The map above, stitched together from 1890s 15 minute quadrangles, is intended to show the relative location of stops on the ND&C/MTA Beacon Line west of Hopewell Junction. For the immediate Beacon area, the map below, stitched together from 1947 Army Map Service 7.5 minute quadrangles, might be more helpful:
The railroad history of the MTA Beacon Line west of Hopewell Junction is complicated, and the best place I know to go to get an understanding of it is Penney Vanderbilt and KC Jones's All About Railroads Blog. To summarize: the tracks between Hopewell Junction and Dutchess Junction were built by the Dutchess and Columbia. Later, the NY&NE aquired trackage rights from the line (now called the Newburgh, Dutchess, and Connecticut, or ND&C) between Hopewell Junction and Wicopee Junction and built its own connector to Fishkill Landing on the north side of Fishkill Creek. Eventually the New Haven got control of all of these lines and the original D&C connection to Dutchess Junction was abandoned, NY&NE tracks east of Hopewell Junction were combined with the route to Poughkeepsie, and the Central New England operated the route to Fishkill Landing as a vassal of the New Haven. I have arbitrarily decided that the NY&NE route from Fishkill Landing to Providence is the most pure essence of the "Hartford Providence and Fishkill" that I set out to explore, so that's what I will list as the "mainline." The D&C to Dutchess Junction never was under NY&NE control, but seems related enough that it deserves a mention here as a spur.
Matteawan, today a neighborhood in Beacon, is a neat place to see the ND&C/NY&NE/Beacon line because its station survives and the topography allows for some neat views of the landscape in an urban setting with neat architecture. As always, the photos run from Providence towards the Hudson.
Click on the thumbnail for the full resolution image
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The Mill St crossing, about 1.25 miles east of the Matteawan station. This view is looking southwest towards Matteawan (2/2024.) |
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Looking back east from about a mile west: at the East Main Street Crossing (2/2024.) |
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Looking west at the Matteawan Station from Main Street (2/2024.) |
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Looking east at Matteawan Station along Main Street at Churchill Street (2/2024.) |
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Looking south down Churchill Street from Matteawan Station at Main Street (2/2024.) |
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Looking west towards Wicopee Juction and the Hudson from the Matteawan Station. (2/2024.) |
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A view of the track side of the Matteawan Station from the Churchill St Crossing (2/2024.) |
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Looking east at the Churchill St crossing. The Matteawan station is in the foreground at left (2/2024.) |
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Looking west at the Churchill St
crossing towards Wicopee Junction. That site is only 3/4 of a mile west
of here (closer than the Mill St crossing that starts this page) but is
an important enough place it deserves its own page here (2/2024.) |
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(c) 2016-2024 Timothy M Dowd. Last Modified @ 07:13 EST on 2024-02-24
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