Q. What hours were most small town stations open?
A. Small town stations with just the agent as employee were normally open for eight daytime hours that best coincided with customer need and the movement of trains. Some small stations were open for two shifts, called "tricks" on a railroad, and some were open continuously. The reason for more than one trick was normally to provide for the safe movement of trains rather than to be open to the community, the exception being if passenger trains stopped to entrain passengers at widely spread hours.
Q. What was the most important appliance in most small town stations?
A. The Train Order or Block Signal that rose high over the station roof and station platform. Operated by the station agent upon instruction of the Train Dispatcher (who was in an office many miles away), the signal protected the movement of trains on the single track passing in front of the station.
Q. How did passengers at a small town station know when their train was coming?
A. Trains ran on a printed schedule called a timetable and, years ago, trains ran on time. You could set your watch by them. As train time approached, most waiting passengers would move to the station platform. The train whistling for a nearby street crossing would announce that it was coming, or, the head light of the locomotive would appear far down the track. At some stations on some railroads, a nearby trackside signal would light up indicating the presence of a train close by (which was a benefit but not the purpose of the signal and learned by savvy travelers).
Q. The first _____ station in Hartford stood at the corner of Spruce and Asylum Streets.
A. Union.
Q. President Grover Cleveland had a Summer Whitehouse on Cape Cod in 1885-1897. This was mile from Buzzards Bay on the line to Falmouth. A station was built near this house for his use. What was the name of his house and the station (they are the same)?
A. Gray Gables.
Q. What major New Haven Railroad station had a fully operating, 24-hour Roman Catholic church for travelers, railroad employees, and the public?
A. Boston's South Station. "Our Lady of the Railways" chapel was established by the Archdiocese of Boston in the early 1950's. Daily Mass was offered and the chapel was staffed by a full-time priest. A New Haven Railroad locomotive bell was mounted on a pedestal outside the chapel's station concourse entrance and rung to announce services. The chapel was built in space previously occupied by a 24-hour newsreel theater which had been abandoned.
Q. One active small town New England station today has the highest train speeds past its platforms of any station of any size in North America. What station is it, and how fast the trains?
A. Mansfield, Massachusetts; 150 mph track speed.
Q. How many railroad stations (not including freestanding commuter platforms and shelters) survive in southern New England today?
A. 337: 113 in Connecticut, 204 in Massachusetts and 20 in Rhode Island.
Q. What type of railroad structure does the Dodd Research Center resemble (from the front of the building)?
A. A roundhouse (the building for engines). See here for a photograph of the Dodd Research Center.
Q. Where can I learn more about railroad stations in southern New England?
A. The Railroad Station Historical Society, at http://www.rrshs.org/ and the Railroad History Archive at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, at http://railroads.uconn.edu/
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