While the shrill whistle and belching smoke of locomotives arriving at the Norfolk station have been replaced by the downshifting and diesel fumes of trucks on Route 44, the landscape of Norfolk is still marked by the railroad. There are track beds hidden in the woods, now used as nature trails, and bridge abutments can be found on Route 27 2 where the tracks passed over Litchfield Road.What is now the path from the corner of Maple Avenue to Station Place was once a railroad bed. The tracks skirted the village green to the east and then crossed under Greenwoods Road (Route 44) at the entrance to Maple Avenue, as shown in this photograph taken from behind the Norfolk Library. Notice the decorative railing at the underpass, still standing and designed by architect Alfredo Taylor in 1905. Pedestrians could view the bustle of arrivals from the bridge on Maple Avenue and then walk to the train station on the pathway below.

—Text by Ann Havemeyer
—TPhoto courtesy of Norfolk Historical Society