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 Norwich & Westerly Railway Co.

HE NORWICH & WESTERLY Railway Company came into being in 1903 as the Norwich, Mystic & Westerly street Railway Company, chartered by the General Assembly of Connecticut on May 11 of that year and authorized to build from Norwich through Preston, Ledyard, North Stonington and a corner of Stonington to White Rock at the Rhode Island state line. A branch was to extend from North Stonington to old Mystic and Mystic.

Incorporators included Costello Lippitt, William B. Young, Henry H. Gallup, Reuben S. Bartlett, Aaron Lucas and Edwin H. Knowles.

some two years passed before the company was ready to begin construction. During that time, the Groton & Stonington Street Railway—in which several of the Norwich, Mystic at westerly incorporators were interested—having been built, it was decided to build only from Norwich to White Rock and to forego the branch to Mystic. The name of the corporation was thus changed to the Norwich & Westerly Railway company. by order of the Supreme Court of the state on December 12, 1905, and construction was begun early in 1906.

To provided an entrance into Westerly, Rhode Island, for the Norwich & Westerly Railway, officials of that company organized the Westerly or Connecticut Railway, chartered by the Rhode Island legislature on March 13, 1906. It was authorized to build from the state line at white Rock into westerly and to connect with the Pawcatuck Valley Street Railway. The Westerly & Connecticut was wholly owned by the Norwich & Westerly and was leased to the latter immediately upon its completion.

At about the same time, arrangements were made with the Consolidated Railway in Norwich for trackage rights on Main Street from Franklin Square to Burnham Square, at the intersection of Main and North Main streets, at distance of .12 mile.

Construction

ONSTURCTION features of the Norwich & Westerly railway were described in detail in the street Railway Journal of April 13, 1907:

The line starts in this business district of Norwich, within a few feet oof the NYNH&HRR station, with which. however, it has no rail connection. On leaving the town (via Main street) the railway enters on its own righi—of-way, the public highway being used for only a small portion or the entire route between the main terminals.

The first station is adjacent to the State Hospital for the Insane, 3.4 miles from Norwich, which harbors several thousand patients. About a half mile further, there is a connection with the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad at the village of Fort Point.

The power station and carhousc are at Hallville (in Preston)—.4 mile from Poquetanuck on a large tract owned by the company. Part of this area is wooded and has a small river which, It present. is used for water supply only, but later will help to form an attractive lake for boating, as the company intends to have an amusement resort at this place

North Stonington, the most important town along the line, is 10.4 miles from the power station. Some 3.7 miles beyond North Stonington is the substation. From the latter, the distance to Westerly is only 2.1 miles, The total distance between the terminals is 21.6 miles.

The route of the Norwich & westerly practically paralleled the present Connecticut Route 2 (Norwich & Westerly) from Poquetanuck to North Stonington, although it ran over private right-of-way, and then tuned to the east or the highway for the remaining 4 miles to White Rock.

A wooden bridge carried tracks over the Pawcatuck River into westerly, the line continuing over private land. across Pierce street via a high steel trestle, to the corner or Pleasant and West streets. Extending through west

HEAVY INTERURBAN type like No. 6 shown here in from of the Westerly library was the Original equipment line. This is a rare View of an lnterurban car in service on the Ashaway line before car No. Z02 was leased from Worcester for that run. Bert Brown of the Norwich & Westerly is the motorman and the conductor is Ralph Stedman, shown here in a Pawcatuck Valley Street Railway Company uniform.