The Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railway was the first

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

to run east from

Poughkeepsie, New York Poughkeepsie ( ) is a city within the Poughkeepsie (town), New York, Town of Poughkeepsie, New York (state), New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, New York, Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie i ...

, and was taken over by the

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 ...

and assigned to the

Central New England Railway The Central New England Railway was a railroad from Hartford, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts, west across northern Connecticut and across the Hudson River on the Poughkeepsie Bridge to Maybrook, New York. It was part of the Poughk ...

in 1907.

History

Beginnings

The Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railroad was chartered April 13, 1866 to be built from

Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie ( ) is a city within the Town of Poughkeepsie, New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie is in the Hudson River Valley region, midway between the core of the New ...

on the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

northeast to Boston Corners in Ancram, Columbia County, NY, and then southeast to the Connecticut state line, where it would connect with the

Connecticut Western Railroad The Central New England Railway was a railroad from Hartford, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts, west across northern Connecticut and across the Hudson River on the Poughkeepsie Bridge to Maybrook, New York. It was part of the Poughkee ...

, which would continue east to

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

. The line opened on January 24, 1871 and ran from Poughkeepsie to Stissing. At Stissing the P&E had

trackage rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may c ...

to use that portion of the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad line that ran from Stissing to Pine Plains. On October 1, 1872 the remainder of the P&E line was opened from Pine Plains to the state line. Haight, Lyndon A.,Pine Plains and the Railroads (1976)
/ref> The P&E's main yard and engine facilities were at the Smith Street Yard in Poughkeepsie, where there was a passenger station, a freight house, turntable and engine house. The local trolley line on Smith St. also served the station. From the Poughkeepsie yard P&E trains traveled east through Pleasant Valley, Salt Point, Clinton Corners, Stanfordville, Stissing, Pine Plains, Boston Corners and State Line near Millerton. It was anticipated that in addition to passenger service, the railroad would make money hauling iron ore from the ore beds of Columbia County, and milk from local dairy farms; however, revenues were not as great as expected.

Receivership

On June 24, 1874 the company went into

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver – a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights" – especia ...

. It was sold in April 1875 and reorganized May 15 as the Poughkeepsie, Hartford and Boston Railroad. It again went

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

and on January 26, 1884 the Hartford and Connecticut Western Railroad bought the section southeast of Boston Corners, to which they already had track rights. The rest was sold in late 1886 and on January 22, 1887 it was reorganized as the New York and Massachusetts Railway. Profit was still hard to come by, and it entered receivership for a third time in February 1893. It was sold under

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has Default (finance), stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the Collateral (finance), coll ...

March 2 and reorganized April 13 once under the name, the Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railway Company. Yet again, on June 17, 1898, the company went into receivership. On July 12, 1904 P&E had a wreck at Salt Point when a passenger train was mistakenly switched to a siding where a freight train was waiting. The conductor on the passenger train was injured. In 1907 the

bought it and on June 25 merged it into the

. The CNE had been forced to build the parallel Poughkeepsie and Connecticut Railroad in the late 1880s due to the Poughkeepsie and Eastern's refusal to sell. In 1910 the P&C was abandoned between Salt Point and Pine Plains, with trains rerouted over the P&E. With the 1925 abandonment of the P&E from Ancram Lead Mines northeast to Boston Corners, the P&C served as the sole route east of Pine Plains (it too was closed in 1932). Abandonment came in 1938 to the rest of the P&E.

Station listing

Central New England Railway lines in the Upper Hudson Valley

Mileages reflect those after the 1910 consolidation, with the ex-Poughkeepsie and Connecticut Railroad serving as the Poughkeepsie entry. Prior to 1910, the line used a station on its own alignment west of Smith Street in Poughkeepsie (though mileages were not substantially different). Between Stissing Junction and Pine Plains, the line used

on the

Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad The Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad was a railroad in Dutchess County, New York, United States. Its line ran northeast from the Hudson River in Fishkill to the Connecticut state line near Millerton. The Dutchess and Columbia Rail ...

(ND&C).

References

External links

Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railroad (KinglyHeirs; Central New England Railroad page)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Poughkeepsie Eastern Railway Companies affiliated with the Central New England Railway Defunct New York (state) railroads Transportation in Dutchess County, New York Transportation in Columbia County, New York Predecessors of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Railway companies established in 1893 Railway companies disestablished in 1907 1893 establishments in New York (state)