Nostalgia & History > NW Connecticut Archeology I: Stoney Lonesome

The line built by the Connecticut Western from Winsted to Canaan in northwestern Connecticut passed through some difficult territory around Norfolk. One such place was a deep cut through the rocky flank of a mountain in West Norfolk. This was called "Stoney Lonesome."

The roadbed is now maintained as a hiking/skiing trail by the Norfolk Land Trust. The Stoney Lonesome can be reached after about a half-mile hike west from where the trail crosses Ashpohtag Road in West Norfolk.

On March 8, 1882, the Stoney Lonesome was the site of a derailment (the line was then known as the Hartford and Connecticut Western; it had to be re-organized after a bridge collapse disaster in Tariffville a few years earlier). A large boulder fell on the tracks, and locomotive #7 derailed and went down the embankment. Supposedly, there is still a bolt in the rocks used to winch the locomotive back up during its recovery, but I was not able to find it.

No skiers were on the trail Saturday - the only earlier tracks through the cut (Picture #1) were a set of deer tracks.

Ray



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/15 17:48 by Ray_Murphy.

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Bless you for not using the term "necrofoaming."

aehouse Wrote:
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> Bless you for not using the term "necrofoaming."

I'm not a particular fan of cutesy neologisms.

Ray

The CNE was a significant freight carrier into the early 1900s. It would be interesting to speculate what might have happened had it fallen into the clutches of Erie or B&M. Adding a third player in that market would have a change.