then sends a freight train rumbling past the Custom House, reminding us that when it was finished in 1835 there was no railroad between it and the harbor.
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At upper right is a view of the short-lived "East Wind" passing Niantic on its way from Washington, D.C. to Bangor, Maine. A summer-only service, the canary yellow train turned north at New London and operated via Norwich and Worcester, bypassing Boston. Inaugurated in 1940, wartime conditions led to its early demise in 1943.
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