Connecticut Valley Railroad State Park

Connecticut Valley Railroad State Park

Connecticut State Park

136 acres in Essex, CT

Parking: Medium sized lot near 1 Railroad Ave, Essex, CT

Park Map          Trails: None           Rating: Unexplored

This is a partial/incomplete page as I have not yet explored Connecticut Valley Railroad State Park.

History:

Established as a state park in 1971 though this didn’t make it into popular awareness until the early 2000s.

The last commuter train to Hartford was in 1933.

The New Haven Railroad Company went bankrupt in 1961 and in 1968 the last Connecticut Valley Railroad freight train ran through Essex, Deep River and Chester.  Penn Central briefly took the railway over, but that lasted less than a year.

On August 15th, 1969 Penn Central turned over the Valley Railroad to the state of Connecticut and on June 1st, 1970 to a new company formed by a group of volunteers to operate the line for recreation use.  The first recreational steam train chugged out of the station on July 29th, 1971.

Links:

• Essex Steam Train Official Site
• Friends of Valley Railroad
• CTMQ – Essex Steam Train (2007)

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