All About Cheshire Connecticut 06410 Trolleys 3 Minute History.
Channel: All About Cheshire Ct
Date: 07/12/2022

All About Cheshire Connecticut 06410 Trolleys 3 Minute History.
In this section we try to breakdown Cheshire Connecticut's history into 3 minute bites. 
The New Haven used this new acquisition as an initial corporate shell for its electric subsidiaries, renaming it Consolidated Railway on May 18, 1904, and transferring the property of the Meriden Electric to it later that month and the stock of the Stamford Street Railroad to it in October. In the meantime, the New Haven bought control of the Fair Haven and Westville Railroad and conveyed its property to the Consolidated in late May. This company served the city of New Haven and surrounding areas,[6] including intercity lines, in conjunction with the Connecticut Railway and Lighting Company, to Bridgeport (connecting at Woodmont) and Derby, the latter completed in late 1903. The Stamford Street Railroad also, in late 1903, opened a connection with the Greenwich Tramway, thus completing the trolley link between New Haven and the New York state line.[7] The Wallingford Tramway was incorporated in 1903, and its unfinished property was conveyed to the Worcester and Connecticut Eastern on May 14, 1904, four days before the renaming.[8] This company's line, from Wallingford south to the end of a Fair Haven and Westville line at Montowese, was completed by the Consolidated in late 1904, forming the final piece of a continuous electric railway route between New York City and Boston via Hartford, Springfield, and Worcester.[9]

During the next few years, the New Haven, through the Consolidated Railway, acquired control of and later the property of many electric railways throughout the state.
About halfway between New Haven and Hartford was the Meriden Division, with seven radial lines in the city of Meriden. Extensions of these stretched south to Wallingford and a transfer to the New Haven Division, and west to Milldale and then north to Lake Compounce and the New Britain Division or south to Cheshire and the Waterbury Division. A third line east to Middletown over New Haven trackage was part of the Middletown Division, which comprised eight radial lines in and around that city, including service southwest to Middlefield, northeast over the Connecticut River to Portland, and north, partially over New Haven trackage, to Rocky Hill and the Hartford Division. Connecticut Transit Meriden has replaced the former division, but local bus service in Middletown is operated by Middletown Area Transit.

In the Waterbury Division were about ten routes radiating from downtown Waterbury. These included intercity lines south to Beacon Falls and the New Haven Division, west to Woodbury, northwest to Watertown, north to Thomaston, and east to Cheshire and then south to the New Haven Division at Mount Carmel. Connecticut Transit Waterbury has taken over these local routes.

The New Britain Division was between Meriden and Hartford, connecting with those divisions at Lazy Lane in Southington and at Newington. Six other radial lines were operated, one extending southeast to Berlin. Connecticut Transit New Britain now runs buses over most of these routes.

The isolated Torrington Division was a single line between Torrington and Winsted, with a branch to Highland Lake. It was abandoned in 1929.

The Connecticut Company was the primary electric street railway company in the U.S. state of Connecticut, operating both city and rural trolleys and freight service. It was controlled by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (New Haven), which also controlled most steam railroads in the state. After 1936, when one of its major leases was dissolved, it continued operating streetcars and, increasingly, buses in certain Connecticut cities until 1976, when its assets were purchased by the state government.