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The Drive to Lake George New York 5/16/2010 Part 3

I finished at the Danbury Railroad Museum and thanked them for my visit then drove Connecticut Highway 7 and a sign just before Kent caught my eye.

Bull's Covered Bridge built in 1842. The first instance of a bridge at this location was constructed by Jacob and Isaac Bull in 1760, which gave the bridge its name. Popular legend suggests that George Washington crossed the bridge with the Bulls' assistance while still under construction. The current bridge was built in 1842 from timber, with additional supports added in the 19th and 20th centuries. Built with a Town lattice design, the bridge has reinforced trusswork visible on the interior. At the time of its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places the roof had wood shingles. It is historically significant as one of three surviving covered bridges in Connecticut, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. It is one of the few functional covered bridges remaining in Connecticut.

From here, I drove Connecticut Highway 341, which turned into New York Highway 3. Poor signage took me to White Plains instead of Wassaic, where Randy was waiting for me. I called him to let him know where I was and he said he was just off Highway 22 so I drove north to the Wassaic Metro-North station where Randy was waiting then handed him the keys and we went back over the hills to Kent.

The Housatonic Railroad Kent station built in 1872.

This former baggage car from the New York, New Haven and Hartford was built circa 1890 and is home to Vintage Guitars From here we received directions to our next stop.

The Connecticut Antique Machinery Associationi s a 501(c)(3) non-profit museum dedicated to the preservation, restoration and demonstration of antique machinery from our rich industrial and agricultural past. CAMA's central theme revolves around machinery that made America great. Our 8-acre museum campus is located in Kent and is an all-volunteer organization. Our main focus is to educate the general public as to early industrial and agricultural methods. Our museum currently has ten main areas of focus with exhibits relating to each area.

Argent Lumber 2-8-0 4 built by H.K. Porter in 1909 is at the entrance to the museum. It was built for the Dennis-Simmons Lumber Company in Wilson, North Carolina. At some time, it was bought by the Argent Lumber Company in Hardeeville, South Carolina and was started in February 1916, when Horace W. Phillips Jr., J. Ross McNeal and William B. McNeal formed a company in order to log an 8,000 acre tract of original growth short-leaf pine twenty-five miles north of Savannah, Georgia.

The name "Argent" came from the friend of the company's lawyer who had a race horse of that name. In 1956, the company was sold to the Union Bag-Camp Paper Corporation of Savannah. The following year, the old Argent Lumber assets were sold, including 4. In 1960, the engine was sold to the Edaville Corporation in Wakefield, Massachusetts and then bought by Richard May in 1991. Planning to restore it in Connecticut, May sold it to CAMA in 1994 after it had become clear that the locomotive needed more repairs than he could justify.

Wickwire Spencer Steel Company 0-4-0T narrow gauge 18 18 built by Vulcan Iron Works in 1918. The Wickwire Spencer plant opened in 1901 and encompassed several buildings with two blast furnaces, a blooming mill, billet mill and two rod mills. It mainly produced wire for use in chain link fences. In 1920, the Wickwire Spencer Steel Corporation was founded by merger of Clinton Wright Wire Company and Wickwire Steel. Five years later, however, the company went into receivership and a new company known as the Wickwire Spencer Steel Company acquired the corporation.

At some point, 18 was sold to the Worcester Iron Company in Worcester, Massachusetts, possibly during the 1925 receivership. In 1958, it was sold to the Iron Horse Furniture Store, then occupying the old Boston & Albany depot in Westfield, Massachusetts. It later passed to the Valley Railroad.

Mine cars.

Connecticut Antique Machinery Association DHD 8 ton switcher 14, built by Plymouth in 1922. It was previously owned by the Sloane-Stanley Museum in Kent.

Waynesburg & Washington Railroad wooden coach 6 built in 1893 and remained in service through 1929. After being sold to a company and then a private residence, the coach was discovered and relocated to the Greene County Historical Society Museum in 1985. The coach was sold in 1996 to Connecticut Antique Machinery Association.

Hawaii Railway Company 2-4-2 5 built by Baldwin in 1925 and was the mainstay of the Hawaii Railway's steam motive power. It was built as an oil burner and worked on the Hawaii Railway, hauling passenger trains as well as freight until the end of World War II, when the line finally ceased operations. As the newest and largest engine on the railway, 5 was then set aside for a museum then being planned by Norman Clark. However, Clark's museum was never created and the engine sat in Honolulu wasting away and losing various parts. In 1956, it was donated to the Oahu Railway and Land Company in Honolulu then in 1964, it was bought by Bob Keller, a mechanical engineer at Stanford University, who shipped the engine to his home in California and started restoration work.

In 1970, the engine started steaming on the Tahoe, Trout Creek & Pacific Railroad at South Lake Tahoe, California. The following year, 5 moved into storage in Chama, New Mexico. Eventually, it was sold to the Shorelands Corporation near San Francisco, under President John G. Stevens and then, in 1991, came into the possession of the Southwest Leasing Corporation in Los Angeles, as collateral against an unpaid Shorelands loan. Soon afterwards, the little engine was then bought by Richard May and underwent another overhaul, after which it was trucked to the 1999 Railfair in Sacramento, where it operated alongside a number of other narrow gauge locomotives.

From there, 5 made various appearances at other events in California and Nevada before being trucked to Connecticut, to operate on a temporary loan agreement at CAMA's annual steam events. In September 2000, the engine made its first trip under steam at the site. Since then, a new engine house has been built to protect 5 and a number of improvements and replacements carried out at CAMA's expense as part of the loan agreement. Eventually, CAMA raised the funds to buy the steam engine.

Restoration and Machine Shop.

Inside the cab of Hawaii Railway Company 2-4-2 5.

Tionesta Valley Railroad wood chassis caboose 111 built in 1918. The Tionesta Valley Railroad was founded in 1879 to support a growing need for lumber and wood by-products. The TVRR was a subsidiary of the Central Pennsylvania Lumber Company whose large sawmill complex was located in Sheffield, Pennsylvania. No part of the tree was wasted. Besides the obvious lumbering industry and pulpwood paper industry that sprang up in the pine, hemlock and hardwood forests of Northwestern Pennsylvania, chemical plants and tanneries boomed in this region, leaching valuable tannins from hemlock bark for conversion into tannic acid, critical to preserving and softening animal hides. The TVRR also supplied passenger service. The Tionesta Valley Railroad was bought out by the Clarion Chemical Company and run until 1948. In 1948, the tracks were torn up.

Before coming to CAMA in 1993, Tionesta Valley caboose 111 had passed into private ownership, being used as a hunting cabin in rural Pennsylvania. Stripped of her trucks, she was set on a wood frame. With the passing years, 111 fell into disrepair and was eventually, nearly swallowed up by white pine and weeds. Advanced decay of the chassis and frame became apparent early on in the restoration proces. The new chassis was built upside down to ease attachment of the original metal hardware saved from the rotted carcass. From here, the chassis will be flipped over and coupled with a set of shop trucks. The all-volunteer crew restored the caboose to operating condition and it debuted at the Fall Festival in 2006.

Information about the caboose. We thanked them for a great visit and drove north on Connecticut Highway 7 until something caught my eye again.

Kent Falls, located in the northeastern section of the town of Kent, is a series of waterfalls on a mountain stream known as Falls Brook. The stream begins in the town of Warren, draining an area of six or seven square miles. It then flows west to the big fall where it plunges approximately 70 feet in a dramatic cascade. From here the stream descends in a series of lesser falls and cascades to the valley, where it enters the Housatonic River some 200 feet below the brink of the big fall only a quarter mile away. Much of the limestone over which the brook flows has been carved into interesting shapes including numerous potholes of all sizes.

The Indian name of this area is "Scatacook" and there is considerable evidence that Native Americans fished and camped by the falls. Later, in colonial times, mills were also present along the brook. Acquisition of the park began in 1919 with the gift of 200 acres by the White Memorial Foundation. Other parcels were donated or purchased until the present 295 acres were acquired. The area was developed in the 1930's by the Civil Works Administration. In the mid- 1970's, considerable trail reconstruction was done by the Youth Conservation Corps of Connecticut. The covered bridge is an authentic reproduction built in 1974 by a park employee, Edmund Palmer. The flow in the cascade at Kent is normally heaviest in the spring when the winter snow is melting. However, the falls can be dramatic at any time of the year, particularly after substantial rainstorms.

We continued driving north until West Cornwall.

The Housatonic Railroad West Cornwall station built in 1842. We resumed our northbound journey.

The West Cornwall covered bridge, also known as the Sharon Covered Bridge, is a wooden lattice truss bridge carrying the Sharon-Goshen Turnpike over the Housatonic River. Records indicate that a bridge may have been in place in this location as early as 1762. A previous bridge was destroyed in the flood of 1837 and a new bridge was constructed in 1841. This bridge would also be destroyed and the current bridge would be completed circa 1864. Utilizing the central pier from the previous incarnation, despite the Town lattice being able to withstand the weight and single span, the bridge has two spans. The later addition of queen trusses and supports gives the bridge an unusual appearance. Modernization of the bridge in 1968 and 1973 has continued to let the bridge handle traffic. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

The bridge is 172 feet long, 15 feet wide and consists of two spans, 64.1 feet and 81.10 feet, with a 3.2 feet gap between them. The combined trussed portions of the bridge are 149.1 feet long. The bridge's Town lattice is an unusual design choice, but the later addition of the queen trusses are also unusual, resulting in a unique visual appearance by the bridge's unequal spans.

We continued to North Canaan and stopped again.

The Housatonic Railroad has their shops here. The original Housatonic Railroad was chartered in 1836 and was acquired by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad in 1892. At that time, the railroad was 175 miles long, with 60 passenger depots. Though the last passenger train ran on April 30, 1971, that may soon change. A portion of the railroad was then land-banked until 1983 when the line from Canaan to New Milford, Connecticut was reopened and the Housatonic Railroad name was used again. The railroad expanded to Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1991 and expanded again in 1992 to include the line from Derby, Connecticut to Beacon, New York. The railroad now consists of 161 miles of rail lines devoted to freight transportation that connects to the national rail system through CSX Transportation at Pittsfield. Our inbound cars are last classified at CSXT's Selkirk, New York classification yard and are transported by a road train to Pittsfield seven days a week. The outbound cars are picked up by the returning CSX road train from West Springfield, Massachusetts to Selkirk.

Housatonic's freight lines consist of the Berkshire Line and the Maybrook Line. The Berkshire Line (also referred to as the Berkshire Hills Route) runs from Pittsfield, Massachusetts south to Berkshire Junction in Danbury, Connecticut and west to Beacon, New York.

Housatonic Railroad 3604 and 3600.

Housatonic Railroad GP35 3604, ex. Conrail 2314, nee Pennsylvania Railroad 2314 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1965.

Housatonic Railroad GP35 3600, ex. Conrail 2312, nee Pennsylvania Railroad 2312 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1965.

Housatonic Railroad GP35 3603, ex. Conrail 2336, nee Pennsylvania Railroad 2336 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1965.

Norfolk Southern GP38 2743, nee Southern Railway 2743 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1969.

Housatonic Railroad caboose 654, nee Maine Central.

Housatonic Railroad GP38 2737, ex. Norfolk Southern 2737, nee Southern Railway 2737 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1969. From here we headed into town to the train station.

Maine Central caboose 658 was displayed nearby.

Maine Central caboose 635 on display at the Canaan station.

The former Houstatonic Railroad Canaan station built in 1872. Also known as Union Depot, is located in Canaan Village, in the town of North Canaan, Connecticut, and is a former union station. It was built in 1872 at the junction of the Housatonic Railroad and the Connecticut Western Railroad which was acquired by the Central New England Railway.

The station was located at the level junction between the two rail lines, making an almost right angle at 85 degrees right at the crossover. The angle of the building has a three-story tower, at the top of which sat the electric telegraph operator. The two 90-foot wings of the building were occupied by the two railroad companies. The first floor of the station had a large restaurant that was especially important before the development of the dining car. Eventually, both the Central New England and the Housatonic Railroad became a part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The New Haven was later merged into the Penn Central Transportation.

The station had been a junction and transfer point for passengers shifting from north-south New York, New Haven and Hartford trains to east-west Central New England trains. Passenger service on the Central New England line through the station ended in 1927 when the New York, New Haven and Hartford acquired the Central New England.

The station was no longer used for passenger service after 1971 when the Penn Central ended its unnamed successor to the Berkshire train, and regular freight service on the line ended in 1974. The station then became a retail location, with a restaurant in the southeastern wing. When the railroad was reopened as the new Housatonic Railroad in 1980, the station was not repurchased, though the new company did maintain offices there for many years.

The station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and was also included in the Canaan Village Historic District in 1990.

More than half of the station — namely the southeast half — was destroyed by arson late in the evening of October 12, 2001. The Connecticut Railroad Historical Association purchased what was left in 2003, and the organization began to restore it. Part of the building shell and the tower were restored, but work then stalled for more than a decade due to red tape required to get grant money, and negotiations with the Housatonic Rail Road over safety issues. The project got back on track in 2014.

Between 1984 and 2002, Ramunni owned part of the station as housing for his CPA business, and he sold it after the 2001 fire. Ramunni offers tours, lessons, and even performs for his visitors. The collection of over 400 accordions is the largest privately owned collection of accordions in the world.

We continued driving north into Massachusetts.

The Sheffield covered bridge, a replica of an 1837 lattice truss bridge that was destroyed by fire in 1994. At the time of its destruction, it was the oldest covered bridge in the state. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. and is open to pedestrians.

The Old Covered Bridge is located just east of the village of Sheffield Plain, spanning the Housatonic River at the ends of Covered Bridge Lane. The bridge is approached from the west by a causeway extending all the way to United States Route 7, and from the east by a causeway about 0.5 miles long, both crossing the river's flood plain. The bridge is 93 feet long and rests on granite abutments, one of which is of 19th-century origin, while the other was the result of a 20th-century rehabilitation of the 1837 bridge. The bridge has two lattice trusses built to the patent of Ithiel Town, whose lower members have been doubled for added strength. The exterior is finished in vertical board siding, and it is covered by a gabled roof.

The 1837 bridge was one of the oldest known examples of a Town truss, built to an updated version of Town's patent published in 1835. The bridge underwent period maintenance, and was closed to traffic in 1970 after the Labor Day 1969 UFO Incident. The original bridge was restored in 1974 and 1981.

The former New York, New Haven and Hartford Stockbridge station built in 1893. From here we drove to Lee to have dinner but the restaurant we wanted was closed so we returned to US Highway 7 and stopped at Lenox.

Berkshire Scenic Railroad SW8 8619, ex. Conrail 86169, nee New York Central 9619, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1953.

Berkshire Scenic Railway SW9 9128, ex. Conrail 9128, nee Pennsylvania Railroad 8528, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1952.

Berkshire Scenic Railroad S-1 0954, ex. General Electric 6, exx. General Electric 954, nee Maine Central 954, built by American Locomotive Company in 1945.

Berkshire Scenic Railroad coach 3224, ex. Erie-Lackawanna 3224, exx. Delaware, Lackawanna and Western 2224, nee Delaware, Lackawanna and Western 324 built by Pullman in 1925.

Berkshire Scenic Railroad coach 329, nee Delaware, Lackawanna and Western 329 built by Pullman in 1925. A veteran of northern New Jersey commuter operations, it operated out of Hoboken Terminal, across from New York City, to various suburban destinations such as Morristown, Gladstone and Montclair. With the electrification of the majority of DL&W's commuter lines in the 1930's, this coach was converted into a trailer car to operate with the newly-purchased electric MUs. Serving through Erie Lackawanna and Conrail, it was retired from active duty in 1984 by New Jersey Transit and soon sold to the museum for excursion operations.

Berkshire Scenic Railroad coach 453, nee Delaware, Lackawanna and Western 701 built by Pullman in 1920. It was converted to "High Roof" multiple unit trailer in 1930.

Berkshire Scenic Railroad display train.

Berkshire Scenic Railroad 50 ton switcher 67, nee United Illuminating 67 built by General Electric in 1957.

Berkshire Scenic Railroad coach 310, nee Delaware, Lackawanna and Western 310 built by Pullman in 1925 and converted to "Low Roof" multiple-unit trailer in 1930.

New York, New Haven and Hartford caboose C-591 built by Pullman-Standard in 1944.

Berkshire Scenic Railroad baggage-coach 1444 "North Adams", nee Baltimore and Ohio 1444 built by Standard Steel Car in 1927. It is used as gift shop and ticket office.

The Berkshire Scenic Railroad Lenox station built in 1903. Originally constructed around 1850 when the Stockbridge & Pittsfield Railroad (leased by the original Housatonic Railroad) came to the area, Lenox Station was one of three within the town, the others being at Lenox Dale and New Lenox. The original Lenox station was located at the intersection of Housatonic and Crystal Streets and served the Housatonic Railroad and later the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad after 1892. It burned to the ground on January 24, 1902.

On September 29, 1902, The Berkshire Eagle reported that the construction contract for the new station had been let to James Clifford & Sons of Lenox and that work would begin immediately. The building was speculated to be constructed of rustic fieldstone and stucco with a commodious waiting room. The construction was estimated to cost $13,000. Excavation of the cellar, located just north of the burned station, began October 8 of the same year. Construction of the station took less than a year and was completed in July 1903. The 1903 Lenox station continued to serve the affluent cottagers, locals and visitors of somewhat lesser means for many years.

After its abandonment in the 1950's, Lenox Station was used as a repair shop, a carpentry shop and a warehouse for construction materials. In 1986, the building was donated to the museum by George Taylor and Joseph Consolini of Restorations, Inc. Since then, the museum has expended over ten thousand volunteer hours and over $100,000 to restore the exterior to its 1903 appearance and has it listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today, Lenox Station houses the museum’s administrative office, ticket office and museum store.

Scene at the Berkshire Scenic Railroad. Since it was early evening, trains were not operating. The two of us drove to Pittsfield where we had a sub-par dinner at Burger King then drove Massachusetts Highway 8 to Adams, where we made another stop.

The former New York Central station at Adams. We drove to North Adams then turned left on Massachusetts Highway 2 which became New York Highway 2 and we took that into Troy. There, we joined Interstate 757, taking that to New York Highway 7 west to Interstate 87, which took us to Lake George and our one night's stay at the Best Western.

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