Rare Mileage Trip Offered Aboard the “Berkshire Flyer”

By Bob Bumcrot

The Central New England Railway that ran through Norfolk from 1899

Engine 3600 in the shop.

to 1927, is no more. But the Housatonic Railroad to which it

connected in Canaan is alive and well after a period of dormancy.
One of the first railroads in the Northeast, the Housatonic
(Association of American Railroads [AAR]) was
chartered in 1836, under the misspelled name “Ousatonic,” to carry
passengers as well as goods from the many industries in the Housatonic valley.
The directors decided to take advantage of the ferry service from
Long Island and in 1837 began laying track northward from Bridgeport.
In the interest of rapid progress, much of the work was done to light
specifications, which has continued to plague railroad management to
this day. The line reached New Milford in February, 1840, and Canaan
in December, 1841. Within the next ten years the line went into
Massachusetts and connected with the Western Railroad.
For many years the Housatonic offered some of the best passenger
accommodations in New England. It was also a successful freight operator,
carrying limestone, iron, marble, coal,
tobacco, milk and ice among a host of products. As with most
railroads, there have been throughout its existence a complex,
continuing tangle of mergers, acquisitions, leases and partnerships.
Much of this activity has been carefully delineated in the vast
literature of railroad history.
In 1892, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad leased the
Housatonic, forming the Berkshire Division, which operated until
1962. A 1935 schedule shows regular services to Bridgeport, State
Line, Harlem River, Oak Point and Pittsfield. There was also local
service offered every day except Sunday from Canaan to Norfolk and
Millerton, “as required.” Schedules from 1950, and 1962 show
decreasing local services, no longer including Millerton or Norfolk,
and by 1965 almost nothing remained. In 1969 the New Haven was merged
into Penn Central. The last passenger train ran over the route on
April 30, 1971, the day before Amtrak took over. By 1974 the section
between New Milford and Canaan was abandoned. It was bought by the
State of Connecticut in 1976.
John Hanlon, Jr. of Sheffield is an industrial engineer, long
fascinated by railroads, and used to build armored cars for heads of
state around the world. In June, 1983 he chartered a new Housatonic Railroad,
leasing the 34 mile stretch of abandoned track.
Until 1989 the line was used only for tourist excursions between Canaan and Cornwall Bridge.
Freight service began in 1990, with the Becton Dickinson (BD) plant in Canaan as its first
customer. (See the BD article in the March, 2008, issue, p. 3.) There
are now 121 miles of track, used almost exclusively for freight
service, running from Pittsfield to Berkshire Junction (south of
Brookfield) from where it runs east to Derby-Shelton and west to
Beacon, New York.
Lumber arrives every day in Pittsfield and is hauled to the railroad-
owned distribution center on a 40-acre tract in Hawleyville.
In addition the company serves, among others, a paper mill, a plastics
manufacturer, a pharmaceutical company, two
food manufacturers, a waste disposal firm, a printing company and
crushed limestone shipped in covered hoppers. (See the Specialty
Minerals article in the January, 2008, issue, p. 5.) The regular
schedule dispatches four trains a day Monday through Friday and one
on Sunday. Additional trains are added as needed. A nonstop trip from
Pittsfield to Danbury would take about five hours.
“Pound for pound we are more efficient than trucks,” said general
manager Robert A. Bass of Colebrook, who has been in railroading for
29 years. “We expect to compete even more, especially on bulk
shipping, as the price of fuel continues to rise.” The company headquarters
are located on the corner of Main and Railroad Streets in Canaan, where the
company relocated some time after the October 13, 2001, fire at Canaan Union Station.
Across Route 7 from Geer Village in Canaan, the Housatonic houses its
rail yard, engine house and repair shop. The company owns and maintains nine
locomotives, most of which were built in the 1960s by EMD, the Electro-Motive Diesel
division of General Motors. The locomotives were largely obtained from Conrail. Several
locomotives can be found in the rail yard, including number 3600, formerly CR
2250, a beautifully maintained EMD Model GP35, built in November,
1964. “We build parts ourselves and reconstruct old equipment right
here–both as a savings and because good parts are hard to find, said Bass. I do
all the electrical work. I’m now replacing a lot of the original
wiring on number 3601 in the shop.”
Inside the cavernous building a welder can be found reconstructing a large
shovel for an excavator or a machinist turning a large
replacement pin for a train-mounted dump truck. An inspection of
locomotive 3601 will reveal the giant V-16 engine that drives a DC
generator, with attached alternator for the cooling fans, that feeds
the 600-volt traction motors, one for each two-wheel set, two sets
for each truck and two trucks for the locomotive.
Leo Robellard, along with Signal Engineer Bill Bryce, maintains all the signals and
signs along the line. “We carry out increasingly thorough inspections every month, every quarter,
every year, every four years and every ten years,” said Robellard. “We are very careful.”
John Hanlon, Jr., has been a machinist “since I was a kid,” he said. “Sure, I do
administrative stuff, but it’s important to be an integrated
company.” This spirit seems to run through the more than thirty
employees of The Housatonic. “Train crews, trackmen and shop workers
are all dedicated, highly skilled people,” added Bass.
The only Norfolk resident currently employed by the Housatonic is Kevin
Lass, who has been in railroading for over twenty years, ten at this
company. “I love my work,” he said. “Been with five different
railroads around the country. On a short line like this we still do a
lot of work by hand.” The four-man crew can pull 500 spikes a day
using crowbars. Lass uses a spike maul to pound four spikes per tie into
a section of track being assembled on a flat car
in the Canaan yard. When complete, it will be put in as a replacement
at a busy grade crossing, reducing the time that traffic has to be
diverted for construction. “Twenty years ago I used to have a maul in
each hand, driving right and left. Not now.”
On May 17, 2008, a rare mileage excursion on the “Berkshire Flyer” will
be open to the public. It will depart at 10:30 a.m. from the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum’s
headquarters at the restored Lenox Station in Lenox, Mass., head north to Pittsfield,
turn around at the CPX yard limit at CP150, then will head south to Canaan and
return to Lenox at 6 p.m. For more information and to order tickets
visit the Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts at www.massbayrre.org.