The ''Berkshire'' was a

New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated principally in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to 1968. Founded by the merger of ...

('New Haven') named train running from

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal station, terminal located at 42nd Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York Ci ...

Pittsfield, Massachusetts Pittsfield is the most populous city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfi ...

. It was the longest-running north–south train in

Litchfield Hills The Litchfield Hills (also known as the Northwest Hills or Northwest Highlands) are a geographic region of the U.S. state of Connecticut located in the northwestern corner of the state. It is roughly coterminous with the boundaries of Litchfi ...

of western Connecticut and the

Berkshires The Berkshires () are highlands located in western Massachusetts and northwestern Connecticut in the United States. Generally, "Berkshires" may refer to the range of hills in Massachusetts that lie between the Housatonic and Connecticut River ...

of Massachusetts. From New York City it followed the

New Haven Line The New Haven Line is a commuter rail line operated by the Metro-North Railroad in the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and Connecticut. Running from New Haven, Connecticut, to New York City, the New Haven Line joins the Harlem Line ...

to South Norwalk, the

Danbury Line The Danbury Branch is a 23.9-mile (38 km) long branch line of the Metro-North Railroad's New Haven Line in the U.S. state of Connecticut, running from downtown Norwalk north to Danbury. All trains along the branch make stops at the line's ...

to Danbury and the

Berkshire Division The Housatonic Railroad ( ; ) is a Class III railroad operating in southwestern New England and eastern New York. It was chartered in 1983 to operate a short section of ex-New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in northwestern Connecticut, and ...

to Pittsfield. It began in the 1940s and ran until 1968. The train was preceded by the ''Berkshire Express,'' of c.1938-c.1943. It terminated at Pittsfield Union Station until 1960, when the New Haven moved it to another station in the city. While the route operated each day excepting Sunday, there were local stops unnamed trains available on Sundays. At peak years of post-World War II service the route was supplemented by other named trains for the New Haven's Berkshire Division route: ''Housatonic,'' ''Litchfield,'' ''Mahaiwe,'' ''Mahkeenac,'' ''Taconic.'' The route served as a path to country homes of New Yorkers, as well as to towns such as Canaan and New Milford in the transportation service-neglected northwest Connecticut, an area lacking

Interstate highways The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, or the Eisenhower Interstate System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National H ...

or major airports. The route south of Danbury Union Station towards

South Norwalk station South Norwalk station is a commuter rail station in Norwalk, Connecticut, served by the Metro-North Railroad's New Haven Line. It is owned and managed by the Norwalk Transit District. The station is the point where the New Haven Line's Danbury ...

was electrified until 1961. North from New Milford to Canaan, short of the Connecticut-Massachusetts state line, the route followed the

Housatonic River The Housatonic River ( ) is a river, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United ...

. In summer months the train made stops in

Lenox, Massachusetts Lenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is in Western Massachusetts and part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Pittsfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,095 at the 2020 United States census ...

, the town hosting the

Tanglewood Music Festival The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Stockbridge and Lenox in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts. The festival consists of a series of concerts, including symphonic music, c ...

Decline

By 1961 the ''Berkshire'' was cut to a Friday north-bound run; the ''Litchfield'' operated as a Sunday evening route from Pittsfield to New York. The diner-lounge was eliminated by 1961 in favor of parlor cars. Finally, in 1968, the ''Berkshire'' name was dropped, and unnamed trains served the route until 1971 when the New Haven successor

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals, the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

discontinued service on the line.New Haven timetable, May 12, 1968, Table 9

References

External links

A contemporary description of the route, in the section, 'THE HOUSATONIC RAILROAD'
{{NH named trains Named passenger trains of the United States Passenger trains of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Passenger rail transportation in Massachusetts Passenger rail transportation in Connecticut Passenger rail transportation in New York (state)