Walt Berko's New Haven Railroad Films, 1961

[@suzannerickles6169]

I grew up in Norwalk, and was 13 when these films were made. Brings back lots of memories, especially of when my cousin who lived in Stamford and I were allowed to go into NYC on our own, as long as we were home or on a train on our way home by dark. I am a city lover , and times on the New Haven Railroad were part of that.

[@Peasmouldia]

Big thank you to Mr. Berko for having the foresight to shoot this footage, and to you folks for posting it.

[@Tom-xe9iq]

Unique to the FL-9s: they had a 2 axle front truck and 3 axle rear truck.

[@lucysmithers357]

I was born and raised in Stamford. Great video.. I loved seeing the New Canann line pull in. I often rode from Stamford to GCT.. loved riding with a diesel engine

[@TheCondoInRedondo]

Great narration. Informative. Yet, not intrusive. Perfect balance. Brings back so many memories of the New Rochelle station circa 1960 when it had five tracks and a pedestrian tunnel (now sealed) at the east end of the platform for traversing the main lines in safety. No elevated platforms yet. Those didn't happen until the Suburban coaches replaced the Washboards around 1970. There was a four or five-foot tall cyclone style fence splitting the two southbound tracks from the three northbound tracks, dissuading pedestrians from trying to walk across the rails to get to the northbound platform. There were three series of Washboards. The ones best known to those of us on the Stamford Local were the 4400 series. There are one or two washboards sitting at the Danbury Train Museum. But those are not from the 4400 series. I believe all specimens of the 4400s were scrapped. If I recall correctly, the 4400-series were officially called "The Metropolitans". Around 1970, the replacement coaches began running after the elevated platforms had been retrofitted to each station between Woodlawn and Stamford. I believe the replacement coaches were called "Suburbans". Don't hold me to this. Those newer coaches were hard-wired in pairs, I think. If a train was assembled, it needed an even number of coaches. But not so for the Washboards. Those could be mated/demated individually. And I think each one had a control cab at one end. Okay. Memories of the 4400s.... first.. when they made a station stop, the motorman would start the air compressors (one per car). You could hear them kicking-in shortly after the train came to a halt. Would make a loud whirring noise you could hear clear across the station. You knew the train was about to pull out of the station because the compressors would stop running. In New Rochelle, the pantographs were up, of course. But after passing Pelham and Mt Vernon, headed towards the Y with the Harlem line, there was a brief stretch in Woodlawn where the train would coast as it transitioned from the catenary to the third rail for the remaining stretch into Grand Central. That meant loss of the fluorescent illumination and the air circulating fans for several seconds. The coach would go deathly quiet except for conversations. I do not remember if the 4400s had air conditioning. At 5:30 of this video, you see a modest side-to-side rocking motion of a Washboard. That motion was the rule rather than the exception. it wasn't pronounced or nauseating by any stretch. It was best described as a "gentle" rocking. In the afternoon, the regular commuters "took over" the last car for their daily games of high-stakes bridge. The conductor stood guard and pretty much helped them monopolize the tail half of that car. The rest of us got the message and left those "high rollers" to their tradition undisturbed. I suspect the conductor's palm was being greased with regularity. The Washboards sometimes leaked when it rained. The windows were surrounded by a black rubber gasket with rounded corners. However, those sometimes had to be replaced. You could tell which ones had been replaced because the replacement seals were beige, not black. And they had a different feel than the butyl rubber seals. The bench seatbacks were hinged so that they could face southbound for the ride into Manhattan and face northbound for the journey back to Stamford. At the conclusion of a trip, the conductor would stroll from one end of the coach to the other, flipping/pushing the seatback across the bench to make the chair face the other way. The coaches themselves were not rotated. They simply ran in the opposite direction after a brief stay in GCT. If you had a family or party of four, you were permitted to shove the seatback so as to have everybody in your foursome facing each other. At the top of each backrest was a stainless steel ribbon which ran around the entire edge of the seatback. The ribbon had slight rises every 2-3 feet or so, forming slots for slipping in tickets before the conductor came to ask for them. Tickets were maybe an inch and a quarter wide by (say) four or five inches long. There were no automated kiosks back then. You bought your ticket at the station or on the train (for a premium). Conductors wore belt coin changers or coin aprons and they would make change while holding the punch in one hand and a slew of tickets between all four digits on the other hand, like it was a magic trick how many they could retain. As for modeling the Washboards.... a 3D printed plastic shell is available in H0 scale from a firm on Long Island. It is just a shell, unpainted and without pantographs. There were also brass models made in H0. One keen collector is a fellow named Eric who's day job is actually driving New Haven Line MUs into and out of NYC. He sold me nine of his brass coaches and kept the rest. I recall the EP-5s and the EP-4s. But I don't remember the EP-3s at all. In fact, modelers could easily obtain an O-scale replica of the EP-5 from Lionel in the McInniss paint scheme. I believe Rapido Trains is about to release an H0-scale EP-5 in 2019. MTH makes an EP-4. But not in NH livery. Now, this video mentions the EP-4.... Those were called "Little Joe" They were very similar to the EP-5s cosmetically, but with a more complicated, more articulated truck suspension. Not sure why. Thanks again for producing this video from the vintage footage.

[@brownhornet1975]

TheCondoInRedondo WHAT AN AMAZING GLIMPSE INTO YOUR PAST. THANK YOU FOR THAT DETAILED MEMORY

[@calrob300]

I remember the NR station well and the fifth track that was separated from the 4 track mainline by the Stamford bound passenger platform. It connected to what remained of the yard in the '60s. However. I didn't know there was a tunnel. Where was it located? Eastbound doesn't mean anything to me. Was it on the station's NY end, or the Stamford end? Is the sealed entrance visible? Thanks for your detailed descriptions!

[@joepreterotti7963]

Thank you for sharing this terrific NHRR information that brought many good memories from my Stamford childhood many years ago. As a Lionel Train fan that my dad started me with, I was always interested in trains. Mom would drive my Dad and me to the old grand historic classic and majestically designed looking Stamford Station with character, so he could take the train to commute to NY City to his job. It’s too bad that the old train station was subsequently replaced with a more very sterile, boring looking contemporary concrete and glass station. I remember there was a rail siding adjacent to this station for mail bags to be loaded into and unloaded from mail rail cars into trucks, and maybe for REA shipments too. Next to this Station, there was a freight yard with team tracks for freight car loadings and unloadings by local manufacturers, like Cutex Nail Polish Company in Stamford, that my dad once drove their trucks to. There was also a train maintenance shop in this rail yard too. Part of the RR yard rails also exited over the nearby street, where freight cars could be spotted on rail sidings to various industries and warehouses, like Clairol Hair Products, and a liquor warehouse with an inside rail siding for box cars to be spotted. In that same area, there was also a separate area of a flat parking lot by the adjacent water canal for having access to ships or barges. Nearby was a asphalt plant, and a metals junk yard, where old cars were taken to be scrapped and shipped from. Also in that same industrial area, there was a huge several story Yale & Towne Lock factory with many employees, for about 100 plus years, that had rail siding locations inside it for freight rail service. The rails also went down the nearby Canal Street and into their factory sidings. Eventually the rails were paved over, as this company closed their factory after a Union Strike, and moved to new Ohio location. The NHRR freight service was used mainly before Interstate 95 was built right nearby by. This old rail yard still exists as a maintenance yard and shop for the Metro North passenger trains today.

[@joepreterotti7963]

Due to local support, 2 buildings at the local historically designated, Yale & Towne Factory, were remodeled into beautiful rental apartments, and is close to the Stamford Train Station. Up and down this NHRR line, there were other many several train stations, like New Rochelle, NY, and factory rail sidings off of it, like the Electrolux Vacuum Factory in Old Greenwich had, until it was demolished years ago, for their property being developed for High End Residential Condominiums. There were other branch lines in the Stamford area with passenger and freight services nearby too. Glenbrook Line has a branch station, and there is an old historic several story factory building that made Phillips Milk of Magnesia there, and had 2 rail track sidings next to their 2 loading docks by their building. This Company closed and moved elsewhere. Part of the freight tracks going from this branch line going onto their property, have been removed and developed into a big Satellite 📡 Dish area to replace it. The 2 parallel tracks on the factory loading dock siding area, still exists, but is no longer used for rail service. This rail siding is used for truck service for the buildings industrial tenants now.

[@robertkline2744]

Love the Berko footage..could watch his presentations for hours!

[@PowerTrain611]

Just goes to show, shoot it today, tomorrow it might be gone... wonderful footage!

[@markmboles]

Thanks for digitizing! FYI, the FL-9 diesels ran for the Metro North Commuter RR until about 2012. There are still several in operating condition scattered around the country, too.

[@markfloriojr.2170]

We had so many of those FL-9s in our boneyard for the c-dot shop in new haven CT.

[@markfloriojr.2170]

We also had about 10 or 12 SPV's but they have since been sold or scrapped.

[@mossmiller]

Last FL-9 in revenue service on the Danbury branch was in May, 2008. Ran as mid-day shuttle to South Norwalk. I had just gotten a new job at Merritt 7 and watched the trains go right by my window.

[@Harveycartoonlvr11]

That TRIANGULAR CATENARY , it is what set New Haven apart from all other railroads that operated under wires! :)

[@SpeedGraphicFilmVideo]

Saxiesax 2 means the wires themselves. Most systems have only two wires, an upper and a lower. But the NH used three wires, two upper and one lower.

[@philvaclavik6890]

The 1920s South Shore RR had that style of cantenarys as well. Those early cars were made by Pullman

[@planetmongocommoditiesexch9079]

Priceless.

[@ra0929]

Thank you for this, shots of the Mt Vernon train station are nearly impossible to come by.

[@intercity1971]

Very interesting and beautiful video! 👏👏👏👏

[@trainsupporter9088]

Great video! Another of my favorite railroads!

[@MoonwolfeConsulting]

Fond memories of childhood railfanning.

[@fleetwin1]

So cool, love the FL9s

[@michaela.chmieloski3196]

In the opening sequences of both this and Mr. Berko's New York Central footage taken at 96th Street, the same beige station wagon is double-parked on Park Avenue. 0:45 Glimpse of a wrong-way driver going north. At 125th Street Station, the same white-shirted individual idles on the platform.

[@CODMarioWarfare]

Wow, the ground-level platforms are surreal

[@donk499]

So cool!

[@mossmiller]

The washboards had very quick acceleration, but once up to cruising speed the ride got somewhat bouncy. Best was a new stainless Pullman coach pulled by a FL-9 diesel or EP-5 (see 7:55 on the film), which they would sometimes use as a "local-express" to New Haven or Springfield, as I lived in Westport in the 60s. Otherwise, most diesels pulled the black commuter coaches with the orange markings. The oldest MUs only ran as far as Stamford, I never rode those to Westport. There was lots of action trackside, as many freights ran on the mainline, some as long as 90 cars.

[@joepreterotti7963]

Thank you for sharing your information. Brings back good memories from my yesteryear days as a boy growing up the local area too. I remember these NHRR passenger and long freight trains passing by in our local area.

[@donk499]

@@joepreterotti7963 Westport also, those trains were a big part of my life. Many older relatives commuted to Manhattan daily...

[@SpeedGraphicFilmVideo]

2:12 Of all the cars going by on State Street, I see just one (a VW) that wasn't made in Detroit.

[@electrolytics]

Yes indeed.

[@bogthing1]

Yeah, wasn't until the seventies when everything changed

[@WesternOhioInterurbanHistory]

awesome

[@JeffreyOrnstein]

Very good!

[@Mnrr6131]

Dis is awesome

[@johnyessis4906]

Yes

[@mattlechner8442]

trains are an important part of the success of the Tri-State region, plus fun ,,,,

[@svenmartin840]

I can only imagine. If the New York Central had merged. With then the Norfolk and Western. In 1962. And had prevented the Penn Central disaster

[@buddmetroliner200gaming3]

Is there any first geniration new haven railroad electric units saved

[@ryanpoggioli8602]

Does anyone know how frequent commuter service was on the current New Haven Line back then? Was long-haul service more prevalent than today or likewise?

[@jameslambeth6763]

Katenary? It's Catenary

[@buddmetroliner200gaming3]

Is there a sound audio version of it

[@SpeedGraphicFilmVideo]

Sorry, but no. Sound film equipment was bulky and expensive.

[@buddmetroliner200gaming3]

Did the first gen new haven electric units had loud motors did u hear any of their motors​@@SpeedGraphicFilmVideo

[@vandanerisgomes9009]

Muito bom

[@jaymorgenthal9479]

The stone abutment in Stamford looks exactly the same in 2021, just a bit dirtier

[@joepreterotti7963]

Thanks for sharing that great memory. The King’s Advertisement on the steel Railroad Bridge in that stone abutment area, reminded me of when I saw it as a young boy. My family would drive under that RR Bridge, and go shopping at the discount dumpy looking King’s Department Store, that was located in one of the old industrial buildings on the South Side of Downtown Stamford. King’s is no longer there, but I believe that same building exists in that property today. It was near the old Yale & Towne Factory, and might have been started in 1 of their old factory buildings. That area has kept some same buildings, but that area has also developed into a more modern residential developments, and also some of the area was razed to build a new wider street to get to the Train Station faster. It seemed to help reduce some of the blight and crime in that area. I think there are still old row houses that still exist in that same area, that the old Yale & Towne Factory workers lived in many years ago too.

[@staciegarnett-cook7324]

How did the new haven get trains on to the main line into Grand Central on The New York central

[@SpeedGraphicFilmVideo]

The same way the New Haven line gets into GCT today--the Hudson, Harlem and New Haven lines merge just north of where the tracks cross the Harlem River. The NH trains switch from 11k overhead to 600v third rail at that point.

[@joepreterotti7963]

I remember when my dad took me to NY City on the NHRR passenger cars back then, when the train power changed and coasted a few seconds, and the air conditioning stopped during that brief period of time. I remember looking out the train window, and seeing the Y, in the Bronx, where the 3 Rail Lines met to continue into Grand Central Station at the end of the line.

[@jaymorgenthal9479]

@@SpeedGraphicFilmVideo The New Haven line merges with the Harlem line just north of Woodlawn station . They would raise their pans to switch to 11KV . In the early 2000’s Metro North extended the third rail to Pelham and took the wires down . The switch over to AC is now at Pelham.

[@Bob.W.]

1st view. 1st like. Thanks.

[@RenaissancePeopleNYC]

Lousy film - every time the train starts to pass the shot cuts off!