In 1976, while perusing railroad materials in the local history section of Berkshire Athenaeum in Pittsfield, MA I recall reading an interesting college research paper about the Huckleberry Line. It was written in the early 1970's. The report including ROW maps.
trainsinmaine wrote:One wonders how successful this line would have been had it been completed. It would have provided a ready link (via the B&A, assuming it would have gotten trackage rights) between upstate New York and Hartford/New Haven. The NH kinda-sorta had that with its Canal Line extension from South Deerfield to Buckland where it met the Troy & Boston (B&M), but that never saw a great deal of business. This would have been more direct.The utility of the line to the New Haven depends on the time period we're talking about. In the 1870's it might have been useful; after 1893, when the New Haven got control of the Housatonic (and its New Haven & Derby connection from Hawleyville to New Haven) it would have been duplicative of the State Line-Van Deusenville-Hawleyville-Derby route: which incidentally has much lower grades compared to any line over the spine of the Berkshire/Litchfield Hills, built or projected. I suppose it might have been of some use to the Boston & Albany had they wanted to invade the New Haven's home turf for some reason, but that's about it...