Now disintegrating ruins, brush-grown and obscure, and ghostly chimneys mark deserted forges and crumbling old mill-dams where an iron industry was born. Stately houses grace the landscape and old Ionic churches with spires like silver knives rise into the skies where Borden's largest condensed Milk Factory busily spends its time.

Torrington,Connecticut

And here in the quit seclusion of meadows, fast by the forests and pastures, Gail Borden discovered the way to condense milk---so that Civil War soldiers and milk-starved babies were fed.

Within Tom Curtin's 1979 Shoreliner article on the Berkshire Line, there is a 1936 photo of an I-2 and two milk cars at Danbury, Connecticut. The caption notes that the I-2 and milk cars have just been cut off train 141. Train 141, the Berkshire Express, was the daily except Sunday that left Pittsfield, Mass in the early a.m. and arrived at GCT before noon. The I-2 in the photo has been cut off at Danbury for the usual power change to a motor. Would someone shed some light on my following questions.

Where did these milk cars originate, were they possibly from the Bordens Creamery at Canaan, added to 141 at its twelve minute stop at Canaan? What was the destination of these milk cars after being cut off in Danbury? What train would have returned the milk cars to their origin for re-loading? Was this a daily turn, how long past 1936 did this milk service continue on the Berkshire?

There's an incredibly detailed thread about this in Archive 3 on page 15. It's the thread called "NH op's on the berkshiresline in ct?". Apparently the search feature hasn't worked in the archives since the hacker attack over Memorial Day weekend, so I found it the old-fashioned way.

The last car of bottled cream out of the Borden's Plant in Canaan was somewhere between August 25th and September 29th, 1940. The timetables that I have for both dates show the timings in and out of Canaan. Trains #141 weekday mornings and #139 on Sunday mornings spent twelve minutes picking up this car which was headed for New York City. There was no Canaan layover time shown in the September 29th issue nor for any thereafter. Although I am not sure, I will stick my neck out and say that this was the end of any kind of dairy product service on the Berkshire. Hope this helps...

---- except that it was not headed for NY City, since we see it coming off at Danbury. Unless, that is, it went through some convoluted move (This comment is purely throretical) in which it got awitched into #143 at Danbury later in the day; then got switched out at Stamford, and then later switched into some Penn-bound train. #143 routinely switched out an express car [bound for Washington] at Stamford, which #141 did not. If that milk car was indeed consigned to NY City I can more likely picture it going to Penn than to GCT --- this, simply because I can't imagine milk being unloaded in GCT; but I can imagine such a thing happening at Sunnyside. In any event, you have a most interesting question here.

Thanks to efforts made by Pete McLachlan (hopefully, no explanation is needed on who he is), the mystery of where the car of Borden's bottled cream (sent out of Canaan each and every day in the mid to late 1930's on trains #139 and #141) wound up after arriving mid-morning in Danbury has been solved. That is, as far as it's travels over rails of the New Haven RR is concerned. It turns out that this car was taken by local freight (on duty at 9:20am each day) out of Danbury over to Brewster where it was turned over to the NYC's Harlem Line for handling to a Borden's plant in the New York City area. Pete happened to have found this information in a 1938 NH RR "Arranged Freight Train Service" symbol book (Employee Edition) which I also found in a similar edition that I have for 1937. I will now try to find out how this car was handled by the NYC out of Brewster from a friend of mine who once worked on the Harlem. Stay Tuned--

I have heard from my NYC Harlem Line expert and he tells me that the milk car loaded with bottles of cream out of Canaan every day in the mid to late 1930's probably continued on in to New York City via freight KN-2. KN-2 was due out of Chatham at 10:25am and probably got to Brewster in the 4:00pm to 5:00pm time period. In the opposite direction, NK-1 was called to leave 60th Street at 12:30am which would have put it in to Brewster somewhere around 5:00am to 6:00am. The handling of this car (both loads and empties) to and from the New Haven interchange was probably done by the Putnam Junction yard switcher. Any questions? If not, I rest my case.

Thank you for the link to the interesting thread, I had not read this before and don't know how I missed it but made a copy of it this time. It looks conclusive that the milk cars in the fore mentioned 1936 photo did come from Bordens at Canaan and went to New York City through a connection with the NYC at Brewster, NY. The empties then returned to Brewster for interchange back to the New Haven. How did these cars return from Brewster to Canaan? Seems likely they returned to Danbury on the local. The local possibly exchanging more loaded milk cars for the empties at Brewster, bringing the empties back to Danbury yard. From Danbury I doubt that they returned to Canaan on a scheduled passenger train like 144, there is no layover at Canaan shown on the time table for them to be dropped. Also the milk cars would have had to be run around the wye to get to the creamery siding, and the rear of 144 may not be in the clear of the south leg of the wye. I think they may have returned on H-Q4 from Oak Point. Picked up at Danbury at 1:00 a.m. and dropped at the siding (Millers?) north of Canaan at 4:45 a.m. Possibly a local spotted them on the creamery siding some time during the day, after 141 picked up that days loads. Must have been quite a few cars involved in this rotation if this was a daily move! Were these milk cars iced at the creamery? Would they still be icing them in 1936 from stored ice harvested at the ice pond adjacent to the creamery?

I doubt they switched the milk cars out of a northbound passenger train at Canaan for another reason: none of the passenger power was allowed on the north leg of Canaan wye --- unless of course they switched onto one of the sidings north of the station. I see your comment that #144 did not show any timetable "dwell time" [to use the contemporary Amtrak term!] at Canaan. But was the same true of #140? I will cast my vote with the explanation that the empties probably worked their way back to Canaan via a collection of local freights running Brewster-Danbury-Canaan.