Friends of Cedar Hill Yard

06/10/2026

Just wanna let everybody know we had another awesome meeting with Townhall today. We feel confident on the direction that we’re looking to move forward and we wanted to tell everybody keep an eye out for more to come.

 And we appreciate everybody support we promise not to let you down 

 Founder-

06/10/2026

News and review With the New Haven 🥳

Folks,
Our next issue of our Shoreliner, Volume 47 Issue 1, has been uploaded to our printer. It should be going out to our members shortly. If you aren't a member, please join today!

06/10/2026

A Friend Of Cedar Hill Yard dedication

We would like to thank John Lee for sharing his collection of map on the Poughkeepsie area awesome. I appreciate you sharing the photos

John Lee

Here a few maps. Enjoy.

Friends-

06/07/2026

We are heading back to Poughkeepsie .

These photos are recently sent to me. The only thing I had on them that they were from the mid 70s, but besides that I don’t really have any other information about him and that person doesn’t really know much about it either so I think these are passed down to their grandfather’s so what I think is fasting about these photos. We haven’t seen new Poughkeepsie railroad Bridge photos in a while so it’s nice to see a whole new set come out so we definitely wanna post this as part of our Maybrook series but definitely keep an eye out for more to come

 Friends 

06/07/2026

Rails on the way to Maybrook yard,.

since we’ve also been talking about the Maybrook Gateway in the Western connection, with all these foreign invaders let’s take a trip back up to Maybrook line we are heading over to Hopewell Junction and see what it looks like over there .

Penn Central has also invaded the fleet .

 Penn Central GP-9 7549, ex New Haven 1219 is assigned to a work train on the Beacon Secondary Track at Hopewell Junction, NY in 1970.

The track between here and Beacon, NY is being upgraded as part of a new through route between Cedar Hill, Ct. and Selkirk, NY

06/07/2026

And on that note, it’s time to head back to the roundhouse, but all is not well with the New Haven with black locomotives invading their roster ,..



Penn Central Engine Yard at Cedar Hill, 1971

The old coaling tower at New Haven's Cedar Hill yard dominates the view back toward New Haven.

The Springfield line branches to the right:; you can see where the old New Haven catenary system ends. The line to Boston diverges to the right.

Today, Amtrak's line to Boston is completely electrified and the Springfield branch is being upgraded to support higher-speed train service.

But almost no trace of New Haven's locomotive yard remains today.

06/05/2026

PART 2: Step Outside the Office and Into the Action (Maybrook West Yards, 1912)

Now that we’ve seen the rare inner workings of the C.N.E. office from our last post, let’s step out the front door and look at what those officials were actually managing.

Take a look at this incredible companion piece: The West Yards of the C.N.E.R.R. in Maybrook, NY, postmarked exactly March 12, 1912.

What makes this legacy photo pure gold for rail historians is its incredible backstory.

This actual postcard was sent 114 years ago to a man named George Gidley down in Hopewell Junction, NY—another crucial hub on the line.Did you know how massive this operation truly was at its peak?

This photo captures the absolute prime era of the western connection. When you look at these tracks, you are looking at the vital pipeline that fed freight directly across the Poughkeepsie Bridge and straight into our own Cedar Hill Yard.

Before the devastating 1974 bridge fire cut this artery forever, this exact view was a bustling, smoky hive of steam, steel, and non-stop movement.

Seeing the quiet interior office alongside this sprawling exterior yard really puts the whole puzzle together.

It shows the incredible scale of what it took to run the railroad back at the turn of the century.George Gidley held this postcard in his hands in 1912.

Today, we get to look at it and remember the legacy.

Does anyone recognize any specific building footprints or track layouts in this shot?

If you have any history on George Gidley or the Hopewell connection, drop it in the comments!

👇 #1912

06/05/2026

Did you know that interior photos of railroad offices from the turn of the 20th century are among the rarest transit artifacts in existence?

Take a close look at this incredible piece of history. This is the Interior C.N.E. (Central New England) Office in Maybrook, NY, captured right around 1907.

Behind that faint, illegible postmark, minor edge wear, and the tiny century-old crease in the corner lies a vanished world. This wasn't just any office—this was the brain of the western gateway.

Long before computers or modern dispatching, these are the exact desks where railroad officials and clerks hand-wrote the logs, tapped out telegraphs, and pulled the operational strings that kept the traffic flowing straight toward us at Cedar Hill.

It’s easy to focus on the steel and the steam, but it was the intense human hustle inside rooms exactly like this that made the whole network possible before the Poughkeepsie Bridge fire changed everything forever.

Zoom in on the details of this office.

What is the most fascinating thing you notice about how railroad officials worked back in the early 1900s?

Drop your thoughts in the comments below!

👇

05/28/2026

Let's Talk Science & Regulations:

Why Our 85-Foot Measurement Matters

Following up on our update about the 1980s "ghost road," we want to dive into the environmental reality of why our "soft-touch," garden-style approach is the only correct way to manage our new Waterfront Park.

The Photo Proof (See the Measurement Below!)We took a tape measure out to the site and documented the distance from the current shoreline to the property line.

As you can see in the photo, it measures exactly 85 feet.🛑 The 100-Foot "No Man's Land" ZoneWhy is that 85-foot number such a big deal?

Under the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and state wetlands regulations, there is a strict 100-foot critical buffer zone along tidal waters and riverfronts.

The Law:

This 100-foot zone is heavily protected to prevent erosion, shield wildlife, and preserve water quality. Heavy construction, paving, or building actual roads here is heavily restricted.

The Conflict:

The Town's legacy 1980s landfill road proposal falls directly into this 100-foot zone. Because the Quinnipiac River has eroded over the decades, that old road plan is now legally underwater or completely inside this protected buffer.

🤝 Seeking Advisory from RegulatorsBecause we are committed to doing this accurately and professionally, we are not going to guess or cut corners.

The smartest move right now is to work with the regulations, not against them.

Our next step is to seek formal regulatory advisory from DEEP and local inland wetland officials. We want to show them our exact 85-foot photo proof, along with our upcoming professional survey data, to confirm that a road can never exist here today.

By getting advisory from the state regulators early, we ensure our plans for a low-impact, mowed walking trail are 100% compliant, environmentally sound, and protected from future red tape.

We are doing the heavy homework now so that when we open the trail, it is built on a rock-solid, legal foundation.

Stay tuned as we work with the regulators to bring this park to life!

05/28/2026

Cedar Hill Yard Restoration:

Uncovering an Unseen Waterfront Mystery!

When you do your homework thoroughly, you occasionally dig up some fascinating local history!

As we finalize our plans for the Cedar Hill Yard Waterfront Park at 200 and 300 Universal Drive, we are committed to doing things 100% accurately, honestly, and professionally.

We want to keep all of our supporters completely in the loop on our progress, which is why we are pulling back the curtain on a unique puzzle we just uncovered at Town Hall.

The Official Records vs. The Ground-Level Reality (See Photos Below!)

Photo 1 (The Blueprint Mystery): Look closely at this official Town property card. It shows an 8-foot-wide, 500-foot-long strip of Town land cutting right between our properties. This was purchased back in the 1980s for a proposed landfill access road that was never actually built.

Photo 2 (The Eye in the Sky): This Google Earth satellite view shows the exact same spot today. As you can see, the road doesn't exist! It’s nothing but dense, green trees and virgin land.

Photos 3 & 4 (Ground Zero): These are actual photos taken from the exact spot where the road is supposed to be. Looking North and looking South, you can see it is entirely untouched nature sitting right on the edge of the Quinnipiac River.

Why We are Stepping Back to Move ForwardOn paper, 95% of our entire restoration project is fully completed (including our future Railroad Restoration Park and Restoration Museum), and we are currently putting the final touches on our architectural site concepts.

However, we can't just ignore this "ghost road" on the map.Because the river has naturally eroded over the last 40 years, this 8-foot strip now sits just 80 feet from the shoreline—placing it right inside the strict CT DEEP 100-foot environmental safety buffer zone. Legally, a road can never be built here today, making this strip completely obsolete.To ensure our future garden-style walking trail is fully protected and seamless, we aren't letting our foot off the gas. Instead, we are using the month of June to conduct professional discovery.

Our July 1st Goal:

We are bringing a professional surveyor out to this 500-foot stretch to physically locate and pin exactly where this old boundary sits. Our goal is to have this entire discovery stage wrapped up by July 1st.

Once the survey is in hand, we will sit down at our next Board meeting, finalize our low-impact plan, and present it directly to Town Hall so we can collaboratively "close the scab" on this forgotten piece of land.We aren't just building a park; we are documenting the history of the land to do it right.

Thank you for standing by us as we solve the mystery and clear the tracks for a spectacular launch!