NORTH CANAAN — A derailment in the Housatonic Railroad Company’s High Street rail yard Jan. 3 was blamed on a section of track that shattered.Cold and a latent defect in the rail section caused the rare type of failure. The train was northbound at about 7 p.m., hauling an assortment of freight, when its weight triggered the track failure. The derailment occurred just north of the crossing over the access road into the Canaan Country Club. Four cars derailed, including a box car that fell off the track onto its side on the west side of the rail line.No one was injured and no roads were blocked.“If it’s going to happen, in the rail yard is the best place,” said Ed Rodriguez, vice president and general counsel for Housatonic. He went on to say even extreme cold will not affect a rail, but that the weather served to weaken a defect that could never have been detected.“We inspect track visually and use sophisticated electronic equipment to test track. That particular section, like most of our track, was tested at least twice in the last 18 months, which is more than routine. Being in the rail yard, that particular section gets plenty of visual inspection.”Unlike the derailment on the spur in the center of town in May 2011, which required a specialized service company, Housatonic workers were able to handle this cleanup and repair themselves. The rail line was back in service at about 4:30 p.m. Jan. 4, according to Matt Boardman, the head of engineering at the North Canaan facility.The incident will spark some discussion on handling of such matters. Last September, a mass casualty drill that included the train was held in the center of town, a short distance north of the rail yard. In that scenario, the train collided with a vehicle carrying a chemical that leaked and formed a toxic cloud.It seems it was not clear going forward when a derailment would trigger an emergency dispatch. Both the Canaan Fire Company and the railroad said they would review procedures.Fire Chief Lee Baldwin was not happy to hear about the derailment hours after it happened. At about 12:30 p.m. Friday, Deputy Chief Brian Allyn got a phone call from someone who drove by the scene. He checked it out, found everything under control and initiated a dispatch, immediately followed by a message that no further response was needed, just to have it on the record.Baldwin said that in talking to the rail workers, he believes they responded appropriately in terms of public safety.“They called 911 and the DOT [Department of Transportation]. There was no need for fire or ambulance response. There was one tanker carrying isopropyl alcohol, which is a low haz mat [hazardous materials] risk. The workers determined it wasn’t leaking. They would know as well as anyone, and there’s no reason for them to hesitate to call us if they suspected it might be,” Baldwin said.“In the future, we want the chief officer to be notified to investigate any rail incident. We are working on dispatch procedures for that.”
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Greg Fricke and James Boehmer, co-owners of Peggy Mercury in Kent, recently launched their first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts.”
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Fricke and Boehmer are not there to stock their shelves with the same products customers find at standard makeup retailers. They’re there to help customers find what works for them. That usually means asking customers about themselves and learning about their beauty habits, skin, style and the way they like to present themselves. Fricke and Boehmer believe it’s their job to help customers bring out the qualities that suit them and determine what works best for their look.
So much of the Peggy Mercury world is about emboldening people to become more creative, and possibly bolder, versions of themselves. Some of this comes through the store’s creative collaborations with artists, designers and stylists.
It’s part of an ethos that encourages them and their friends to use the shop as a kind of laboratory, trying out new creative experiments without knowing how they might turn out. Whether in fashion, painting, fiber arts or photography, the projects almost always turn out marvelously.
A line of sterling silver charms they sell started as a small project by their friend Nolan Percival. In the beginning, the pieces were for close friends and loved ones. But Boehmer and Fricke encouraged Percival to get a little more serious about the project and create a whole line for the store. Today, it’s one of their top-selling collections.
Classic styles, bold colors, and creative concerts make up the “Imaginary Concerts” line at Peggy Mercury.Provided
“Imaginary Concerts” has the duo taking their own advice.
The project started as a way for Boehmer to connect with his mother, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Taking old concert shirts from his own collection, Boehmer and his mother began cutting out the graphics with the idea that they would make a quilt together. Unfortunately, she died before they could complete the project in 2025. The pieces, which were ready for production, were put on the back burner as Boehmer and Fricke dealt with their loss and the whirlwind of projects that never seemed to cease at Peggy Mercury.
But the harsh winter of 2026 presented an opportunity to take some time and focus on themselves. Part of that meant revisiting and redefining the concert T-shirt project. This time, instead of looking to the warmth and comfort of a quilt, they turned to another passion — fashion.
Taking a page from their own book, they wanted to create something that felt comfortable to them. They took two disparate loves — one rooted in simple preppy style, with clean lines and classic silhouettes, and the other in the nitty gritty worlds of punk rock and pop — and blended them together to create something entirely new. Pulling from the staples of vintage Brooks Brothers and Charvet collections, they applied the graphic elements with bold stitching reminiscent of punk jackets of the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with a much more sophisticated air.
But the remixing isn’t just the pairing of prep and punk. The pieces are not canon. They take liberties with the realities of concert tours, combining one band’s dates with another band’s logos, mixing them all up until the reality is lost and imagination is the only truth.
Shirts from Peggy Mercury’s first fashion line, “Imaginary Concerts,” hang on display.Provided
Adding to the mix is an element of perpetual creativity. Art can be messy, both figuratively and literally, and many of Fricke and Boehmer’s artist friends carry evidence of their work on them at all times. As a nod to these tireless creatives, the duo added haphazard splashes of bright color, giving the line an even more distinctive feel.
For them, “Imaginary Concerts” passes the “Peggy Test.” The mythical Peggy Mercury is a fictional figurehead for the company, a character who thrives on creativity and change. The name, much like the clothing line, is a mixture of interests: Mercury is a planet, a deity and an elusive, transformative element, while Peggy is the wonderfully stylish and boundary-pushing Peggy Guggenheim.
Everything Fricke and Boehmer put in their store has to pass this test: Would Peggy Mercury approve? For their first collection, the answer is a resounding yes.
Peggy Mercury is at 9 Maple St., Unit 2, Kent.
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