Sanford station (also known as Sanford's and later called Topstone) was a passenger rail station on the

Danbury and Norwalk Railroad The Danbury and Norwalk Railroad, chartered in 1835 as the Fairfield County Railroad, was an independent American railroad that operated between the cities of Danbury and Norwalk, Connecticut from 1852 until its absorption by the Housatonic Rai ...

and later the

Danbury Branch The Danbury Branch is a diesel branch of the Metro-North Railroad New Haven Line from downtown Norwalk, Connecticut north to Danbury, mostly single-tracked. It opened in 1852 as the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad. Until the early 1970s, passenger ...

of both 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, an ...

and 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 ...

. The station was located on the border between Ridgefield and Redding, Connecticut, and was located on Topstone Road. Opened in 1852 as a

flag stop In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a stop or station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, s ...

and located in the Topstone section of

Redding, Connecticut Redding is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 8,765 at the 2020 census. History Early settlement and establishment At the time colonials began receiving grants for land within the boundaries of present- ...

, the original station building was destroyed in 1891 by a speeding freight train. A new station building was erected the following year and would serve until the station's closure in 1938. The station was called so because of the numerous families named Sanford in the area surrounding the station.

History

Sanford station first opened in 1852 as one of the original stations on the

. On August 11, 1891, the original station building was destroyed when a northbound freight train derailed. The accident closed the line to traffic for two hours.''New Haven Register'', August 11, 1891, page 1 By the early 1900s, the station had begun to serve local

cider mill A cider mill, also known as a cidery, is the location and equipment used to crush apples into apple juice for use in making apple cider, hard cider, applejack, apple wine, pectin and other products derived from apples. More specifically, it r ...

s. In 1908, due to the station being confused with the Stamford station, the name of the station was changed to "Topstone", another name for the neighborhood around the station. In 1938, the station was sold for $50 and subsequently demolished in April of that year.

Station layout

The station consisted of a main station house and an adjacent low-level

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platform ...

that was located on the west side of the Danbury Branch's two tracks at this location. The station was flanked on the north side by Topstone Road and on the west by Simpaug Turnpike in Redding.

References

{{reflist Railroad stations in Fairfield County, Connecticut 1852 establishments in Connecticut 1938 disestablishments in the United States Redding, Connecticut Former New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad stations Buildings and structures in Redding, Connecticut