Branford Steam Railroad
Encyclopedia
Branford Steam Railroad is an industrial railroad
serving the Tilcon Connecticut stone quarry in
North Branford, Connecticut
in the United States.
It exchanges freight with the Providence and Worcester Railroad
and with
the Buchanon Marine Company.
who had by the 1890s built a trotting park for horses called the Branford Driving
Park.
To attract more visitors Fisk built a three-mile (5 km) long Damascus Railway that
offered connections with the Shore Line Division
of the
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
. In 1900 the creation of the
Palisades Interstate Park Commission
of New York
and New Jersey
forced the closing of basalt
quarries along the Hudson River
.
This led to an increased demand for stone from Connecticut
quarries.
Louis Fisk would eventually open a quarry
on Totoket Mountain
in North Branford.
On March 19, 1903, Fisk obtained authorization from the Connecticut General Assembly
to incorporate the Branford Steam Railroad in order
to take over the property of and succeed the Damascus Railway.
At the time the name "Steam Railroad" was used to
distinguish the new railroad from the nearby Branford
Electric Railway which was a separate streetcar system.
By April 29, 1909, Fisk obtained authority from the General Assembly
for the Branford Steam Railroad to lay additional tracks southward to
a dock he owned at Juniper Point on Long Island Sound
(between the Pine Orchard and Stony Creek neighborhoods of Branford
).
In 1914, owners of the property incorporated the
New Haven Trap Rock Company and opened the quarry for
business under that name. Within a few years members of the New Haven
Blakeslee
family, who ran the C.W. Blakeslee and Sons construction firm that had
originally started in 1844, were running the New Haven Trap Rock Company and Fisk
was no longer involved with the quarry.
The quarry company was the primary customer of the Branford Steam
Railroad. Trap rock
from the quarry was used for various construction
projects including road paving
, building foundations, and
railroad ballast
. The histories
of both companies were closely tied with one another.
At the height of steam operations there were, within the 300 acres (121.4 ha) quarry complex,
a set of four to six small (15 short tons (13.4 LT)) 0-4-0T
saddletank locomotives moving the stone laden
gondola cars
around. They supplied steam shovel
s with empty
cars and moved loaded cars to the crusher.
In addition there were two heavier (40 short tons (35.7 LT)) 0-4-0T saddletank
locomotives to move the loads of crushed rock down the 6.2 miles (10 km) of
railroad either to Juniper Point for loading into barges or to exchange
with the New Haven Railroad.
In 1923 the Angelo Tomasso company started working in Connecticut, but was not yet
affiliated with the North Branford quarry or the Branford Steam Railroad.
In 1935 the New Haven Trap Rock Company merged with the Connecticut Quarries Company,
and in February of that year the management reincorporated the company
under the New Haven Trap Rock Company name. The merger expanded the scope of
quarry activities of the company such that it operated six Connecticut quarries,
located in Cheshire
, Granby
,
Middlefield
, New Britain
, and
Rocky Hill
, as well as at North Branford. At
North Branford, meanwhile, the company removed its quarry trackage
and disposed of the smaller 15 short tons (13.6 t) quarry locomotives, but continued
shipping stone out of the quarry on the Branford Steam road.
In 1956 the company purchased two GE center cab diesels
to handle
the duty of pulling stone from the North Branford crusher.
Although the steam locomotives were retained for a few years after that
to perform yard switching
duties the era of steam on the
Branford Steam Railroad was nearing an end. In January 1960 the
company's third diesel, No. 5, a 44-ton switcher
that was originally
New York, New Haven and Hartford No. 0813, was purchased.
Just as steam locomotives gave way to diesels on the line in the 1950s
so too did the rolling stock change as the side-dump gondola cars gave way to
triple-bay hopper car
s lettered for the New Haven
Trap Rock Company. Whereas the steam locomotives had been lettered for the
same company (e.g. steam locomotive No. 43 carried the words
"N.H. Trap Rock Co." on her saddle tank), some of the new diesels
ironically carried the lettering of "The Branford Steam Railroad"
despite the fact that it no longer was a steam railroad.
In the late 1960s or early 1970s the New Haven Trap Rock Company was
sold to the Ashland Paving and Construction division of Ashland Inc.
then of Ashland, Kentucky
. By the time of the sale the North Branford
quarry was considered the world's largest single-face trap rock quarry with a
frontage of 1.25 miles (2 km) and was Connecticut's largest supplier of
crushed stone.
Thomas Tilling Ltd.
purchased the construction group
of Ashland in 1979. Tomasso became known as Tilcon Tomasso,
a division of Tilcon Warren, Inc. a wholly owned
subsidiary of Tilling Ltd. In 1984 Tilcon Inc. was acquired by the
British Tyre and Rubber Company
. The company's name was changed to
Tilcon Connecticut in 1990.
In 1996 Tilcon Connecticut was sold to CRH plc
of Dublin, Ireland
.
quarried stone to exchange with the Providence and Worcester Railroad as
well as to Buchanan Marine barges at Juniper Point. Fisk's prescience in choosing a
name to distinguish his freight railroad from the Branford Electric
Railway seems almost humorous today in that the organization that
operates the Shore Line Trolley Museum
in East Haven
calls itself the Branford Electric Railway Association. The BERA
continues to operate the Branford Electric Railway line and
has done so since 1945. Hence the need to distinguish the two similarly
named organizations and railway lines continues.
The New Haven Trap Rock Company Steam Engine No. 43 that used to
operate on the Branford Steam Railroad is now held at
Steamtown National Historic Site
in Scranton, Pennsylvania
.
It was donated to the Steamtown organization (then of Vermont) in 1962
and was moved to Scranton with the collection.
serving the Tilcon Connecticut stone quarry in
North Branford, Connecticut
North Branford, Connecticut
North Branford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 13,906 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 26.6 square miles , of which 24.9 square miles is land and 1.7 square miles is water...
in the United States.
It exchanges freight with the Providence and Worcester Railroad
Providence and Worcester Railroad
The Providence and Worcester Railroad is a Class II railroad in the United States. The railroad connects from Gardner in central Massachusetts, south through its namesake cities of Worcester and Providence, Rhode Island, and west from Rhode Island through Connecticut and into New York City...
and with
the Buchanon Marine Company.
History
Louis A. Fisk was a politically connected businessman from Branford, ConnecticutBranford, Connecticut
-Landmarks and attractions:Branford has six historic districts that are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places . These include buildings in Federal, Arts and Crafts, and Queen Anne styles of architecture...
who had by the 1890s built a trotting park for horses called the Branford Driving
Park.
To attract more visitors Fisk built a three-mile (5 km) long Damascus Railway that
offered connections with the Shore Line Division
Shore Line Railway (Connecticut)
The Shore Line Railway was a part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad system, running east from New Haven, Connecticut to New London along the north shore of Long Island Sound...
of the
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , was a railroad that operated in the northeast United States from 1872 to 1968 which served the states of Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts...
. In 1900 the creation of the
Palisades Interstate Park Commission
Palisades Interstate Park Commission
Palisades Interstate Park and its creator, the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, was formed in 1900 by governors Theodore Roosevelt of New York and Foster M. Voorhees of New Jersey in response to the destruction of the Palisades by quarry operators in the late 19th century...
of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
forced the closing of basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
quarries along the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
.
This led to an increased demand for stone from Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
quarries.
Louis Fisk would eventually open a quarry
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
on Totoket Mountain
Totoket Mountain
Totoket Mountain, with a high point of above sea level, is a traprock massif with several distinct summits, located northeast of New Haven, Connecticut. It is part of the Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven, north through the Connecticut River Valley of...
in North Branford.
On March 19, 1903, Fisk obtained authorization from the Connecticut General Assembly
Connecticut General Assembly
The Connecticut General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is a bicameral body composed of the 151-member House of Representatives and the 36-member Senate. It meets in the state capital, Hartford. There are no term limits for either chamber.During...
to incorporate the Branford Steam Railroad in order
to take over the property of and succeed the Damascus Railway.
At the time the name "Steam Railroad" was used to
distinguish the new railroad from the nearby Branford
Electric Railway which was a separate streetcar system.
By April 29, 1909, Fisk obtained authority from the General Assembly
for the Branford Steam Railroad to lay additional tracks southward to
a dock he owned at Juniper Point on Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the United States between Connecticut to the north and Long Island, New York to the south. The mouth of the Connecticut River at Old Saybrook, Connecticut, empties into the sound. On its western end the sound is bounded by the Bronx...
(between the Pine Orchard and Stony Creek neighborhoods of Branford
Branford, Connecticut
-Landmarks and attractions:Branford has six historic districts that are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places . These include buildings in Federal, Arts and Crafts, and Queen Anne styles of architecture...
).
In 1914, owners of the property incorporated the
New Haven Trap Rock Company and opened the quarry for
business under that name. Within a few years members of the New Haven
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
Blakeslee
family, who ran the C.W. Blakeslee and Sons construction firm that had
originally started in 1844, were running the New Haven Trap Rock Company and Fisk
was no longer involved with the quarry.
The quarry company was the primary customer of the Branford Steam
Railroad. Trap rock
Trap rock
Trap rock is a form of igneous rock that tends to form polygonal vertical fractures, most typically hexagonal, but also four to eight sided. The fracture pattern forms when magma of suitable chemical composition intrudes as a sill or extrudes as a thick lava flow, and slowly cools.Because of the...
from the quarry was used for various construction
projects including road paving
Pavement (material)
Road surface or pavement is the durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain vehicular or foot traffic, such as a road or walkway. In the past cobblestones and granite setts were extensively used, but these surfaces have mostly been replaced by asphalt or concrete. Such...
, building foundations, and
railroad ballast
Track ballast
Track ballast forms the trackbed upon which railway sleepers or railroad ties are laid. It is packed between, below, and around the ties. It is used to facilitate drainage of water, to distribute the load from the railroad ties, and also to keep down vegetation that might interfere with the track...
. The histories
of both companies were closely tied with one another.
At the height of steam operations there were, within the 300 acres (121.4 ha) quarry complex,
a set of four to six small (15 short tons (13.4 LT)) 0-4-0T
Whyte notation
The Whyte notation for classifying steam locomotives by wheel arrangement was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte and came into use in the early twentieth century encouraged by an editorial in American Engineer and Railroad Journal...
saddletank locomotives moving the stone laden
gondola cars
Gondola (rail)
In railroad terminology, a gondola is an open-top type of rolling stock that is used for carrying loose bulk materials. Because of its low side walls, gondolas are used to carry either very dense material, such as steel plates or coils, or bulky items such as prefabricated pieces of rail...
around. They supplied steam shovel
Steam shovel
A steam shovel is a large steam-powered excavating machine designed for lifting and moving material such as rock and soil. It is the earliest type of power shovel or excavator. They played a major role in public works in the 19th and early 20th century, being key to the construction of railroads...
s with empty
cars and moved loaded cars to the crusher.
In addition there were two heavier (40 short tons (35.7 LT)) 0-4-0T saddletank
locomotives to move the loads of crushed rock down the 6.2 miles (10 km) of
railroad either to Juniper Point for loading into barges or to exchange
with the New Haven Railroad.
In 1923 the Angelo Tomasso company started working in Connecticut, but was not yet
affiliated with the North Branford quarry or the Branford Steam Railroad.
In 1935 the New Haven Trap Rock Company merged with the Connecticut Quarries Company,
and in February of that year the management reincorporated the company
under the New Haven Trap Rock Company name. The merger expanded the scope of
quarry activities of the company such that it operated six Connecticut quarries,
located in Cheshire
Cheshire, Connecticut
Cheshire is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 28,543 at the 2000 census. The center of population of Connecticut is located in Cheshire. In 2009 Cheshire was ranked 72 in Money Magazine's 100 Best Places to Live.Likewise, in 2011 Cheshire was ranked 73 in...
, Granby
Granby, Connecticut
Granby is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 10,347 at the 2000 census. The town center was defined as a census-designated place known as Salmon Brook in the 2000 census....
,
Middlefield
Middlefield, Connecticut
Middlefield is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 4,203 at the 2000 census. The town includes the village of Rockfall-History:...
, New Britain
New Britain, Connecticut
New Britain is a city in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is located approximately 9 miles southwest of Hartford. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 71,254....
, and
Rocky Hill
Rocky Hill, Connecticut
Rocky Hill is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 17,966 at the 2000 census. Rocky Hill was part of Wethersfield, the neighboring town to the north, until it was independently incorporated in 1849....
, as well as at North Branford. At
North Branford, meanwhile, the company removed its quarry trackage
and disposed of the smaller 15 short tons (13.6 t) quarry locomotives, but continued
shipping stone out of the quarry on the Branford Steam road.
Road switcher
A road switcher is a type of railroad locomotive used for delivering or picking up cars outside of a railroad yard. Since the road switcher must work some distance away from a yard, it needs to be able to operate at road speeds, it must also have high-visibility while it is switching, and it must...
to handle
the duty of pulling stone from the North Branford crusher.
Although the steam locomotives were retained for a few years after that
to perform yard switching
Switcher
A switcher or shunter is a small railroad locomotive intended not for moving trains over long distances but rather for assembling trains ready for a road locomotive to take over, disassembling a train that has been...
duties the era of steam on the
Branford Steam Railroad was nearing an end. In January 1960 the
company's third diesel, No. 5, a 44-ton switcher
GE 44-ton switcher
The GE 44-ton switcher is a 4-axle diesel locomotive built by General Electric between 1940 and 1956. It was designed for industrial and light switching duties, often replacing steam locomotives that had previously been assigned these chores...
that was originally
New York, New Haven and Hartford No. 0813, was purchased.
Just as steam locomotives gave way to diesels on the line in the 1950s
so too did the rolling stock change as the side-dump gondola cars gave way to
triple-bay hopper car
Hopper car
A hopper car is a type of railroad freight car used to transport loose bulk commodities such as coal, ore, grain, track ballast, and the like. The name originated from the coke manufacturing industry which is part of the steel industry ....
s lettered for the New Haven
Trap Rock Company. Whereas the steam locomotives had been lettered for the
same company (e.g. steam locomotive No. 43 carried the words
"N.H. Trap Rock Co." on her saddle tank), some of the new diesels
ironically carried the lettering of "The Branford Steam Railroad"
despite the fact that it no longer was a steam railroad.
In the late 1960s or early 1970s the New Haven Trap Rock Company was
sold to the Ashland Paving and Construction division of Ashland Inc.
then of Ashland, Kentucky
Ashland, Kentucky
Ashland, formerly known as Poage Settlement, is a city in Boyd County, Kentucky, United States, nestled along the banks of the Ohio River. The population was 21,981 at the 2000 census. Ashland is a part of the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH, Metropolitan Statistical Area . As of the 2000 census, the...
. By the time of the sale the North Branford
quarry was considered the world's largest single-face trap rock quarry with a
frontage of 1.25 miles (2 km) and was Connecticut's largest supplier of
crushed stone.
Thomas Tilling Ltd.
Thomas Tilling
Thomas Tilling Ltd, later known with its subsidiary companies as the Tilling Group, was one of the two huge groups which controlled almost all the major bus operators in the United Kingdom between the wars and until nationalisation in 1948....
purchased the construction group
of Ashland in 1979. Tomasso became known as Tilcon Tomasso,
a division of Tilcon Warren, Inc. a wholly owned
subsidiary of Tilling Ltd. In 1984 Tilcon Inc. was acquired by the
British Tyre and Rubber Company
BTR Industries
BTR plc was a British industrial conglomerate, which merged with Siebe in 1999 to form BTR Siebe plc, later renamed Invensys. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:...
. The company's name was changed to
Tilcon Connecticut in 1990.
In 1996 Tilcon Connecticut was sold to CRH plc
CRH plc
CRH plc, , is an Irish building material group, formerly called Cement-Roadstone Holdings plc. It is quoted on the Official Lists of the Irish Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange.-History:...
of Dublin, Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
.
Disposition
The Branford Steam Railroad continues to operate today carryingquarried stone to exchange with the Providence and Worcester Railroad as
well as to Buchanan Marine barges at Juniper Point. Fisk's prescience in choosing a
name to distinguish his freight railroad from the Branford Electric
Railway seems almost humorous today in that the organization that
operates the Shore Line Trolley Museum
Shore Line Trolley Museum
The Shore Line Trolley Museum, located in East Haven, Connecticut, is the oldest operating trolley museum in the United States. It was founded to preserve the heritage of the trolley car. The museum includes exhibits on trolley history in the visitors' center and offers rides on restored trolleys...
in East Haven
East Haven, Connecticut
East Haven is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 28,189. The town is just 3 minutes from downtown New Haven...
calls itself the Branford Electric Railway Association. The BERA
continues to operate the Branford Electric Railway line and
has done so since 1945. Hence the need to distinguish the two similarly
named organizations and railway lines continues.
The New Haven Trap Rock Company Steam Engine No. 43 that used to
operate on the Branford Steam Railroad is now held at
Steamtown National Historic Site
Steamtown National Historic Site
Steamtown National Historic Site is a railroad museum and heritage railroad located on in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, at the site of the former Scranton yards of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad . The museum is built around a working replica turntable and a roundhouse that is...
in Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton is a city in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, United States. It is the county seat of Lackawanna County and the largest principal city in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area. Scranton had a population of 76,089 in 2010, according to the U.S...
.
It was donated to the Steamtown organization (then of Vermont) in 1962
and was moved to Scranton with the collection.