Connecticut Trolley Museum, Warehouse Point, CT

[citystation1848]

The current railway ends at Wells Road, and about a 1/4 mile (if that) from Wells Road is the site of Piney Ridge Park. The Museum owns the right of way across the Scantic River adjacent to town land in the village of Broad Brook.

Matt

[RonM]

Is there anything to see in Piney Ridge? (i.e. remnants of the trolley park). Is the park a field or forested since the park shut down? Are there any access roads to it or is the trolley row the only way in? Thanks in advance.

[xtcbct]

Hi Ron,

Piney Ridge does not have any publicly accessable roads to it. There are some dirt roads that go through there, but they are in private ownership of surrounding homes. The only way in is by the trolley ROW. The park is mostly forrested as can be seen by google maps satellite photography. It's on the left side of the ROW going eastbound. There is a field seemingly randomly placed in the woods that is still mowed. Not sure if this is the old baseball field. I don't know if we have anything that shows exactly where the park was. But the ROW gets wider where the park was. There is a lot of beach sand that can be seen, brought in by the streetcar company. There is an old fence, and I've found an old lamp with cloth wires. I've been told by older members of concrete foundations, though I've never found these. There is a book though "Diary of a Trolley Road" written by Michael Devito that shows some photographs of what it used to look like. Through satellite photos, it's hard to see where the park was exactly. It's been 84 years now since the park has been gone. This means that there is already "old growth" as I like to call it. Large trees are now growing where an open path or clearing could have been. Hope this satisfies some of your curiousity.

[Tim Lesniak]

Saturday was an amazing day for Rails to the Darkside! We had nearly eight hundred riders and by 645pm the parking lot was full...we don’t open until 7. We finally finished bringing people through around 1130. At one point lines extended just over halfway to Kelly Carhouse.

[RonM]

You guys had a pretty good afternoon crowd too. I stopped by on my way to the CNZR to check out the RS-1and saw STRC 16 up by Kelly and looked at S-193 and 18. One of the Montreal cars was in service.

The place is coming along!

[Tim Lesniak]

You guys had a pretty good afternoon crowd too. I stopped by on my way to the CNZR to check out the RS-1and saw STRC 16 up by Kelly and looked at S-193 and 18. One of the Montreal cars was in service.

The place is coming along!

Thank you. We have been working hard for the past few years trying to clean the place up. We are moving more cars under cover, removing junk metal from the property, and cleaning up the junk that was scattered around the property.

[Tim Lesniak]

Rails to the Darkside had record numbers this past weekend. Check out connecticutcompany.blogspot.com!

[Otto Vondrak]

Rails to the Darkside had record numbers this past weekend. Check out connecticutcompany.blogspot.com!

Why are you directing us to the "unofficial" blog? I want to read the official blog of CTM.

-otto-

[Tim Lesniak]

Rails to the Darkside had record numbers this past weekend. Check out connecticutcompany.blogspot.com!

Why are you directing us to the "unofficial" blog? I want to read the official blog of CTM.

-otto-

The Connecticut Trolley Museum has no official blog.

-Tim

[Otto Vondrak]

The Connecticut Trolley Museum has no official blog.

Oh no! Then why send me to an "unofficial" news source to learn about the museum?

I'm busting your chops a little, but seriously, the Museum should control its image and its flow of information from the inside. It looks weird that you (representing the Museum) are sending us to an "unofficial" source for news updates about your organization. Many museums rely on blogs to keep their sites fresh and updated, you might want to look into that for your group! Here's how we integrate blogs into our web site...

http://rgvrrm.org/

Consider it!

-otto-

[kinlock]

Official or unofficial, it is a great information source. Keep seeing you run out of parking for events. What ever happened to the shuttle bus idea you used years ago? Used to park at a nearby strip mall and catch a shuttle to the museum.

...Ken

[Tim Lesniak]

Official or unofficial, it is a great information source. Keep seeing you run out of parking for events. What ever happened to the shuttle bus idea you used years ago? Used to park at a nearby strip mall and catch a shuttle to the museum.

...Ken

We use the shuttle during Winterfest. The problem with Rails to the Darkside is that the parking lot capacity is not a large issue because there is such a quick turnover. The issue is the amount of people we can handle in the time we have. We are already working until after midnight by the time we get people through and clean up. If we were using a shuttle too, we may be going all night long.

[Otto Vondrak]

Official or unofficial, it is a great information source.

Not debating the quality of the content... But if it is a blog written by museum volunteers, about the museum activities, then I would just drop the "unofficial" part. If it's so unofficial, why is there a link to it from the CTM web site?

http://www.ct-trolley.org/news/news.php

-otto-

[Tim Lesniak]

Official or unofficial, it is a great information source.

Not debating the quality of the content... But if it is a blog written by museum volunteers, about the museum activities, then I would just drop the "unofficial" part. If it's so unofficial, why is there a link to it from the CTM web site?

http://www.ct-trolley.org/news/news.php

-otto-

Hicks Car Works is an unofficial blog too yet it is written by museum volunteers about museum activities at IRM.

[Otto Vondrak]

Official or unofficial, it is a great information source.

Not debating the quality of the content... But if it is a blog written by museum volunteers, about the museum activities, then I would just drop the "unofficial" part. If it's so unofficial, why is there a link to it from the CTM web site?

http://www.ct-trolley.org/news/news.php

-otto-

Hicks Car Works is an unofficial blog too yet it is written by museum volunteers about museum activities at IRM.

Excellent point, Tim! Someone else does it, so it must be right!

Tim, I'm trying to help you out here. I work in marketing and advertising, plus I volunteer with several railroad preservation groups out here. You obviously think I am picking on you, therefore, my advice is falling on deaf ears. Please understand that words have meaning, and that tacking "unofficial" onto something that appears to be the primary information source about your organization appears to send conflicted messages, never mind that there are easier ways to include blog postings into a web site seamlessly so you don't have "updates" coming from so many different sources.

It's just free advice, Tim. No harm, no foul if you don't agree with it.

-otto-