Connecticut western news., 1912-10-24
THE OLD H0USATONIC
Interesting Remniscence Of Railroad's
 Earliest Days.

Earliest Days.
 An interesting reminiscential article by Ezra l.. Johnson, of Newtown in the Newtown Bee, of last week, relates to the earliest days of the Housatonic rail road. We quote from this article, DOT tions that will be of interest especially to the older readers of The News:
 History has it that the first through passenger train on the Housatonlc rail road from New Milford to Bridgeport was on St. Valentines Day, 1840. That does not mean that no semblance of & train was seen anywhere on the line until that date, for aA work of track lay ing extended along the line north of Bridgeport, work train would naturally follow with rails and other supplies as the work advanced, so that there was daily expectancy of seeing the locomo- tive. 1t was in the early winter of 1S8a- 1S40, when the writer having just passed his seventh birthday, was sitting on the little bench at the schoolhouse, close to the box stove, looking at the big boys and girls on the outside benches cranlng their necks Tn great expectancy; some one shouted "the locomotive is coming" whereupon all the children without a permit from the teacher, went helteF- skelter out the door and on the stone wall where all stood in mute amazemenE to see the first of these work trains as it passed,
 Domestic animals were more excited than were the human beings My grandfather had a e-year-old colt in his barnyard, that had never been bro ken to the harness, that scaled an eight board fence, and from all reports did not stop until it reached Zoar Bridge where it was found few days later Ever after that the horse went by the name of Gabriel" The Housatonic was the first railroad built in Oonnecti- cut. It was looked upon with great deal of interest, not only as a business proposition, but also as likely to revolu- tionize modes and speeds of travel.
 The first engines were small affairs. wood burners, with no protection from the weather, either for the engineers or f1remen. The coaches were on four wheeled trucks, also the freight cars which for the most part were openly ex- posed to all kinds of weather By the report of the directors to the stockhold- CTS at the annual meeting in October 1888, it appears that contract had been made for the construction of the entire road from Bridgeport to the Massachu H6bJs bbhJ6 HUG IOT fbI6 sun OI 0oOOfO0U@ The report further says Under that contract the road was made from Bridge port to New Milford, and the cars of the company commenced running upon it. between those places in 1S40. As the story of the running of the first train from New Milford to Bridgeport was told me, in my younger days, it was this: On the fourteenth day of Eebru- ary, 1S40, an excursion train was run t0 celebrate the completion of the road as far as New Milford The train reached Newtown from New Milford about noon. where it was greeted by an outpouring of people from all parts of the town, R few of whom boarded the train for the, to be, eventful trip, among whom were Legrand Fairchild, (Betsford Fairchild's father) and Zalmon s. Peck, Newtown's long known and well remembered post master of these later years The run was made to Bridgeport without acci- dent. The end of the road was at the foot of Beaver Street, now Fairfield avenue, with a short branch over which to shunt cars to the steamboat dockr where freight destined for New York was to be transferred to the boat On the dock was @ big pile of wood. The cars were cut off to allow them to run down to the landing. Their hand brakes at first were only stout blanks thrust through openings in the floor of the car and held against the wheels by the brakemen. The momentum of the train was too great for the power applied and |