The New Haven and Derby Railroad (NH&D) was a railroad that connected the city of

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

, with the town of

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

. The railroad was built between 1868 and 1871, when it began operations. The company was created by the city of New Haven, which owned it until 1889 when it was sold to the

Housatonic Railroad The Housatonic Railroad ( ) is a Class III railroad operating in southwestern New England and eastern New York. It was chartered in 1983 to operate a short section of ex-New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in northwestern Connecticut, and ...

. The Housatonic in turn was purchased by the

New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of ...

in 1892. Passenger service existed between New Haven and Derby Junction until 1925 when it was discontinued. The majority of the line was abandoned by the New Haven Railroad between 1939 and 1941. As of 2022, of track between Derby and Ansonia are the only remaining portion of the New Haven and Derby Railroad in service.

History

Founding

A railroad between the city of

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

and the town of

was first seriously proposed in 1867. A meeting to discuss the proposed railroad was held in New Haven that year, where it was decided that the city of New Haven would provide some of the funding for the railroad, along with private shareholders. In total, approximately $200,000 in 1867 dollars was raised in order to begin construction. New_Haven_and_Derby_mortgage_certificate

New_Haven_and_Derby_mortgage_certificate

Independent operations (1871–1889)

The company ran its first trains between its namesake cities in August 1871. From the start, the company had difficulty attracting sufficient business to justify the cost of operating its meandering route through rough terrain, and resorted to attempting to undercut the rates of competitor

Naugatuck Railroad Founded in 1996, the Naugatuck Railroad is a common carrier railroad owned by the Railroad Museum of New England and operated by Naugatuck Railroad on tracks leased by Naugatuck Railroad from the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The orig ...

. This ended in 1879 when the two companies arranged a pooling agreement. The Naugatuck came under the control of the

(The New Haven) in 1887, ending this arrangement. Seeing the line was in trouble, the city of New Haven decided to sell the company to another operator that same year. Two railroads placed bids: the New Haven railroad offered $300,000, while the

offered $275,000 and a promise to extend the line west of Derby Junction. The city accepted the Housatonic's offer, and the promised extension between Derby and the Housatonic's main line at

Botsford, Connecticut Botsford is a village of Newtown in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The town of Newtown has one political body, but consists of multiple geographic subdivisions. It currently contains a fire department and post office. CT 25 runs ...

, was constructed in 1888. The city formally leased the line to the Housatonic for a period of 99 years on July 10, 1889, ending its independence.

Purchase and dissolution (1889–1904)

Operations under the Housatonic Railroad were short lived, as the new owner of the NH&D was itself purchased by the New Haven Railroad in 1892. The New Haven and Derby continued to exist as a shell corporation until 1904, when the

Connecticut Supreme Court The Connecticut Supreme Court, formerly known as the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, is the supreme court, highest court in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. The seven justices sit in ...

condemned the two remaining shares of the company, ending its existence.

New Haven Railroad operations

The New Haven rationalized its parallel ex-New Haven and Derby Railroad and ex-Naugatuck Railroad routes through Derby into a single line; part of the original NH&D alignment was abandoned, while the NH&D alignment from Ansonia to the northern part of Derby was retained as part of the new route. The route of the New Haven and Derby Railroad was of limited importance to the New Haven, as it largely duplicated other lines in Connecticut. Passenger trains last operated over the line in 1925, and freight service between

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

and

West Haven West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

was terminated the same year, though none of the route was formally abandoned at this time. An attempt by the New Haven to abandon the line between Derby Junction and West Haven in 1939 was unsuccessful, as customers served by the line in Orange protested to the

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...

(ICC). The ICC allowed abandonment of the completely unused segment between Orange and West Haven, but required service continue on the rest of the line. A second attempt to abandon most of the line was successful in 1941, though rail-served customers in Orange again objected. From 1941 onwards, only the segment between Derby and Ansonia and a spur track in the city New Haven remained active. The spur in New Haven served several local industries until at least the 1980s, but was abandoned by the year 2000, leaving only the NH&D alignment from Derby to Ansonia in use by

Metro-North Railroad Metro-North Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, is a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a New York State public benefit corporations, public authority of the U.S. state of New Yor ...

Station and junction listing

Mileages reflect the post-1892 route using the West River Branch to access Union Station, and the 1903–04 relocation in Derby.

References

External links

{{commons category inline Predecessors of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Defunct Connecticut railroads Railway companies established in 1868 Railway companies disestablished in 1889