The New Haven Railroad, The New York, New Haven & Hartford

The New Haven Railroad, its complete name the New York New Haven and Hartford (or NYNH&H), was a mid-sized Northeastern railroad that is best remembered for moving more people than freight (interestingly it derived a good portion of its revenues from commuter services). At its peak the New Haven Railroad stretched across most of New England (even owning the Maine Central and Boston & Maine railroads) and served its largest cities from Boston and Providence to New York City. In the end, however, poor management would cost the railroad by the mid-20th century and forced it into bankruptcy by the 1960s. In an interesting twist as a condition of the merger the NH was forced into the ill-fated Penn Central Corporation and disappeared into Conrail in 1976 after PC and the entire Northeastern rail market collapsed.

The New Haven Railroad’s predominant predecessors were the Hartford & New Haven Railroad and the New York & New Haven. The H&NH had its beginnings in 1833 and connected New Haven, Connecticut with Springfield, Connecticut (via Hartford). The NY&NH was built to connect its two namesake cities. Naturally operating so close to one another these two lines became rivals although ironically they would merge in 1872 to form the historic New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.

While the New Haven Railroad did have a few bankruptcies over the years it did well through the first part of the 20th century. In terms of freight the biggest problem for the railroad was the fact that it served markets extremely close to together, the result of which was short-haul freight, something not very profitable (typically, the longer haul, the more profitable).

Through World War II, following its bankruptcy during the Great Depression era, the NYNH&H did quite well under the guidance of Howard Palmer, who did away with unprofitable ventures (such as its steamship and bus services) and quickly switched to diesel and electric locomotive operation in place of steam locomotives.

However, following the 1948 takeover of the company by Frederic Dumaine and Patrick McGinnis, the New Haven Railroad had little hope of ever remaining profitable again. Under their “pencil pusher” leadership they slashed costs wherever possible (taking this to extremes whereby it hurt the company more than it helped), cut down the work force laying off even the most veteran workers, and began deferring maintenance to save costs. Such tactics typically only work for a short period of time and it did not take the deferred maintenance and other “cost savings” ideas long to begin to affect the railroad in a negative way.

In 1956 the New Haven Railroad directors had had enough of the McGinnis and Dumaine leadership and replaced them with George Alpert. However, along with the failed ideas of the previous leadership, a freight and passenger market that was drying up, and a Northeast rail market that was too heavily populated to support all of the railroads in place Alpert had a very hard time keeping the railroad profitable and the New Haven went bankrupt in 1961.

Unfortunately, aside from the fact that the Penn Central was not only unplanned but also entirely a bad idea, both the NYC and PRR were in no shape to take on a railroad as destitute as both were, particularly a marginal carrier like the NYNH&H.

On merger day chaos ensued and the new PC literally began to fall apart from the very beginning. To make matters worse the NYC and PRR could not have had more opposite corporate cultures. The management of the New York Central System was more laid back, open to new ideas, and the chain of command was “loose” so to speak (one reason for its renewed success in the 1950s under Pearlman) whereas the PRR was extremely strict, new ideas were shunned and looked down on (the railroad was still using practices that had been out-dated since the 19th century!), and orders came down through the chain of command. Naturally, then, these two management teams did not get along at all and pure hell and pandemonium resulted across the entire system.

The PC was loosing over $1 million a day and trains were becoming lost throughout the system, as dispatchers were not properly trained on how to dispatch their trains. To make matters worse as the red ink began to become an unstoppable flash flood maintenance was deferred and derailments became the norm with large sections of main line reduced to 10 mph slow orders.

After only two years of operation and financial assistance completely gone, the destitute Penn Central officially declared bankruptcy on June 21, 1970. The result of this was a ripple effect throughout the entire Northeast, as other railroads, which depended on the PC to ferry traffic, no longer had a means to move their freight. It became so bad that the Penn Central was facing total shutdown if financial assistance, any means of help at all, were not located.

Realizing the severity of the situation the federal government stepped and setup the Consolidated Rail Corporation, which comprised the skeletons of several bankrupt Northeastern carriers, and began operations on April 1, 1976. With federal backing Conrail began to slowly pull out of the red ink (it took many years) and by the late 1980s was a profitable railroad after thousands of miles of access trackage was abandoned and/or upgraded.

Today the New Haven Railroad main line continues to be an important link to both freight and passengers between Boston and New York, especially Amtrak where the line is part of the carrier’s Northeast Corridor (or NEC for short). On an even brighter note the old “McGinnis” New Haven livery (perhaps the best thing to come from his leadership) has reemerged under the Connecticut Department of Transportation local commuter service operations. Certainly something worth seeing if you are in the area!

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For an all-time diesel locomotive roster of the New Haven Railroad please click here. Also, for an excellent listing of EMD-built diesel locomotives, including those owned by the NYNH&H please click here. Lastly, please click here to locate preserved NYNH&H diesel locomotives.

The American Locomotive Company

Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton

Electro-Motive Division

Fairbanks Morse

General Electric

For a more complete roster of New Haven Railroad steam locomotives please click here. Also, for information regarding surviving NYNH&H steam locomotives please click here.

Notable New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Passenger Trains

Bankers: (New York - Springfield)

Bay State: (New York - Boston)

Berkshires: (New York - Pittsfield)

Bostonian: (New York - Boston)

Colonial: (New York - Philadelphia)

Commander: (New York - Boston)

Day Cape Codder: (New York - Hyannis/Woods Hole)

Day White Mountains: (New York - Berlin, New Hampshire)

Federal: (New York - Philadelphia)

Forty-Second Street: (New York - Boston)

Gilt Edge: (New York - Boston)

Hell Gate Express: (New York - Boston)

Merchants Limited: (New York - Boston)

Montrealer: (New York - Montreal)

Murray Hill: (New York - Boston)

Narragansett: (New York - Boston)

Nathan Hale: (New York - Springfield)

Naugatuck: (New York - Winsted)

New Yorker: (New York - Boston)

Night Cap: (New York - Stamford, Connecticut)

Owl: (New York - Boston)

Patriot: (New York - Philadelphia)

Pilgrim: (New York - Philadelphia)

Puritan: (New York - Boston)

Quaker: (New York - Philadelphia)

Roger Williams: (New York - Boston)

Senator: (New York - Philadelphia)

Shoreliner: (New York - Boston)

State of Maine: (New York - Portland, Maine)

Washingtonian: (Montreal - Washington)

William Penn: (New York - Philadelphia)

Yankee Clipper: (New York - Boston)

(A deep thanks to the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University for allowing Ron Nixon's historic collection of the New Haven Railroad to be featured here.)

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