New Haven Electrification

[Tom Curtin]

I am aware of Bill Middleton's book's cover painting and I think it cointains some "artistic license;"  in fact I think the caption of the cover painting says exactly that.

You're correct that a few EP-2s received cab signals, (My use of "none" is an admitted overstatement) but they still rarely, if ever, operated into Penn.

[erikem]

Does anybody know the exact dates of the start of the New Canaan branch original dc electrication?  (I guess I can also ask my fellow Branford members.)

I've looked up two sources, Middleton's When the Steam Railroads Electrified and CERA Bulletin 118 Westinghouse Electric Railway Transportation and both give 1899 for the original DC electrification. I did get to ride the line a couple of months back when visiting my in-laws in New Canaan - pretty leisurely ride between New Canaan and Stamford.

[daveklepper]

What is the current level of service on the line?  For many years it was hourly with a through Gradn Central train each way during rush hours (usually locomotive hauled for yearsm using two Ponies,"

[erikem]

Service is hourly using CT DOT MU cars - mostly shuttling back and forth between New Canaan and Stamford (didn't pay close attention to weekday rush-hour scheduling). Trip times are about 20 minutes each way. My understanding is that through trains to/from GCT are a rarity nowadays.

Probably the only older electified trackage in the US is New Orleans' St Charles line, which is also the oldest street railway in the world.

[daveklepper]

And which is not standard gauge and which is not connection to the National Railway System.  The New Canaan branch is both!

Oh yes, I worked on the sound system at St. Mark's Episcopal in New Canaan.  Also made recommendations for the Presbyterian Church there.   Both have excellent pipe organs if I remember correctly, and the "Fish Church" (Stamford 1st Presbyterian) replaced its electronic with an excellent pipe organ.

[daveklepper]

Some research into Boston Street Railway publications shows that the track with the oldest continuous electrification in North America today is part of the Beacon Street subway surface line in Boston.   Experimental electric operation started in 1888, with regular electric passenger service phased in in January 1889.   The original route was a horsecar line from Union Square, Allston, south on Harvard Street to Beacon Street, then the part still in service in the landscaped center reservation on Beacon Street to  St. Mary's Street.  From that point downtown the line is underground, but the original route was on the surface approximately the present route of the "Green Line" subway, and originally part of the downtown trackage was conduit, not trolley wire, but that lasted less than a year before wire replaced the conduit.

This was the third successful electric operation in North America, preceded by Richmond and Northumberland, PA.   All three were Sprague electrifications, and Frank Srague ran one of the first test and demonstration cars over the entire route before regular service.

The subway portion was built in stages, not all at once.

 

Whre New Canaan branch figures in the numerical order requires much further research.

 

At times, the standard gauge Boston streetcar network HAS been connected to the National railway system, sometimes at more than one location, but I am not sure of the present status.

[erikem]

Interesting - thanks for digging that up. Another line that comes to mind, as one of the oldest (but not the oldest), is SF Muni's Market street line - though I don't think it is currently connected to the national rail network.

[daveklepper]

I think the tracks on Market Street were electrified as late as 1908 or 1910 after being run with cable for many years.

[daveklepper]

In the absence of my locating the thread on postwar New Haven lightweight cars, I felt it necessary to delve deeper here on the two round-end observations.

 

1.   They were originally purchased for the Merchants Limited and not the Yankee Clipper as sometimes stated.

 

2.   As a post-WWII heavyweight, the Merchants was an all-parlor train, and I think it even had a brass-railed open-platform observation car at the rear.   The intent of the New Haven management was to modernize it as an all-parlor train.

 

3.   The postwar coach fleet, the 8600's arrived before the diners and parlors and grill cars and parlor-combines.  In 1949, the Yankee Clipper was run with heavyweight parlors up front, a heavywieght, and then after a while a lightweight diner, and then all lightweight coaches behind.   The Merchants was still an all-heavyweight parlor train.

 

4.   As soon as enough parlors arrived, the Merchants was converted to all lighweight equipment and this included the diner and the two round-end observations.   As soon as more parlors arrived, the Yankee Clipper got them and became all lightweight, with the parlors up front.

 

5.   The new coaches were a decided improvement over the earlier lighweight "American Flyers" for coach passengers.  (reclining seats for one)   The lightweight parlors did not make much of a difference, the heavyweights were excellent also as far as riding comfort.  (All equipment referred to was air-conditioned.)  Meanwhile, both American and Eastern Airlines were offering hourly service NY (LaGuardia) - Boston, alternating between the half hour on one airline and the hour on the other.   American replaced its DC-3's with higher-capacity DC-6's, Eastern with Constellations.   The New Haven lost some parlor business.   (More was lost later when the "Shuttle" concept was put in place by Eastern.)

 

6.   Bill Goodwin, the NYNH&H passenger VP, decided on a good move, to put coaches on the Merchants, including a lower priced grill car which ran in addition to the diner which continued to serve mostly the parlor patrons (but either group of passengers could use either car), and the Merchants coach traffic boomed.  He also decided the then the round-end parlor observations were more appropriately used on the Yankee Clipper running during daylight hours, with the parlor cars on this train on the rear instead of the front.  Yes, the round-ends did spend a lot more time on the Yankee Clipper than on the Merchants.   Coach traffic on the Merchants boomed to the extent that a four-hour "Advanced Merchants" was also operated, without stops from New Haven to Providence or Back Bay.   Both trains had a diner, coaches, and parlors, but only the regular Merchants had the grill car in addition.

 

That is what I remember, and someone with access to the timetables of the period can prove me right or wrong.

 

 

[daveklepper]

some more memories returned:   It wasn't only additional air competition.  Over Bill Goodwin's objections, the senior New Haven management insisted that these new postwar parlor cars should have two-and-one seating stead of one and one!   That is right, one side of the parlor car interior and two rows of chairs and the other one row!   Not only did the customers used to single chairs in the heavyweight parlors object, but the new PRR equipment for the Senator arrived in 1850 with traditional sigle rows of chairs on each side.  So  conversion program begain to convert all the New Haven parlors to single rows, and this program was completed for all straight parlors.   The parlor combines were the last to be converted and some never were.  But they were converted for other uses.