Shepaug, Litchfield and Northern Railroad

Infobox SG rail
railroad_name = Shepaug, Litchfield and Northern Railroad
logo_filename =
logo_size =
marks =
locale = Hawleyville, CT to Litchfield, CT
start_year = 1871
end_year = 1891 / 1948
predecessor_line = Shepaug Valley Railroad (1868-1873)
Shepaug Railroad (1873-1887)
successor_line = Housatonic (1891-1898)
NYNH&H (1898-1948)
length = Unit length|mi|32.28|2cite web|url=http://www.earlpleasants.com/search_1.asp|title=Earl PLeasant's Railroad History Database|accessdate=2008-04-29]
hq_city = Litchfieldcite book
author=Ronald Dale Karr
title=The Rail Lines of Southern New England, A Handbook of Railroad History
year=1995|publisher=Branch Line Press|isbn=0-942147-02-2] The Shepaug, Litchfield and Northern Railroad was a short independent railroadin western Connecticut that was chartered as the Shepaug Valley Railroad in 1868 and operated from 1872 to 1891 when it was taken over by the Housatonic Railroad.cite journal|title=The Housatonic gets the Shepaug|journal=New York Times|date=1891-02-10] In 1898 the Housatonic operation of the line was in turn taken over by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.As the Litchfield Division of the NYNH&H the line was operated until being abandoned in 1948.Much of the line remains in place as rail trails to this day.

History

Charter and commissioning

"Shepaug" in the railroad's name derived from the name of the river that most of the linefollowed which in turn was a Mohegan name that meant "rocky water".cite web
url=http://www.roxburyct.com/|title=Home (Roxbury, CT homepage)|accessdate=2008-05-01]

The railroad was chartered in 1866 or 1868 and opened for operation on December 7, 1871 as the Shepaug Valley Railroad. J. Deming Perkins was the company's first president. Henry R. Colt was the treasurer and Edwin McNeill was the superintendent. Regular service to Litchfield started by January 11, 1872.Due to the expense of building and maintaining the line through rocky rural terrain the railroad sufferedlow profitability throughout its existence. To help pay creditors it was reorganized asthe Shepaug Railroad in 1873 and was again reorganized as the Shepaug, Litchfield and Northern (or SL&N) on May 9, 1887.

Early operations

The first three 30 ton 4-4-0 steam locomotives to run on the Shepaug line were from the Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works of Patterson, New Jersey named Shepaug, Weatinaug, and Waramaug.cite journal
journal=The Lure of the Litchfield Hills magazine|date=1949-06
title=Shepaug Epic
author=Alfred S. Dillistin
url=http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/shepaug.Html] In addition to passenger traffic the railroad shipped freight.
Gail Borden's condensed milk business had started operation in the Burrvillesection of Torrington in the 1860s. Thanks to strong sales during the civil war that business was quite profitable and was looking to expand in the 1870s. A new Borden creamery was built and started shipping dairy products out of Washington Depot soon after the start of operations on the SL&N.Other significant freight shippers included stone quarries near Roxbury and New Preston (marble and granite)and ice cut from Bantam Lake.

At first the SL&N would run two trains down from Litchfield toward Hawleyville with two return trains later in the day each weekday. A single passenger and a separate freight train ranon Saturdays. The need to get milk as fresh as possibleto New York City markets led to runs of a Sunday "milk train". At first the milk wasdelivered to Hawleyville to be picked up by the Housatonic and then carried to Bridgeport and on to New York.Eventually the creamery at Hawleyville was closed as was the Hawleyville branch, by which time the milk train ran through Danbury to South Norwalk.cite web
url=http://www.ubuyvacations.com/Railroad/MilkTrain1.html
title=Milk Trains
accessdate=2008-05-15]

In 1872 the railroad reached an agreement with the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad to operate trainson that company's newly constructed convert|6|mi|km|sing=on Hawleyville Branch to Bethel.Eventually the SL&N would run trains from Litchfield down to South Norwalk for connection with theNew Haven or to Wilson's Point for ferry service connection to either New York or to Oyster Bay on Long Island.cite book|title=In the Shore Line's Shadow: The Six Lives of the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad
last=Cornwall|first=L. Peter|publisher=Flying Yankee Enterprises|year=1987|isbn=0-9615574-4-3|year=1987]

1898 and later, the New Haven era

On July 1, 1898, the New Haven Railroad leased the Shepaug, Litchfield and Northern fromthe Housatonic and operated it as its Litchfield Branch until business weakened in the first half of the 20th century. The Borden Creamery in Washington was closed down in1928.cite web
url=http://www.nynjctbotany.org/lgtofc/washingtonconnhist.html
title=A BRIEF HISTORY oF WASHINGTON
accessdate=2008-05-15] Passenger service on the Shepaug Division was stopped by 1932 and the New Haven petitioned the
Interstate Commerce Commission to abandon the line as a freight road in 1947. The ICC grantedpermission to abandon the line in 1948 which is when freight service stopped on the line.cite web|url=http://www.hvceo.org/transport/railhistory.php
title=HVCEO - HISTORY OF RAIL LINES IN THE HOUSATONIC VALLEY, CT REGION
accessdate=2008-05-12] In 1947 and 1948 the line finally saw thearrival of more modern diesel-electric locomotives for freight hauling, buttheir use was very short lived. In 1949 the
gandy dancers who had maintained the line pulled up the railsand ties as part of the abandonment.

The route

The Shepaug was renowned for its labyrinthine route. It was said that the line took32 miles of track to travel a distance of only convert|18|mi|km as the crow flies.A Unit length|ft|235|0 long curved tunnel was cut through rock southwest of Washington Depot that still exists along a hiking trail.cite web
url=http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=96282
title=Shepaug RR tunnel
accessdate=2008-05-12] There were reputed to be 192 curvesalong the line from Litchfield to Hawleyville or about six per mile.

A Unit length|ft|428|0 Brown truss type bridge carried the rails over the Housatonic Riverbetween the village of Shepaug and Hawleyville. Other smaller bridgesover the Shepaug River were of the box truss type.

In 1889 a branch of the line from New Preston was extended four miles (6 km) to Lake Wauramaug. This line carried vacationing passengers in the summer time and also helped to distribute ice from icehouses throughout the year.cite journal|title=Extending the Shepaug|journal=New York Times|date=1889-07-30]

In 1892 the NYNH&H leased the Hawleyville-Bethel branch to the Shepaug.

Stations and flag stops along the line from northeast to southwest with distances from Hawleyville included the following:

The Steep Rock Association land trust

In 1889 architect Ehrick Rossiter (1854-1941) who was an 1871 graduate of The Gunnery inWashington, Connecticut purchased convert|100|acre|km2 along the Shepaug River tosave it from logging. The area included several miles of SL&N tracks. In 1893 philanthropists Edward I. and Mary Lawrence McLane Van Ingen built Holiday House south of Washington Depot following plans drawn up by Rossiter. Holiday House served as a country hotel or retreat for young working women from New York City. It was a non sectarian effort run by
St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, New York (then on 42nd street).Although Holiday House stopped operatingas a retreat by 1918 and was torn down shortly thereafter, vestiges of it including stone walkways and stone foundations for a pedestrian suspension bridge that allowed train passengers to disembark and maketheir way to the retreat still stand in the Steep Rock revervation.cite book
last=Bader
first=William C. with Pamela M. Redmer
title=An American Village: The Light at the North End of the Tunnel
isbn=0965343138
publisher=Design to Printing
year=1998
location=Washington Depot, CT] In 1925 Rossiter donated his land to a group of trustees so that it could be preserved in itswooded state. In 1929 the Steep Rock Association trustees purchased the rounded oxbowencircled hill known as the "Clam Shell" and added it to the preserve. The floods of 1955removed the remnants of the SL&N bridge over the river near the Clam Shell. Overthe years additional land in separate parcels was donated to the trust and it currentlyconserves more than Unit area|acre|2700|0. Several kilometers of former SL&N track right of wayform hiking and bridle trails within the Steep Rock Association preserves today.cite web
url=http://www.steeprockassoc.org/History.html
title=Steep Rock Land Trust - History
accessdate=2008-05-12]

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