Nice site there. I think I stumbled across it before but got nowhere because forgot had to get rid of a pop-up blocker. I guessed the old station was in area of Home Depot/Shaws but never got into a real study as to street names. I don't have a guess as to where a photo might be found/seen. I've never seen one. Bridgeport Newspapers ? The day of opening celebration,etc?? LONG SEARCH. I see a park across from Beardsley Park...that still there ? ya know..that cemetery...actually a nice place...I went there a couple years back on a hot day and it's like an unknown park in an urban area...nice in there....I don't think that 'pond' still exists'. I think the cemetery even got shrunk by rt 8/25. On east side of cemetery there is a fence and one can still see/find old ties.

o--cemetery...nice place but spend the night ? I don't remember stadtler's park, which is no longer there, at all. home depot and shaws and rte 8/25 are there and i think you are correct about them shaving off some of park cemetery as i compare the maps. the cemetery is a neat place and ironically the beginning of my interest in railroad archaeology. some 40 years ago i was admiring the monuments in the cemetery and walking around in there with my sister and the groundskeeper started following us like we were up to no good. so we thumbed our noses and hopped through the fence you mention down onto the housy track which was then still in place across reservoir ave and a little beyond i guess to where carson st is on the map, which ironically is where the no. bpt depot once stood though it was not there in the late 60s. the r/o/w looked as though it continued so we got some old maps and started 'tracking it' through the old quarry (i have pix) where the trumbull marquis theaters are now, across the parkway on the only-once-used rr. bridge (aka rocky hill rd), all the way to botsford. and thence all over the state. the rest is history! It would be very cool to get a pic of the no. bpt station. sounds like a trip to bpt. p.l. is in order. Interesting.

I still remember walking the tracks south of Pepper Crossing as a 'younger person'. That's the way I like to walk old rr row's. Paved bike trails ? I think half the rails had nothing holding them down anymore. Then one day the scrap company came around.... I never spent any time in Bridgeport and don't remember anything except seeing rails in streets in east Bridgeport and business along Railroad Avenue. There was one customer I remember on the line going out to Sikorsky. The rails (Housatonic) ended at that Hi-Ho facility. I remember seeing one Penn Central train on that line.

I remember as a kid walking the row in north Trumbull (?) Back then still all kinds of railroad 'evidence'. There was a 'blue hiking trail' from downtown Trumbull north that I think crossed the row. (Paugusett (?) Trail... I saw one topo map somewhere where the line ended from Bridgeport north at a Quarry. I got curious maybe there was quarry business before tracks pulled a couple more miles ?

Last use of that Bridge was in construction of the Parkway ?? The bridge ? (parkway) I think there is/was a grand plan of a bike trail complete to old Bridgeport Station area. North Avenue---that storage facility that built on row ?? Wonder why they never opened ? o--the Bridgeport Station... It was a grim place the last I was there. More wino's then other people ? North Bridgeport I guess was a 'stop' for quite a number of years and one would not expect anything 'grand' but there must have been 'something'. I 'WAS' surprised by that cemetery. One could go in there and have a cold six-pack on a hot day and go to sleep. At least when I was there it was like an 'unknown park'. Even a nice place to walk around. Other cemeteries are not so ? Mt.Grove 'grand' but hang around and nobody bug you ?

Straying...90 acres Park...Once it was lively..wonder what happened.... Bridgeport Library. All I ever saw were a few files with some clippings but nothing much on railroad anything or trolley. I think they have old Microfilm of Bridgeport newspaper. hey..would love to see any old Bridgeport photo's rr related...

Hey..once they used 'tracks' everywhere. I might have burned out 'known places'. What about under ground ?? (not cemetery--he-he) I remember once seeing a picture of some area reservoir construction and rr tracks. I guess all mines had such.

I thought I read somewhere sometime that the once-only railroad use of that bridge on bpt/trumbull line over the merritt pkwy (built 1937-8?) was to run farther north for some one-time delivery or emergency. i may have a newspaper article somewhere. The reason the state supposedly refused to construct a bridge over the wilbur cross pkwy in orange for the new haven & derby line ca 1940 was that it had gotten burned with the housy bridge earlier not being used and the line to botsford being abandoned shortly thereafter. This may have been the last wise decision the ct highway dept/dot ever made! already doomed and thus severed, the nh&d was ripped out from derby jct to the west river wye.

Not to beat a dead subject nor to try to enlighten those more brainy than me but Bridgeport ? Or anywhere ?? Besides library and old publications City Hall ?? Sometimes much can be there such as old tax records and maps. I think by theory all is 'public information'. BUT---the problem is access to such.... Like..who are you ?? Who says you can see our records ?? I used to go through this in Maine. (and elsewhere) Deny looking at records ?? Complain to Attorney General. Next visit they kiss your ----- An idea anyways.

Access to public documents (tax maps, etc.) should never be a problem except for the hassle of getting to wherever they are. All states, I believe, have some form of Freedom of Information Act or Right to Know Law. If a clerk hassles you, you merely elevate the issue over their head.

My 1923 public timetable shows three weekday trains each way between Bridgeport and Danbury, but no station listing for North Bridgeport. Does anyone know when the station was closed? The schedule does show a flag stop at "Pepper Crossing" between Stepney and Botsford. A photo of the tiny Pepper Crossing station is displayed at this link tinyurl.com/2e8tm3 Perhaps the North Bridgeport station may have been of similar style.

This is still a flag stop on my corrected-to- 7/15/1894 public tt. 2.21 mis from bpt. probably no real station building ever here, just a shed a la pepper s ? it is not in 6/4/1911 tt. so we are down to 1894-1911 as discontinuance of north bpt. any other tts out there??? interesting how these flag stops come and go. by public request, railroad initiative?? there is no pepper st. stop in 1894 or 1911 but there is in 1923. also interesting to compare mileages. trumbull is 5.7 mis from bpt in 1894 and 1911, but 5.3 mis in 1923. new station, 4-tracking/electrification causing trackage and mileage measurement changes in bpt 1905-14ish? i assume the railroad would post accurate mileages.

I recall many moons ago discussing the No. Bpt. station and its exact location. Even tried to find it myself once after having talked it over at length with other interested parties. Looking at the previous post has awakened an old memory, not yet proved, that when the NYNH&H took over the Housatonic (ca. 1892), and then later rebuilt the Bpt. depot and eliminated all grade crossings (1904-05), the No. Bpt. station (whatever it might have been) fell into disuse as the city industrialized and roadways northward were constructed. As far as timetable mileages go I'm sure they're on the mark .. but stations have been known to be relocated (or razed and then rebuilt). -any chance of saving those boxcars for some museum? Worth it?? Would present owner donate?

I wandered that whole area a few times the last few years trying to take some pictures but so many obstacles. #1-it's a 'high crime' area. #2-maybe somebody does not like cameras ? I'm gonna have to check Bridgeport Library again. That's even a nightmare. Open limited hours. No parking. Feed meters. Last time I got away with scanning some things from old newspaper articles but the lady who heads (?) the reference room I'd swear just wants to sell things. She had signs plastered everywhere once about fees per picture or some nonsense. Otherwise such 'delicate' things have to be protected from the public. My point is the material there was put there FOR THE PUBLIC supported by tax dollars. (not a private library,etc.) Forget photocopies unless something changed. The machines stink. Laptop and scanner.....

ok--an example...there were 2 lines going north.... Probably track is still in place. I've been unable to find access to walk/snoop. I guess hang around upper Seaview Avenue trying to figure out where the tracks are and access. Lovely neighborhood. As to lower Seaview I think nothing is left. I just get confused as to the 'ramps' (wording fine with me) off metro-north. I THINK I have seen it called Seaview Railroad and don't know years New Haven took over.(if they did) (did they ever to Remington and north ?)

The line out to Sikorsky (sp?) by the ocean. Years ? History ? (unknown?) ps..I'm not knocking anybodies 'neighborhood'. I just don't live there and not familiar with the 'territory'. I am weary of urban abandoned industrial areas. I have enough problems without stumbling across bodies. I guess I'm sounding strange by now)

If you look closely at the map (year?) in the link, you can make out the seaview ave rr, whatever it was actually called - there is a shoreliner article somewhere that talks about it - curving off the main northward and running west of seaview ave, just as walter described and as i vaguely remember, and going under boston avenue and ending at g.e., which took over that entire complex of buildings north of boston ave in 1920 from, guess who, remington arms. remington apparently just kept the barnum ave. complex thereafter. i also remember the southern line running down seaview, curving through jacob bros, and then across stratford ave on an southeasterly tangent into what was carpenter steel in my day but earlier was apparently stanley works, as in new britain, where i always thought they only were until now. good memory, walter! bpt public library is not a bad place to work. mary witkowski in the historical collections dept is very knowledgeable and helpful, as is her staff. i also know the head of reference, carol schwartz, and she is equally professional. maps up in the historical collection, especially from the price and lee city directories, would probably have enough detail to clarify all of this everybody needs to head to bridgeport, save those old box cars, and keep digging and posting! Check out shoreliner 28.3, p. 28. shows the southern line. not the most detail one could hope for but not bad. there was an earlier article about the electric power on this line and the mfrs rr. in new haven. i'm still looking.

The tracks to the 'north' are still there to the best of my knowledge.(not for long I'd guess) At those GE complexes it's all fenced in is it not ?? No way to photograph anything to the far north end ?? The tracks off metro-north to the north are 'walkable' but soon start going through abandoned industrial areas with some businesses still operating and making it impossible to snoop. Maybe one can reach the tracks at Boston Avenue south of the bridge ?? Is the Harding High School there ?? Maybe tracks are easy to reach just by crossing 'high school' property ?? Bridgeport Library ?? Maybe it's because I look like a crook. They did not want anybody to access anything old maybe with the excuse of it's too old and brittle (??) The photocopy machine could not even copy a topo map it was so bad.

Last time I brought a laptop computer and scanner and my interest at the time was the old Pleasure Beach Amusement Park and newspaper clippings. As far any 'railroad' 'folders' with old collected clippings I saw about nothing. As to MAPS I've yet to get into that. (Sanford?) I recall once they had a whole New England topo collection and some 'rr manuals' going back into the 1800's. I forget name. Poors ? Last time I asked zilch.

I was in Bridgeport last Sunday to visit the ABC Complete Home Makeover site on Holister Avenue and made a short detour to Seaview Avenue. I just drove around; did not leave the vehicle to walk and this is what I found. All of the trackage south of the 4 track main is gone.....all removed as the upgrading of lower Seaview/Stratford Avenue done by CONDOT and the DEP. The steelmill sight surely has trackage on it still, but there is no evevated vantage point to determine how much is still there, unless stopping on I95 northbound is an option, not mine! The tracks on the north side are still in place. Trackage coming down grade from the Eastend yard is still intact along with both legs of the switch as it crosses Seaview. The boxcars are not really visable from the road, due to many trees filling the area between. Winter will take care of the folliage and more discovery could be done then. The chainlink fence is still inplace, along the street, which eliminates any walking in.

The yard I mentioned, north of Barnum Avenue, is also sill in place, but is severely overgrown. In fact, where the tracks go under Boston Avenue, the trees have grown the 30 feet or so that brings the tops above the sides of the overpass. All of the buildings along this part of Seaview Ave, on the railroad side, haven't been occupied in at least 20 years and are imploding from deterioration. Harding High property is not an access point, since it is on the upperside of the street, opposite the buildings described. As a side note: there was a newspaper article a few years ago about the Remmington bunker property. It was turned over to the City of Bridgeport, about 15 years ago, when the company pulled out the last remaining pieces of the business. At the time of the article the city had only cleared some of the wooded areas and had not started any development of the property. I believe that the area was found to have significant chemical contamination from a hundred years or so of explosives storage.

This map shows everything in quite a bit of detail. the only odd thing is that the ramp and connection to the southbound leg of the seaview avenue rr is not shown. if you look closely you will see the track on the street with several sidings and a whole complex of tracks at the lowest end by the water (stanley works, later carpenter steel, now direktor shipyards?) On the north end tracks go way beyond g.e. up to remington woods as it is now called (remington bunker property?) where they used to test-fire ammunition and debase the property with lead (epa clean-up site?). There, of course, is another great state and local boondoggle going on now about the seaview avenue corridor up to the woods, which instead of being cleaned up and left as a natural area (the only one for miles) is being turned into industrial park/retail/residential(?)=big bucks and needs a new corridor approach, probably using the railroad underpass at boston avenue and ripping out that overgrown freight yard walter mentions opposite harding high school. of course, it will cost millions, especially depressing seaview ave under the mainline. this on top of ridiculous money redesigning the seaview/stratford/connecticut avenue interchange on i-95 into a confusing mess. plus eminent-domaining some hardworking unfortunates out of their homes. this when all those factories (remington, g.e.) etc. are sitting vacant and probably could be rehabbed for less $$. government at work with our money!!