The Connecticut Western Railroad line was completed in 1871, and on Dec. 21 of that year the first train arrived in Norfolk with 20 passengers on board. It had left Hartford at 8:40 a.m. and would reach Millerton at 3:30 that afternoon. Passengers disembarked in Norfolk at the station pictured here. By the time the Central New England Railway acquired the line in 1899, a new station had been built of native granite with the sign “Norfolk, the highest railroad station in Connecticut” in brass letters. The CNE ran six eastbound passenger trains and six westbound trains through Norfolk each day. In 1900 a new train was put on the line, and it became known as the shoppers’ train. Reportedly the fastest in New England, it left Canaan at 7:40 each morning, passing through Norfolk on the way to Hartford at the rate of a mile in 43-55 seconds. Passenger service to and from Norfolk ended in 1927.

— Text by Ann Havemeyer
— Photo courtesy of the Norfolk Historical Society