This site, in far western Danbury near the state line, is interesting because with the still extant Housatonic rails it is easy to picture what the depot site looks like. In addition, the original depot building, offsite since 1930, survives at the Danbury Railway Museum.
As always, photos run from Providence to the Hudson, that is, the first photos are the easternmost photos on site and we work our way to the west.
Click on the thumbnail for the full resolution image
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Looking
east towards Danbury, Hartford, and Providence. We are east and south
of the US-6/US-202 overpass off of Prindle Lane (1/2024.) |
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A similar eastward view, but
from a little bit west. The remains of a siding can be seen running
towards Prindle Ln just to the left of the silver van. Google Maps
aerial photography shows the remains of the spur curves towards the
modern industrial building in the distance, running parallel and
immediately adjacent to the wall facing us. Interestingly this spur was
relatively modern: it is not present in the 1934 CT Aerial Survey (photograph 02755) or the 1965 CT Aerial Survey (photograph 00726) (1/2024.) |
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Looking east at the spur and the mainline from Prindle Ln (1/2024.) |
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Looking west towards Brewster and the Hudson River. The overpass is US-6/US-202 (1/2024.) |
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Looking east along the main line and spur (1/2024.) |
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Looking west towards the US6/US202 overpass, Brewster, and the Hudson (1/2024.) |
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Looking west towards Brewster
and the Hudson from under the US6/US202 bridge. The site of the depot
is just visible on the left, past the telephone pole which follows the
old alignment of the highway (now called Mill Plain Road Cutoff)
(1/2024.) |
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Looking back east towards
Danbury, Hartford, and Providence from under the US6/US202 overpass.
Note the muddy conditions (1/2024.) |
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Looking west towards the depot
site, Brewster, and the Hudson. There are some power lines across the
tracks ahead. On the right, there is a guardrail running above the
grade of the railroad. The 1934 CT Aerial Survey Photo 02755
shows that the site of the former highway bridge over the railroad was
where the wires and guardrail intersect on the right. On the north side
of the tracks, there's now a loop, with the old road called Mill Plain
Road Cutoff and a connector road called Old Mill Plain Road looping
back to the new highway along the guardrail. The depot would be on the
left (south) side of the tracks past the telephone pole (1/2024.) |
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The site of the former highway
bridge is clear in this photo: it is under the powerlines and like them
runs perpendicular into the guardrail at right. The depot site would
begin on the left (south) side of the tracks after the power lines. According to the photos on Tyler City Station, we'd first see the passenger depot, then a simpler freight depot. 1934 CT Aerial Survey Photo 02755 shows platforms and an access drive here. There is nothing at the passenger depot site; the building was moved offsite in 1930. Photo 02755 does seem to show that the freight depot was still standing at this time (1/2024.) |
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Approaching the Mill Plain Depot at its new home at the Danbury Railway Museum.
This is relatively early in its time at the museum, and the roof is not
complete yet. The railcars in the photo are, in order from front to
back, Pennsylvania RR boxcar PRR 112432 (built 11/1964,) Pennsylvania RR boxcar PRR 45924 (built 1941,) and Metro North work train baggage car MNCW 002 (built 1911,) made famous as "FDR's ghost train" due to its having been parked at Grand Central Terminal's Waldorf Astoria platform. Next are New Haven boxcar NH 33732 (built 1947,) Maine Central Caboose MEC 664 (built 1940,) Conrail Reefer CR 359020, (built 1966,) and New Haven Boxcar NH 34537 (built 1948.) In the distance, the roofline of former Budd SPV-2000 CDOT 1001 (built 1980) can be seen (7/2022.) |
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Two years later, and the Mill
Plain Depot is looking much more like its historic self. On the tracks
to the left (north side) we see Conrail Reefer CR 359020, (built 1966,) and New Haven Boxcar NH 34537 (built 1948) in the same place they were in the photo above. Peeking through the station windows is Metro North M2 Cosmopolitan 8707 (built 1975.) The exciting new addition is on the right track, recently rescued New York Central electric T-3a № 278 (built 1926.)
The museum saved it from certain doom on a property being redeveloped
near Albany. At Danbury we are facing east, but were the station still
at Mill Plain, we'd see this side of it when we faced west towards
Brewster and the Hudson (1/2024.) |
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Peeking through the bay window of the Mill Plain Depot, we can see New Haven Boxcar NH 33732 (built 1947.) This
side of the depot faced the tracks when it was on site at Mill Plain.
Just past the depot wall we can see New Haven Boxcar NH 34537 (built 1948) and two unidentified boxcars. Metro North M2 Cosmopolitan 8707 (built 1975) and Pennsylvania Railroad Railway Post Office car PRR 6563 (built 2/1910)
are in the foreground. Again, we are facing east here at the DRM, but a
passenger at Mill Plain would see the depot in this orientation when
they faced west towards Brewster and the Hudson (1/2024.) |
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The side of the depot that faced away from the tracks at Mill Plain. New York Central electric T-3a № 278 (built 1926)
is in the background, as is an unidentified Shoreliner coach on a Metro
North train stored on the loop track at Danbury. Were we at Mill Plain
we'd be looking towards the northeast and the old US 6/US202 bridge
would be to the right of the depot. There is a photo on the Tyler City Station website from 1916 showing the depot from approximately this angle in situ at Mill Plain (1/2024.) |
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The interior of the station in
2024. Outside we can see a Shoreliner coach (part of a Metro North
train stored on the loop track,)Pennsylvania RR boxcar PRR 45924 (built 1941,) and Metro North work train baggage car MNCW 002 (built 1911) (1/2024.) |
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Old woodwork awaiting restoration in the Mill Plain depot (1/2024.) |
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The view of the depot you'd get
looking east towards Danbury, Waterbury, and Providence, were the depot
still at Mill Plain. The bay window (original trackside) is on the
left. On the left track is New York Central Caboose NYC 19322 (built
1909.) On the loop track around the yard an out of service Metro North
train is resting, so behind the depot perpendicular to the yard tracks
we see several Shoreliner Coaches including "Scenic Highlands," MNCR 6109, a Shoreliner I coach built in 1983. On the right track we see Pennsylvania RR boxcar PRR 112432 (built 11/1964,) Pennsylvania RR boxcar PRR 45924 (built 1941,) and Metro North work train baggage car MNCW 002 (built 1911) (1/2024.) |
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Looking at the side of the Mill
Plain Depot that was once trackside. This is early in the station's
reconstruction, and the bay window is not yet reinstalled. Behind the
depot we can see Pennsylvania RR boxcar PRR 45924 (built 1941,) Metro North work train baggage car MNCW 002 (built 1911,) a Pullman-Standard sleeping car, "Stratford Point", NH 525 (built in 1949,) Metro North FL9 Locomotive 2013 (built in 1960,) and Boston and Maine Wooden Boxcar BM 72249, which based on similar cars I would guess was built in 1930. In the foreground are Metro North M2 Cosmopolitan 8707 (built 1975) and Pennsylvania Railroad Railway Post Office car PRR 6563 (built 2/1910) (7/2022.) |
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Looking at the side of the depot that would have originally faced away from the tracks at Mill Plain. It is surrounded with, from back to front, New York Central electric T-3a № 278 (built 1926), Pennsylvania Railroad Railway Post Office car PRR 6563 (built 2/1910,) Metro North work train baggage car MNCW 002 (built 1911,) a Pullman-Standard sleeping car, "Stratford Point", NH 525 (built in 1949,) New Haven RDC-1 NH 47 (built 1953,) and Metro North FL9 Locomotive 2013 (built in 1960) (1/2024.) |
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(c) 2016-2024 Timothy M Dowd. Last Modified @ 23:47 EST on 2024-02-02
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