The Central New England Railway

    The Central New England Railway, in its final form, was the end result of numerous starts, bankruptcy's, mergers, and takeovers. A text history of the CNE can be found here. The CNE ended its life in 1927 as the railroad came under the control of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company. After the NH acquired control of the line it began wholesale abandonment of the right of way. Now, some 82 years later, some of the right of way has been preserved through the hard work of some to become walking paths. Much of the right of way is now underneath major paved roads such as Route 44 in parts of Winsted. In my wanderings through Litchfield County I have noticed that a large amount of the right of way is actually visible from the highways, back roads and driveways throughout the area. Wintertime is a great time to drive Route 44 from Collinsville (this is were I pick up the right of way) to State Line. If you want to know more about the eastern end of the line (from Collinsville to Hartford and Springfield, MA) you should check out the web page of Tim Dowd. He is attending college halfway across the country and still finds time to document the CNE. Check out his page Central New England Railway

I have been given a hand typed locomotive roster from Robert Lord and I have finally gotten it put into a MS Word document file that you can see here

Some of the old pictures I have used came from the Connecticut History Online archive which you can find here.

Here is my page documenting my attempt at modeling the CNE.

I am going to set up my pages much like his - by towns east to west.

Collinsville- Interchange with the Canal Line (New Haven)

Cherry Brook - Whistle stop.

Satan's Kingdom- Canyon along the Farmington River. Central New England on one side and the Canal line on the other.

Pine Meadow - Crossing tracks with the Canal Line.

New Hartford - Crossing with the Canal Line.

East Winsted- Interchange with the Naugatuck Railroad (New Haven) and there turntable.

Winsted - Manufacturing center.

West Winsted- Central New England's own turntable

Mad River Valley - Railroad vs river.

Grants- Whistle stop.

Summit - Highest point on the railroad

Norfolk - The Central New England had a tunnel!

Haystack Mountain - Whistle stop.

Stoney Lonesome- Beautiful view but is a long way down for derailed engines!

Whiting River - 1600 feet long and over 100 feet tall.

East Canaan- 3 pig iron blast furnaces and a chemical plant.

Canaan - Limestone furnaces and Borden Creamery.

Canaan Union Station- Very old beautiful architecture.

Canaan Yard - Water wheel powered water tower, coal skip loader tower and a wooden Howe truss bridge.

Washining - Whistle stop.

Twin Lakes- Resort area.

Taconic - Another pig iron blast furnace.

Salisbury - Station and businesses.

Lakeville- Spurr sawmill, beach and picnic grove.

Ore Hill - Open pit ore mine to feed pig iron blast furnaces.

State Line- Wye track and turntable.