122-637: The New Haven and Northampton Railroad (founded as the New Haven and Northampton Company , also known as the Canal Line ) was a railroad originally built alongside a canal between 1847 and 1850 in Connecticut . Leased by the New York and New Haven Railroad from 1849 to 1869, the railroad expanded northwards to Massachusetts and its second namesake city in 1859. Upon the end of the lease in 1869,
244-408: A crank on a driving axle. Steam locomotives have been phased out in most parts of the world for economical and safety reasons, although many are preserved in working order by heritage railways . Electric locomotives draw power from a stationary source via an overhead wire or third rail . Some also or instead use a battery . In locomotives that are powered by high-voltage alternating current ,
366-586: A dining car . Some lines also provide over-night services with sleeping cars . Some long-haul trains have been given a specific name . Regional trains are medium distance trains that connect cities with outlying, surrounding areas, or provide a regional service, making more stops and having lower speeds. Commuter trains serve suburbs of urban areas, providing a daily commuting service. Airport rail links provide quick access from city centres to airports . High-speed rail are special inter-city trains that operate at much higher speeds than conventional railways,
488-731: A fourth rail system in 1890 on the City and South London Railway , now part of the London Underground Northern line . This was the first major railway to use electric traction . The world's first deep-level electric railway, it runs from the City of London , under the River Thames , to Stockwell in south London. The first practical AC electric locomotive was designed by Charles Brown , then working for Oerlikon , Zürich. In 1891, Brown had demonstrated long-distance power transmission, using three-phase AC , between
610-542: A funicular railway at the Hohensalzburg Fortress in Austria. The line originally used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope and was operated by human or animal power, through a treadwheel . The line is still operational, although in updated form and is possibly the oldest operational railway. Wagonways (or tramways ) using wooden rails, hauled by horses, started appearing in the 1550s to facilitate
732-492: A hydro-electric plant at Lauffen am Neckar and Frankfurt am Main West, a distance of 280 km (170 mi). Using experience he had gained while working for Jean Heilmann on steam–electric locomotive designs, Brown observed that three-phase motors had a higher power-to-weight ratio than DC motors and, because of the absence of a commutator , were simpler to manufacture and maintain. However, they were much larger than
854-431: A steam engine that provides adhesion. Coal , petroleum , or wood is burned in a firebox , boiling water in the boiler to create pressurized steam. The steam travels through the smokebox before leaving via the chimney or smoke stack. In the process, it powers a piston that transmits power directly through a connecting rod (US: main rod) and a crankpin (US: wristpin) on the driving wheel (US main driver) or to
976-469: A transformer in the locomotive converts the high-voltage low-current power to low-voltage high current used in the traction motors that power the wheels. Modern locomotives may use three-phase AC induction motors or direct current motors. Under certain conditions, electric locomotives are the most powerful traction. They are also the cheapest to run and provide less noise and no local air pollution. However, they require high capital investments both for
1098-623: A canal company to a railroad company, work began on building a railroad along the canal right of way. Starting in New Haven, the railroad reached Plainville , 27 miles (43 km) away, by the end of 1847. In 1850, it was joined by the Hartford, Providence & Fishkill Railroad 's line between Hartford and Waterbury . The first trains ran in January 1848, though construction continued northwards to Granby, Connecticut . On January 11, 1848,
1220-400: A canal which, upon its opening in 1835, provided a connection between New Haven, Connecticut , and Northampton, Massachusetts . Despite the belief of its promoters that the canal would carry a significant amount of business, the expected levels of traffic never materialized, thanks in large part to the completion of the parallel Hartford and New Haven Railroad a few years after the opening of
1342-550: A diesel locomotive from the company in 1909. The world's first diesel-powered locomotive was operated in the summer of 1912 on the Winterthur–Romanshorn railway in Switzerland, but was not a commercial success. The locomotive weight was 95 tonnes and the power was 883 kW with a maximum speed of 100 km/h (62 mph). Small numbers of prototype diesel locomotives were produced in a number of countries through
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#17327724119431464-478: A double track plateway, erroneously sometimes cited as world's first public railway, in south London. William Jessop had earlier used a form of all-iron edge rail and flanged wheels successfully for an extension to the Charnwood Forest Canal at Nanpantan , Loughborough, Leicestershire in 1789. In 1790, Jessop and his partner Outram began to manufacture edge rails. Jessop became a partner in
1586-420: A farm and married. He became a prominent figure in civil affairs, as well as the church at Salmon Brook (now Granby). On Tuesday, December 20, 1859, the two-story Patent Safety Fuse factory located near the center of town exploded, killing seven women and one man. The blast also injured several other people, including the factory owner. The factory made cord fast-burning fuses used for blasting, which resulted in
1708-437: A large turning radius in its design. While high-speed rail is most often designed for passenger travel, some high-speed systems also offer freight service. Since 1980, rail transport has changed dramatically, but a number of heritage railways continue to operate as part of living history to preserve and maintain old railway lines for services of tourist trains. A train is a connected series of rail vehicles that move along
1830-498: A larger locomotive named Galvani , exhibited at the Royal Scottish Society of Arts Exhibition in 1841. The seven-ton vehicle had two direct-drive reluctance motors , with fixed electromagnets acting on iron bars attached to a wooden cylinder on each axle, and simple commutators . It hauled a load of six tons at four miles per hour (6 kilometers per hour) for a distance of one and a half miles (2.4 kilometres). It
1952-423: A locomotive. This involves one or more powered vehicles being located at the front of the train, providing sufficient tractive force to haul the weight of the full train. This arrangement remains dominant for freight trains and is often used for passenger trains. A push–pull train has the end passenger car equipped with a driver's cab so that the engine driver can remotely control the locomotive. This allows one of
2074-477: A number of trains per hour (tph). Passenger trains can usually be into two types of operation, intercity railway and intracity transit. Whereas intercity railway involve higher speeds, longer routes, and lower frequency (usually scheduled), intracity transit involves lower speeds, shorter routes, and higher frequency (especially during peak hours). Intercity trains are long-haul trains that operate with few stops between cities. Trains typically have amenities such as
2196-440: A parallel railroad between New Haven and New York, and here it was about to be materialized as a part of a new through line from New York to Boston." The executives decided to buy the shares still held by Joseph Sheffield, who controlled more than half the company's stock. Upon visiting him, Sheffield told the New Haven's representatives that he would sell to them, but only for $ 100 per share (equivalent to $ 2,682 in 2020). Despite
2318-464: A permanent inhabitant. In 1669, a survey found that there were thirteen permanent residents of Massacoe. One of those residents, John Case, was appointed to the position of constable. This is the first recorded civil office held by residents of the area. In 1670, John Case, along with Joshua Holcomb & Thomas Barber, presented a petition to the General Court, requesting that Massacoe become
2440-676: A piece of circular rail track in Bloomsbury , London, the Catch Me Who Can , but never got beyond the experimental stage with railway locomotives, not least because his engines were too heavy for the cast-iron plateway track then in use. The first commercially successful steam locomotive was Matthew Murray 's rack locomotive Salamanca built for the Middleton Railway in Leeds in 1812. This twin-cylinder locomotive
2562-465: A pivotal role in the development and widespread adoption of the steam locomotive. His designs considerably improved on the work of the earlier pioneers. He built the locomotive Blücher , also a successful flanged -wheel adhesion locomotive. In 1825 he built the locomotive Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the northeast of England, which became the first public steam railway in
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#17327724119432684-439: A revival in recent decades due to road congestion and rising fuel prices, as well as governments investing in rail as a means of reducing CO 2 emissions . Smooth, durable road surfaces have been made for wheeled vehicles since prehistoric times. In some cases, they were narrow and in pairs to support only the wheels. That is, they were wagonways or tracks. Some had grooves or flanges or other mechanical means to keep
2806-739: A single lever to control both engine and generator in a coordinated fashion, and was the prototype for all diesel–electric locomotive control systems. In 1914, world's first functional diesel–electric railcars were produced for the Königlich-Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen ( Royal Saxon State Railways ) by Waggonfabrik Rastatt with electric equipment from Brown, Boveri & Cie and diesel engines from Swiss Sulzer AG . They were classified as DET 1 and DET 2 ( de.wiki ). The first regular used diesel–electric locomotives were switcher (shunter) locomotives . General Electric produced several small switching locomotives in
2928-407: A standard. Following SNCF's successful trials, 50 Hz, now also called industrial frequency was adopted as standard for main-lines across the world. Earliest recorded examples of an internal combustion engine for railway use included a prototype designed by William Dent Priestman . Sir William Thomson examined it in 1888 and described it as a "Priestman oil engine mounted upon a truck which
3050-632: A terminus about one-half mile (800 m) away. A funicular railway was also made at Broseley in Shropshire some time before 1604. This carried coal for James Clifford from his mines down to the River Severn to be loaded onto barges and carried to riverside towns. The Wollaton Wagonway , completed in 1604 by Huntingdon Beaumont , has sometimes erroneously been cited as the earliest British railway. It ran from Strelley to Wollaton near Nottingham . The Middleton Railway in Leeds , which
3172-425: A town of the colony of Connecticut. On May 12, 1670, the General Court granted the petition, and ordered that the plantation should be called "Simmsbury". The boundaries at that time were Farmington on the south and Windsor on the east, with the extent of Simsbury running 10 miles (16 km) north of Farmington and 10 miles (16 km) west of Windsor. The northern border, subject to dispute with Massachusetts ,
3294-467: A war between a number of tribes and the New England settlers, began in the summer. The war extended through parts of four colonies, with Simsbury on the western edge of the conflict. At the time, it was seen as a frontier settlement . The conflict was largely over by August 1676, although it did not formally end until a treaty was signed in 1678. The colony of Connecticut formed a Council of War. In
3416-469: A week's time to secure themselves and their corn there, and at the end of the week from this date, the souldiers, now in garrison at Simsbury, shall be released their attendance there. In March 1676, the town of Simsbury was first pillaged, then burned to the ground. This destruction has been described as the most extensive of any event of any Indian War in New England. The settlers remained in Windsor until
3538-408: A wheel. This was a large stationary engine , powering cotton mills and a variety of machinery; the state of boiler technology necessitated the use of low-pressure steam acting upon a vacuum in the cylinder, which required a separate condenser and an air pump . Nevertheless, as the construction of boilers improved, Watt investigated the use of high-pressure steam acting directly upon a piston, raising
3660-648: A year towards the New York and New Haven's payments for its lease of the Canal Line. This arrangement upset the communities along the Canal Line, such as Southington , which were left with poor service to and from Connecticut's capital city. In spite of the "gentlemen's agreement" between the Hartford and New Haven and the New York and New Haven, the Canal Line's proponents were determined to still reach Northampton. To this end, in 1849 an officially unrelated company
3782-531: Is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks , which usually consist of two parallel steel rails . Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport , next to road transport . It is used for about 8% of passenger and freight transport globally, thanks to its energy efficiency and potentially high speed . Rolling stock on rails generally encounters lower frictional resistance than rubber-tyred road vehicles, allowing rail cars to be coupled into longer trains . Power
New Haven and Northampton Railroad - Misplaced Pages Continue
3904-616: Is a 20 to 25 minute drive from Simsbury Center; however, many residents also commute to other towns and cities within the west-central Connecticut region. After the complete destruction of the town in 1676 during King Philip's War, there were three late 17th to early 18th century nucleated resettlement communities: East Weatogue (also called East Simsbury), Simsbury Center , and Terry's Plain . There are four census-designated places in Simsbury: Simsbury Center , Tariffville , Weatogue , and West Simsbury . As of
4026-410: Is a single, self-powered car, and may be electrically propelled or powered by a diesel engine . Multiple units have a driver's cab at each end of the unit, and were developed following the ability to build electric motors and other engines small enough to fit under the coach. There are only a few freight multiple units, most of which are high-speed post trains. Steam locomotives are locomotives with
4148-399: Is dominant. Electro-diesel locomotives are built to run as diesel–electric on unelectrified sections and as electric locomotives on electrified sections. Alternative methods of motive power include magnetic levitation , horse-drawn, cable , gravity, pneumatics and gas turbine . A passenger train stops at stations where passengers may embark and disembark. The oversight of the train is
4270-904: Is flanked by Talcott Mountain , which is part of the Metacomet Ridge , a mountainous trap rock ridgeline that stretches from Long Island Sound to near the Vermont border. Notable features of the Metacomet Ridge in Simsbury include Heublein Tower , Talcott Mountain State Park , Penwood State Park , and the Tariffville Gorge of the Farmington River. The 51-mile-long (82 km) Metacomet Trail traverses
4392-408: Is usually provided by diesel or electrical locomotives . While railway transport is capital-intensive and less flexible than road transport, it can carry heavy loads of passengers and cargo with greater energy efficiency and safety. Precursors of railways driven by human or animal power have existed since antiquity, but modern rail transport began with the invention of the steam locomotive in
4514-556: Is worked on a temporary line of rails to show the adaptation of a petroleum engine for locomotive purposes." In 1894, a 20 hp (15 kW) two axle machine built by Priestman Brothers was used on the Hull Docks . In 1906, Rudolf Diesel , Adolf Klose and the steam and diesel engine manufacturer Gebrüder Sulzer founded Diesel-Sulzer-Klose GmbH to manufacture diesel-powered locomotives. Sulzer had been manufacturing diesel engines since 1898. The Prussian State Railways ordered
4636-771: The Algonquian peoples , a linguistic grouping which includes hundreds of tribes. One of the Wappinger bands, the Massaco , lived near, but mostly west of, what became known as the Farmington River , in the area that would become known as Simsbury and Canton , the latter as of 1806. In 1633, Windsor was the second town in Connecticut settled by Europeans and the first English settlement (the first European settlement being Huys de Goede Hoop , established by
4758-549: The Boston and Albany Railroad , an east–west line in Massachusetts, chose a new president. The new president, William Bliss, had a plan to compete with the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (formed by the merger of the Hartford and New Haven and the New York and New Haven in 1872). Bliss sought to take control of the New Haven and Northampton to secure a competing route for traffic between New York City and Boston. For
4880-528: The Connecticut Superior Court , where a judge ruled that the railroad could not build towards Springfield, as doing so would violate its charter. Between 1849 and 1850, two branch lines were constructed. The first was between Farmington and Collinsville , where it connected with Samuel W. Collins 's Collins Company , a major manufacturer. The other was a short extension connecting Simsbury to Tariffville . Both opened in 1850, as did
5002-545: The Farmington Canal Heritage Trail . Trails have also been established on portions of the branches to New Hartford and Williamsburg. The Connecticut Department of Transportation has identified the abandoned portions of the Canal Line between Hamden and Suffield , as well as between Farmington and Canton , as corridors which have the potential for future freight rail service. Railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport )
New Haven and Northampton Railroad - Misplaced Pages Continue
5124-591: The Farmington River . It was reported that construction along the river was so difficult that the area was nicknamed " Satan's Kingdom ". In Massachusetts, the New Haven and Northampton built a branch from North Westfield to Holyoke in 1871, a distance of nine miles (14 km). Here, the company connected with the Connecticut River Railroad . The New Haven and Northampton began a switch from iron to steel rails in 1872, which were stronger and better able to handle increasingly heavy trains. In
5246-692: The United Kingdom at the beginning of the 19th century. The first passenger railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway , opened in 1825. The quick spread of railways throughout Europe and North America, following the 1830 opening of the first intercity connection in England, was a key component of the Industrial Revolution . The adoption of rail transport lowered shipping costs compared to water transport, leading to "national markets" in which prices varied less from city to city. In
5368-615: The United Kingdom , South Korea , Scandinavia, Belgium and the Netherlands. The construction of many of these lines has resulted in the dramatic decline of short-haul flights and automotive traffic between connected cities, such as the London–Paris–Brussels corridor, Madrid–Barcelona, Milan–Rome–Naples, as well as many other major lines. High-speed trains normally operate on standard gauge tracks of continuously welded rail on grade-separated right-of-way that incorporates
5490-531: The census of 2000, there were 23,234 people, 8,527 households, and 6,591 families residing in the town. The population density was 685.7 inhabitants per square mile (264.8/km ). There were 8,739 housing units at an average density of 257.9 per square mile (99.6/km ). The racial makeup of the town was 95.3% White , 1.17% African American , 0.09% Native American , 2.12% Asian , 0.03% Pacific Islander , 0.26% from other races , and 1.03% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 1.54% of
5612-414: The overhead lines and the supporting infrastructure, as well as the generating station that is needed to produce electricity. Accordingly, electric traction is used on urban systems, lines with high traffic and for high-speed rail. Diesel locomotives use a diesel engine as the prime mover . The energy transmission may be either diesel–electric , diesel-mechanical or diesel–hydraulic but diesel–electric
5734-458: The puddling process in 1784. In 1783 Cort also patented the rolling process , which was 15 times faster at consolidating and shaping iron than hammering. These processes greatly lowered the cost of producing iron and rails. The next important development in iron production was hot blast developed by James Beaumont Neilson (patented 1828), which considerably reduced the amount of coke (fuel) or charcoal needed to produce pig iron. Wrought iron
5856-418: The rotary phase converter , enabling electric locomotives to use three-phase motors whilst supplied via a single overhead wire, carrying the simple industrial frequency (50 Hz) single phase AC of the high-voltage national networks. An important contribution to the wider adoption of AC traction came from SNCF of France after World War II. The company conducted trials at AC 50 Hz, and established it as
5978-540: The 1880s, railway electrification began with tramways and rapid transit systems. Starting in the 1940s, steam locomotives were replaced by diesel locomotives . The first high-speed railway system was introduced in Japan in 1964, and high-speed rail lines now connect many cities in Europe , East Asia , and the eastern United States . Following some decline due to competition from cars and airplanes, rail transport has had
6100-521: The 1930s (the famous " 44-tonner " switcher was introduced in 1940) Westinghouse Electric and Baldwin collaborated to build switching locomotives starting in 1929. In 1929, the Canadian National Railways became the first North American railway to use diesels in mainline service with two units, 9000 and 9001, from Westinghouse. Although steam and diesel services reaching speeds up to 200 km/h (120 mph) were started before
6222-508: The 1960s in Europe, they were not very successful. The first electrified high-speed rail Tōkaidō Shinkansen was introduced in 1964 between Tokyo and Osaka in Japan. Since then high-speed rail transport, functioning at speeds up to and above 300 km/h (190 mph), has been built in Japan, Spain, France , Germany, Italy, the People's Republic of China, Taiwan (Republic of China),
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#17327724119436344-590: The 1970s, the railroad line's connection to the Northeast Corridor was severed due to low clearance under a bridge which made it impossible for modern railroad cars to access the line. Traffic to and from the southern portion of the line had to be routed via Plainville from this time onwards. Penn Central went bankrupt in 1970, and the federal government got involved, ultimately creating Conrail in 1976. The remaining lines were included in Conrail, with
6466-475: The 20th century, much of the line was gradually abandoned, though two portions continue to see freight service as of 2021. The vast majority of the abandoned line is now part of the New Haven and Northampton Canal Greenway , which includes the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail where the right of way is owned by the State of Connecticut. The New Haven and Northampton began in the 1820s as a canal company. It operated
6588-552: The 20th century, the New Haven and Northampton was considered a secondary route compared to the parallel New Haven–Springfield Line . The first cuts to the railroad came in 1923, when the branch to Shelburne was abandoned beyond South Deerfield . The remainder of the Shelburne Extension was formally abandoned in 1943 along with the Turners Falls Branch, though neither line had been used for trains since
6710-464: The 40 km Burgdorf–Thun line , Switzerland. Italian railways were the first in the world to introduce electric traction for the entire length of a main line rather than a short section. The 106 km Valtellina line was opened on 4 September 1902, designed by Kandó and a team from the Ganz works. The electrical system was three-phase at 3 kV 15 Hz. In 1918, Kandó invented and developed
6832-530: The Butterley Company in 1790. The first public edgeway (thus also first public railway) built was Lake Lock Rail Road in 1796. Although the primary purpose of the line was to carry coal, it also carried passengers. These two systems of constructing iron railways, the "L" plate-rail and the smooth edge-rail, continued to exist side by side until well into the early 19th century. The flanged wheel and edge-rail eventually proved its superiority and became
6954-469: The Canal Line in 1887, ending its independence. While the Canal Line was only mildly profitable for its new owners, the New Haven judged the costs of allowing a competitor such as the Boston and Albany or the New York and New England Railroad to take control to be far higher. The New Haven and Northampton continued to exist on paper until it was finally merged into the New Haven on October 26, 1910. Entering
7076-514: The DC motors of the time and could not be mounted in underfloor bogies : they could only be carried within locomotive bodies. In 1894, Hungarian engineer Kálmán Kandó developed a new type 3-phase asynchronous electric drive motors and generators for electric locomotives. Kandó's early 1894 designs were first applied in a short three-phase AC tramway in Évian-les-Bains (France), which was constructed between 1896 and 1898. In 1896, Oerlikon installed
7198-684: The Dutch in the Hartford area as a frontier settlement for the New Netherland Colony ten years earlier). For some time, the area of Massaco was considered "an appendix to the towne of Windsor." Settlers in Windsor forested and farmed in the area, but did not settle in Massaco permanently for a number of years. In 1642, the General Court of the colony of Connecticut ordered that: the Governor and Mr. Heynes shall have liberty to dispose of
7320-456: The English town of Symondsbury . Holcomb, one of the petitioners, originally came from Symondsbury. Another possibility is that the name was derived from Simon Wolcott's name. He was known familiarly as "Sim", and he was considered one of the prominent men of the town. In 1675, rumors of unrest among the indigenous peoples began to surface. The rumors proved accurate, and King Philip's War ,
7442-623: The H&;NH's line between New Haven and Springfield, Massachusetts . These negotiations concluded with the New York and New Haven agreeing that the Canal Line would not build north of Granby, and only limited connecting service was to be made available with the HP&;F in Plainville, since traffic could potentially travel between New Haven and Hartford via a transfer in that city. In return, the Hartford and New Haven contributed approximately $ 12,000
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#17327724119437564-466: The Massachusetts lines went to the newly formed Pioneer Valley Railroad . The line between Avon and Simsbury was abandoned at this time, and the Boston and Maine (part of Guilford Transportation Industries since 1983) further cut the line back to Plainville in 1991. Meanwhile, the southern portion in Connecticut was cut back to Cheshire in 1987. Freight service beyond Southington was suspended in 1995, and Guilford filed for abandonment. Attempts to keep
7686-510: The New Haven and Northampton acquired a 999-year lease of the Hampshire and Hampden in exchange for agreeing to assume $ 200,000 of the latter company's bonds. All three of these smaller companies were formally consolidated with the New Haven and Northampton on July 1, 1862. In 1867, construction began on a branch from Northampton to Williamsburg . The eight-mile (13 km) branch opened in 1868. The New York and New Haven Railroad's lease of
7808-547: The New Haven and Northampton confined to Connecticut, most of all the Hartford and New Haven. The New Haven and Northampton's charter allowed it to build in Connecticut, but it lacked an equivalent charter from the state of Massachusetts. Two more small companies were established in 1852 and promptly received charters from the Massachusetts General Court ; the Hampden Railroad was to build from
7930-427: The New Haven and Northampton expired in 1869, and was not renewed. From the start, the New York and New Haven had been suffering a significant loss from its lease of the Canal Line, losing between $ 35,000 and $ 45,000 per year. By 1860, the New York and New Haven had lost over $ 250,000 from the lease, while the Hartford and New Haven lost a further $ 120,000. Thus, the New Haven and Northampton was an independent company for
8052-453: The New York and New Haven Railroad leased the line between New Haven and Plainville for 20 years effective on July 1, 1849, for a price of $ 45,000 per year. Meanwhile, the New Haven and Northampton continued to build north. In 1849, the Canal Line made an attempt to reach Springfield, Massachusetts , and requested charters from the Massachusetts and Connecticut legislatures authorizing such an extension. This ran into intense opposition, both from
8174-691: The branch was abandoned in 1968; the Collins Company had shut its doors in 1966. In Massachusetts, the Florence Branch was abandoned beyond Florence in 1962. The New Haven was merged into the Penn Central Transportation Company on January 1, 1969. That year, the main line was cut back from Northampton to Easthampton , and the rest of the Williamsburg Branch was abandoned. In the middle of
8296-541: The canal. Additionally, the canal was only operable for eight months of the year, as it closed during the winter. In the early 1840s, the canal was bought by New Haven businessman Joseph Earl Sheffield , who came to the conclusion that the struggling canal could work much better if it were converted to a railroad. Following authorization in May 1846 by the Connecticut General Assembly to switch from
8418-412: The company expanded further into Massachusetts, reaching as far north as Shelburne and Turners Falls . After a fight for control of the company by several other railroads in the 1880s, the New Haven and Northampton was leased by New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1887. The company continued to exist as a lessor until October 26, 1910, when it was formally merged into the New Haven system. In
8540-521: The competing Hartford and New Haven Railroad, and from legislators in both states. Opponents argued that the New Haven and Northampton's charter authorized it to build a railroad "on or near" the right of way of the previous canal. This granted the company the freedom to diverge slightly from the canal's route where necessary by terrain or other obstacles, but also constrained them to follow the canal's general route, from New Haven northward towards Granby, and therefore not towards Springfield. The matter went to
8662-405: The days leading up to the war, they ordered settlers to keep night watches and to work in the fields in armed groups of at least six. By the time of the colony's General Court meeting of October 14, 1675, the situation was considered serious enough that the court ordered the residents of Simsbury to move to safety in Windsor. The order read: This Court orders, that the people of Simsbury shall have
8784-430: The duty of a guard/train manager/conductor . Passenger trains are part of public transport and often make up the stem of the service, with buses feeding to stations. Passenger trains provide long-distance intercity travel, daily commuter trips, or local urban transit services, operating with a diversity of vehicles, operating speeds, right-of-way requirements, and service frequency. Service frequencies are often expressed as
8906-402: The early 1880s, two additional branches were built. The first was the 18-mile (29 km) long Shelburne Falls Extension, built in 1881 between Northampton and Shelburne via South Deerfield . The following year, the nine-mile (14 km) long Turners Falls branch was built between South Deerfield and Turners Falls . A battle for control of the New Haven and Northampton began in 1880, when
9028-548: The early 1930s. However, the Boston and Maine Railroad purchased and reactivated the Turners Falls Branch from Cheapside to Turners Falls, a distance of 4 miles (6.4 km). The B&M had previously held trackage rights over the Turners Falls Branch from 1925 onward, and the purchase allowed the B&;M to abandon its own line to Turners Falls. In 1956, the New Hartford branch was cut back to Collinsville. The remainder of
9150-402: The end of the 19th century, because they were cleaner compared to steam-driven trams which caused smoke in city streets. In 1784 James Watt , a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, patented a design for a steam locomotive . Watt had improved the steam engine of Thomas Newcomen , hitherto used to pump water out of mines, and developed a reciprocating engine in 1769 capable of powering
9272-471: The end of the 19th century, improving the quality of steel and further reducing costs. Thus steel completely replaced the use of iron in rails, becoming standard for all railways. The first passenger horsecar or tram , Swansea and Mumbles Railway , was opened between Swansea and Mumbles in Wales in 1807. Horses remained the preferable mode for tram transport even after the arrival of steam engines until
9394-527: The engine by one power stroke. The transmission system employed a large flywheel to even out the action of the piston rod. On 21 February 1804, the world's first steam-powered railway journey took place when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales . Trevithick later demonstrated a locomotive operating upon
9516-475: The era of great expansion of railways that began in the late 1860s. Steel rails lasted several times longer than iron. Steel rails made heavier locomotives possible, allowing for longer trains and improving the productivity of railroads. The Bessemer process introduced nitrogen into the steel, which caused the steel to become brittle with age. The open hearth furnace began to replace the Bessemer process near
9638-421: The exception of the segment between Simsbury and Westfield , which was abandoned. This left the former New Haven and Northampton as two separate lines. To save the 5 miles (8.0 km) between Avon and Simsbury, the state of Connecticut agreed to provide a subsidy for Conrail operations over that segment. In 1982, Conrail sold its Connecticut portion of the Canal Line to the Boston and Maine Railroad , while
9760-641: The explosion. Two days later, on Thursday, December 22, 1859, the New York Times ran a story about the explosion. According to the United States Census Bureau , the town has a total area of 34.3 square miles (88.8 km ), of which 33.9 square miles (87.9 km ) is land and 0.39 square miles (1.0 km ), or 1.09%, is water. Simsbury lies in the northern end of the Farmington Valley . The east side of Simsbury
9882-417: The extension of the main line to Granby. Almost immediately after they opened, the New York and New Haven leased these as well, effective April 25, 1850, for an additional $ 40,000 per year. The New York and New Haven was motivated to lease the Canal Line as leverage in negotiations with the Hartford and New Haven. If the New Haven and Northampton were built to Northampton, it would be in direct competition with
10004-522: The first commercial example of the system on the Lugano Tramway . Each 30-tonne locomotive had two 110 kW (150 hp) motors run by three-phase 750 V 40 Hz fed from double overhead lines. Three-phase motors run at a constant speed and provide regenerative braking , and are well suited to steeply graded routes, and the first main-line three-phase locomotives were supplied by Brown (by then in partnership with Walter Boveri ) in 1899 on
10126-488: The first time in 20 years. The company quickly began to expand its lines at this time, nearly immediately starting construction on an extension of the Collinsville Branch to Pine Meadow , the site of a tool manufacturer. This extension opened for traffic in 1870, and was further expanded to New Hartford, Connecticut , in 1876. Construction between Collinsville and New Hartford was along a narrow gorge following
10248-473: The following decade. Aaron Cook built one of the early homes in the area established c. 1660 as Terry's Plain , and John Griffin also built a home, possibly in 1664—the date associated with a deed to land in Massacoe. The settlement of Massacoe continued in the late 1660s. The General Court awarded a land grant of two hundred acres to John Griffin in 1663. A deed description from 1664 indicates he had become
10370-470: The ground uppon that parte of Tunxis River cauled Mossocowe, to such inhabitants of Wyndsor as they shall see cause. Despite this order, there is no record that any settlements immediately ensued. Five years later the General Court issued another order: The Court thinks fitt that Massacoe be purchased by the Country, and that ther be a Committee chosen to dispose of yt to such inhabitants of Wyndsor as by
10492-543: The highest possible radius. All these features are dramatically different from freight operations, thus justifying exclusive high-speed rail lines if it is economically feasible. Simsbury, Connecticut Simsbury is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut , United States, incorporated as Connecticut's 21st town in May 1670. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region . The population
10614-1230: The limit being regarded at 200 to 350 kilometres per hour (120 to 220 mph). High-speed trains are used mostly for long-haul service and most systems are in Western Europe and East Asia. Magnetic levitation trains such as the Shanghai maglev train use under-riding magnets which attract themselves upward towards the underside of a guideway and this line has achieved somewhat higher peak speeds in day-to-day operation than conventional high-speed railways, although only over short distances. Due to their heightened speeds, route alignments for high-speed rail tend to have broader curves than conventional railways, but may have steeper grades that are more easily climbed by trains with large kinetic energy. High kinetic energy translates to higher horsepower-to-ton ratios (e.g. 20 horsepower per short ton or 16 kilowatts per tonne); this allows trains to accelerate and maintain higher speeds and negotiate steep grades as momentum builds up and recovered in downgrades (reducing cut and fill and tunnelling requirements). Since lateral forces act on curves, curvatures are designed with
10736-608: The line in 2000. An additional abandonment of most trackage in Southington took place in 2008. As of 2017, freight service in Connecticut operates only in Plainville and just across the Southington town line, where the line ends at a propane distribution company; the Pioneer Valley Railroad continues operating part of the former main line in Westfield along with the entire Holyoke Branch. In the 21st century,
10858-435: The line in service to Cheshire ultimately failed, with abandonment being approved in 1998. In Massachusetts, the Pioneer Valley Railroad ended freight service between the Westfield town line and Easthampton in 1998 and sold the line to Easthampton for use as a trail. The Pioneer Valley Railroad discontinued service in Westfield south of the former Boston and Albany Railroad main line in 1997 and formally abandoned this part of
10980-429: The locomotive-hauled train's drawbacks to be removed, since the locomotive need not be moved to the front of the train each time the train changes direction. A railroad car is a vehicle used for the haulage of either passengers or freight. A multiple unit has powered wheels throughout the whole train. These are used for rapid transit and tram systems, as well as many both short- and long-haul passenger trains. A railcar
11102-517: The main portion of the B&O to the new line to New York through a series of tunnels around the edges of Baltimore's downtown. Electricity quickly became the power supply of choice for subways, abetted by the Sprague's invention of multiple-unit train control in 1897. By the early 1900s most street railways were electrified. The London Underground , the world's oldest underground railway, opened in 1863, and it began operating electric services using
11224-433: The mid-1920s. The Soviet Union operated three experimental units of different designs since late 1925, though only one of them (the E el-2 ) proved technically viable. A significant breakthrough occurred in 1914, when Hermann Lemp , a General Electric electrical engineer, developed and patented a reliable direct current electrical control system (subsequent improvements were also patented by Lemp). Lemp's design used
11346-533: The new few years, the Boston and Albany began purchasing shares of the Canal Line, driving a more than three-fold increase in share price. The president of the New Haven Railroad was said to have learned of rumors about the Boston and Albany's plans from a mention in a Springfield newspaper in March 1881. The New Haven's executives were greatly alarmed, as "For years they had been haunted by the bugaboo of
11468-412: The noise they made on the tracks. There are many references to their use in central Europe in the 16th century. Such a transport system was later used by German miners at Caldbeck , Cumbria , England, perhaps from the 1560s. A wagonway was built at Prescot , near Liverpool , sometime around 1600, possibly as early as 1594. Owned by Philip Layton, the line carried coal from a pit near Prescot Hall to
11590-524: The population. The five largest percentages of reported ethnicity, expressed as percentage out of total residents, were Irish (23.0%), English (17.4%), German (15.6%), Italian (13.7%), and Polish (7.6%). There were 8,527 households, out of which 41.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 69.1% were married couples living together, 6.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 22.7% were non-families. 19.4% of all households had someone living alone, and 7.8% had someone living alone who
11712-525: The possibility of a smaller engine that might be used to power a vehicle. Following his patent, Watt's employee William Murdoch produced a working model of a self-propelled steam carriage in that year. The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built in the United Kingdom in 1804 by Richard Trevithick , a British engineer born in Cornwall . This used high-pressure steam to drive
11834-423: The remaining Connecticut portion of the Canal Line is operated by Pan Am Railways between Plainville and Southington , while the Pioneer Valley Railroad operates the remnants in Massachusetts. The majority of the abandoned right of way in Connecticut and Massachusetts has been railbanked and converted into several different rail trails collectively known as the New Haven and Northampton Canal Greenway , chiefly
11956-646: The ridge. At the western foot of the mountain, the Pinchot Sycamore , the largest tree in Connecticut, grows near the Farmington River. Simsbury also has some patches of old-growth forest ; Belden Forest , a 40-acre site with public hiking trails near the center of town was inducted into the Old-Growth Forest Network in October 2019. The town is often considered a bedroom community for the nearby city of Hartford, Connecticut , which
12078-418: The shalbe judged meet to make improuement therof... but there is no record of land grants arising from this order. In 1643, John Griffin and Michael Humphrey started a tar and turpentine business in Windsor. A few years later, a Massaco Indian named Manahanoose started a fire which destroyed tar belonging to Griffin. The Court ordered the payment of "five hundred fathom of wampum " as compensation. As he
12200-403: The spring of 1677, during which most moved back to Simsbury, though some never returned. In 1707, Daniel Hayes, then aged twenty-two, was captured by indigenous people and carried to Canada . The capture was witnessed and a rescue party was raised, but the group did not catch up with the captors. Hayes was tied up each night and bound to saplings. It took thirty days to reach Canada, where Hayes
12322-441: The standard for railways. Cast iron used in rails proved unsatisfactory because it was brittle and broke under heavy loads. The wrought iron invented by John Birkinshaw in 1820 replaced cast iron. Wrought iron, usually simply referred to as "iron", was a ductile material that could undergo considerable deformation before breaking, making it more suitable for iron rails. But iron was expensive to produce until Henry Cort patented
12444-639: The state line to Westfield, Massachusetts , while the Northampton and Westfield Railroad would build from Westfield to Northampton. In 1853, these two companies merged to form the Hampshire and Hampden Railroad , the name derived from the Hampshire and Hampden Canal which was once the Massachusetts portion of the Farmington Canal. The combined line between Granby and Northampton opened in 1856, and remained independent until October 1, 1859, when
12566-399: The steep asking price, the New Haven agreed to buy all of Sheffield's shares for a total price of $ 1,229,800 (equivalent to $ 32,979,843 in 2020), much to the anger of the Boston and Albany, which had also been attempting to obtain his shares. Now having control of a majority of the Canal Line's stock, the New Haven installed new directors which supported its interests. The New Haven leased
12688-475: The time, was Liverpool and Manchester Railway , built in 1830. Steam power continued to be the dominant power system in railways around the world for more than a century. The first known electric locomotive was built in 1837 by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen in Scotland, and it was powered by galvanic cells (batteries). Thus it was also the earliest battery-electric locomotive. Davidson later built
12810-543: The track. Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate locomotive or from individual motors in self-propelled multiple units. Most trains carry a revenue load, although non-revenue cars exist for the railway's own use, such as for maintenance-of-way purposes. The engine driver (engineer in North America) controls the locomotive or other power cars, although people movers and some rapid transits are under automatic control. Traditionally, trains are pulled using
12932-471: The transport of ore tubs to and from mines and soon became popular in Europe. Such an operation was illustrated in Germany in 1556 by Georgius Agricola in his work De re metallica . This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way. The miners called the wagons Hunde ("dogs") from
13054-629: The wheels on track. For example, evidence indicates that a 6 to 8.5 km long Diolkos paved trackway transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece from around 600 BC. The Diolkos was in use for over 650 years, until at least the 1st century AD. Paved trackways were also later built in Roman Egypt . In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug ,
13176-622: The world in 1825, although it used both horse power and steam power on different runs. In 1829, he built the locomotive Rocket , which entered in and won the Rainhill Trials . This success led to Stephenson establishing his company as the pre-eminent builder of steam locomotives for railways in Great Britain and Ireland, the United States, and much of Europe. The first public railway which used only steam locomotives, all
13298-536: Was 24,517 in the 2020 census . At the beginning of the 17th century, the area that would become known as Simsbury as of 1670 was inhabited by indigenous peoples . The Wappinger were one of these groups, composed of eighteen bands that were organized not formally as a tribe, but more akin to an association, like the Delaware . These bands lived between the Hudson and Connecticut rivers. The Wappingers were one of
13420-427: Was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.70 and the average family size was 3.12. 29.5% of the population was under the age of 18, 3.6% were from 18 to 24, 27.7% were from 25 to 44, 26.6% were from 45 to 64, and 12.5% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years old. For every 100 females, there were 94.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.3 males. In 2018,
13542-512: Was a soft material that contained slag or dross . The softness and dross tended to make iron rails distort and delaminate and they lasted less than 10 years. Sometimes they lasted as little as one year under high traffic. All these developments in the production of iron eventually led to the replacement of composite wood/iron rails with superior all-iron rails. The introduction of the Bessemer process , enabling steel to be made inexpensively, led to
13664-602: Was accomplished by the distribution of weight between a number of wheels. Puffing Billy is now on display in the Science Museum in London, and is the oldest locomotive in existence. In 1814, George Stephenson , inspired by the early locomotives of Trevithick, Murray and Hedley, persuaded the manager of the Killingworth colliery where he worked to allow him to build a steam-powered machine. Stephenson played
13786-514: Was built by Siemens. The tram ran on 180 volts DC, which was supplied by running rails. In 1891 the track was equipped with an overhead wire and the line was extended to Berlin-Lichterfelde West station . The Volk's Electric Railway opened in 1883 in Brighton , England. The railway is still operational, thus making it the oldest operational electric railway in the world. Also in 1883, Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram opened near Vienna in Austria. It
13908-706: Was built in 1758, later became the world's oldest operational railway (other than funiculars), albeit now in an upgraded form. In 1764, the first railway in the Americas was built in Lewiston, New York . In the late 1760s, the Coalbrookdale Company began to fix plates of cast iron to the upper surface of the wooden rails. This allowed a variation of gauge to be used. At first only balloon loops could be used for turning, but later, movable points were taken into use that allowed for switching. A system
14030-529: Was created under the name of the Farmington Valley Railroad , which received a charter from the Connecticut legislature to build a rail line northwards from Granby 4.5 miles (7.2 km) to the Massachusetts state line. Soon after it opened, the New Haven and Northampton acquired a 1,000 year lease of the new company for $ 10,000. Building in Massachusetts proved to be more difficult, as several railroads in that state were determined to keep
14152-541: Was forced to run the gauntlet . Near the end of the gauntlet, he hid in a wigwam to avoid an attempted blow by a club. The woman in the wigwam declared that the house was sacred and, having lost a husband and son to a war, adopted Hayes as her son. He remained for several years, attending to the woman. Eventually, he was sold to a Frenchman, who learned that Hayes had skill as a weaver and put him to work in that business. Hayes managed to earn enough to buy his freedom after two years. He then returned to Simsbury, settled down on
14274-548: Was introduced in which unflanged wheels ran on L-shaped metal plates, which came to be known as plateways . John Curr , a Sheffield colliery manager, invented this flanged rail in 1787, though the exact date of this is disputed. The plate rail was taken up by Benjamin Outram for wagonways serving his canals, manufacturing them at his Butterley ironworks . In 1803, William Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway ,
14396-417: Was left to be resolved later. This area includes the township Simsbury as well as Granby and Canton , which would later separate from Simsbury in 1786 and 1806, respectively. The precise origin of the name of the town is not known for certain. The town records covering the first ten years after incorporation were accidentally burned in 1680 and 1681. One possibility is that the name of Simsbury comes from
14518-489: Was light enough to not break the edge-rails track and solved the problem of adhesion by a cog-wheel using teeth cast on the side of one of the rails. Thus it was also the first rack railway . This was followed in 1813 by the locomotive Puffing Billy built by Christopher Blackett and William Hedley for the Wylam Colliery Railway, the first successful locomotive running by adhesion only. This
14640-762: Was tested on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in September of the following year, but the limited power from batteries prevented its general use. It was destroyed by railway workers, who saw it as a threat to their job security. By the middle of the nineteenth century most european countries had military uses for railways. Werner von Siemens demonstrated an electric railway in 1879 in Berlin. The world's first electric tram line, Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway , opened in Lichterfelde near Berlin , Germany, in 1881. It
14762-636: Was the first tram line in the world in regular service powered from an overhead line. Five years later, in the U.S. electric trolleys were pioneered in 1888 on the Richmond Union Passenger Railway , using equipment designed by Frank J. Sprague . The first use of electrification on a main line was on a four-mile section of the Baltimore Belt Line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in 1895 connecting
14884-627: Was unable to pay this amount, Manahanoose was instead ordered by the Court to either serve Griffin or be exchanged for Black slaves . To avoid this, he instead delivered a deed to the land at Massacoe. The deed was agreed to by Manahanoose as well as other Indians, identified as "the proprietors of Massaco". In 1653, the General Court granted 50 acres (200,000 m ) of meadowland to Lieutenant Aaron Cook, 60 acres (240,000 m ) to John Bissell and 50 acres (200,000 m ) to Thomas Ford, all in Massacoe. Settlers did not build permanent settlements until
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