What's Here:
1 Union Station
2 CSX's Cedar Hill Yard (Formerly NH/PC/Conrail)
3 Metro North Maintenance Facility
4 Shoreline Trolley Museum (in East Haven)
Data:
GPS Coordinates: as needed
Phone A/C: 203
ZIP: 06511+
Access by train/transit:
Amtrak and Metro North
Geography:
Hilly
The Scoop:
New Haven, the namesake of the New Haven
Railroad, is still a good place to railfan. Between the passenger trains
of Amtrak and Metro North, the freights, the Shoreline Trolley museum, and the
nearby (kinda) Essex Steam Train, there is plenty to keep one busy for a couple of days.
New Haven is served by CSX and the Providence and Worcester.
Other RR's like the CT Southern and the New England Central
are close by in towns like Hartford, Danbury, etc.
Cedar Hill yard, NE of the station, is still around, but not used as much as
it once was. More info used to be at
www.kinglyheirs.com/AbandonedRR/CedarHill1.html,
but it no longer seems to be with us.
Also in the area:
Hartford CT is ~35 miles to the north via I-91. Via I-95, Essex (~33mi), New London (~43mi),
and Old Saybrook Junction (~28mi) are fairly close by.
Hartford has one of Mark Twain's homes,
and makes for a nice tour. Just north of Hartford's Bradley airport
at I-91 exit 45, is the Connecticut Trolley
Museum at Warehouse Point.
North of Hartford is Springfield MA (60 miles north of New Haven), which is the home to
Peter Pan Bus Lines, and they have a
massive depot. Springfield also has a unique railroad station,
where the entrance is "downstairs" and the tracks are above,
but it's not elevated as you may think. Gotta see it to understand.
North off I-95 is the Valley Railroad
in Essex CT (~35mi).
Another 16 miles or so north on I-95 and you arrive in New London, home of the
Groton Sub Base and museum!
Acknowledgements:
University of Connecticut for assembling New Haven track maps
all the way down into New York City, the link is here
Google Maps: streetviews
Bing Maps: aerial views
Open Railway Map
Wikipedia
New Haven is at the junction of I-95 and I-91.
I-95 is the gateway from south and north of here along the coast, all the
way to Florida if you want. I-91 starts/end here, and heads up to
Hartford CT (~40mi), Springfield MA (~65mi), Brattleboro VT (~110mi), and
finally the Canadian border at North Derby VT (~280mi). From there,
you are about 90 miles from Montreal via 55 and 10
Built in 1920 by the New York, New Haven and
Hartford RR, it was refurbed starting in 1979 as part of the Northeast Corridor
Improvement Project - it opened in 1985.
Metro-North State Street Station
Shoreline Trolley Museum
The start of the trolley ride, and the visitors center,
is at the yellow arrow. The blue arrow points at their shop complex.
The green arrow is pointing at the end of the line. Further below is a closer look
at the shops.
Metro North Shops
Cedar Hill Yard
New Haven Fire Department - Regional Fire Training Academy
GPS Coordinates: 41.28738, -72.93769
It's hard to beat their parking lot for great shots of NB trains
coming into New Haven, and I've never been chased from there (of course,
it's been 25 years since I've been there :-)
The hotel at this location is no longer a Quality Inn, in fact, it looks like they
tore down the old hotel and Hilton built a brand new one! So I moved this "sight"
down to the Floobydust section since it is of historical value only. Darn.
Disclaimers:
New format 10/26/23: Please check out my disclaimer page for my standard
dribble and contact info here
Union Station, The Amtrak Station
Metro-North State Street Station
Shoreline Trolley Museum
Metro North Shops
Cedar Hill Yard
New Haven Fire Department - Regional Fire Training Academy
