Making Tracks To Admire and Enjoy Railroad History

There’s something about railroad trains — from the way their horns scald the hillsides with sound, to the searing brilliance of their headlights at night, to the trembling of the earth as they roll by — that can’t help but stir the soul.

It’s not just our awe at the size, length and mass of these leviathans of the land, but also the window they open into a large part of America’s history.  Whenever we wander down abandoned rights-of-way or climb aboard mothballed locomotives at rail museums, we can envision what it took from the (mostly) men who labored to open up our continent. 

Imagine, for example, that it’s a blistering mid-August and you’re shoveling a ton of coal by hand into a steam locomotive’s fiery furnace. Think about what hands it took to drill into solid rock using hammer and steel, John Henry-style, in all kinds of weather. You’ll start to appreciate how different life was a scant century and a half ago, and the tremendous work it took to link an expanding America’s borders.

Because we live where three railroad-pioneering states join together, we’re blessed with many opportunities here to marvel at train history. If you or your children are amateur ferro-equinologists (a fancy name for people who study the “iron horse”), one way to slake your curiosity is to start at the North Canaan, Conn., Union Station, first built in 1872. 

Canaan Union Station

A century ago, trains westbound from Hartford on the Central New England line crossed tracks there with the New Haven Railroad’s Berkshire line (which still shoulders the Housatonic Railroad’s freight traffic several times a day). The Victorian-style station was rebuilt at great expense after near demolishment in a 2001 arson-related fire, and today houses a small museum with rail memorabilia (for more info, go to www.canaanunionstation.com; museum hours are Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) as well as a brewery and offices. Look skywards for the steam-train weathervane on the station roof. 

And if you’re interested in purchasing a piece of history, the station is for sale.

The Hoosac Tunnel

Artifacts of bygone railroads pepper the area, from crumbling bridge abutments visible from Salisbury’s Weatogue Road and a pergola on a causeway in Twin Lakes to the massive Hoosac Tunnel in North Adams, Mass. 

Completed in 1874 after two decades of stop-and-go work, the tunnel was the second-longest in the world at that time. More than 190 men perished building it, earning it the sobriquet “the bloody pit.” 

It’s still the longest active transportation tunnel in the U.S., east of the Rockies. An active freight corridor, it’s closed to visitors, but its entrance is visible from the Florida, Mass., end, near Pittsfield. A free museum in a former railroad yard at 115 State St. in North Adams documents the history of the Hoosac Tunnel and related railroad lore.

The North Adams Museum of History and Science at Western Gateway Heritage State Park is temporarily closed because of COVID-19; go online to www.mass.gov/locations/western-gateway-heritage-state-park for information on its reopening.

CAMA in Kent, Conn.

If hands-on contact with steam engines beckons you, a visit to the Connecticut Antique Machinery Association museum in Kent, Conn., might be what you crave. 

Narrow-gauge locomotives and steam machinery there bring the Industrial Revolution to vivid life.  

CAMA reopened quietly in May and, for now, will only welcome visitors on weekends. Usually, the best times to visit are the opening and closing weekends, in spring and autumn. There was no reopening weekend this year because of COVID concerns but the Fall Festival is scheduled for Sept. 24 to 26.

During the festival, the massive historic steam engines are powered up; there are swap shops on the lawn, with small bits of antique machinery for sale; and steam engine fans bring their most beloved antiques and either drive them around the grounds or put them on display under tents. 

Railroad and
Railway museums

For visiting a treasure trove of full-scale locomotives, passenger cars, freight stock and track utility trains, the Railroad Museum of New England at the 1881-vintage depot in Thomaston, Conn., reopens in July. They occasionally offer excursion rides on the Naugatuck Railroad. 

Danbury Railway Museum also has several diesel locomotives, passenger and freight cars, and a 1907 steam engine that once ran on the Boston and Maine line.

Walking the line

No tracks remain on the CNE right of way, but walking trails in Salisbury, Conn., and Farmington, Conn., invite strollers and bicyclists to amble along level pathways where trains once ran. 

It’s fun to stop by the Poetry Tree on the 1.7-mile Railroad Ramble off Route 44 in Salisbury and peruse what local poets have posted. 

A longer (18-mile) path, the Farmington River Trail, follows the former CNE right-of-way, connecting with the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail at Tunxis Meade Park in Farmington and at Drake Hill Road in Simsbury. 

In nearby Millerton and Amenia, N.Y., there’s easy access to the ever-expanding Harlem Valley Rail Trail, now paved from just north of the (still-operating) Wassaic Metro-North train station all the way to Ancram. 

Farther west, the Walkway Over the Hudson State Historical Park lets you enjoy spectacular views as you walk across the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge. When completed in 1889, it was the second-longest bridge span in the world.

There’s far more rail history in the area than this article can list, but these sites can give you a place to start. Check internet listings for opening hours and travel directions.