The Fair Haven & Westville Railroad

Part Two

No sooner were the cars running than troubles cropped up. The ends of the flat rail had a tendency to lift up in service and catch the wheels of passing carriages and wagons, leading to many claims against the company for damages.

The first cars were drawn by a single horse and could not climb even a slight incline when fully loaded. Soon helper teams were stationed at Grand and State streets to assist cars up the grade and over the railroad bridge. Another helper team was stationed on Chapel Street at Temple to help cars up the hill to College Street. In 1863 the first two-horse teams were put in use, but at the same time larger and heavier cars were purchased. Thus the need for helper teams continued. The helper teams waited at the foot of the grade until a car approached. The helper teamster then hitched his team ahead of the regular team and mounted the front platform of the car for the ride uphill. At the top the helper team was unhitched and walked back down the hill to await the next car.

Once the rails were in the streets, residents of New Haven became concerned about their right to drive across, parallel to or straddling the rails. Some inventive people thought to equip their vehicles with flanged wheels so that they might run upon the rails. This resulted in a law, passed in 1861, giving users of the streets the right to drive across or parallel to the rails but making it illegal to fit a vehicle to run upon the rails.

In winter weather the cars were cold, no heat being provided. Straw was spread on the floor to a depth of eight or ten inches in an effort to keep the passengers' feet warm. With the cars closed up, fumes from the kerosene lamps mingled with the odor of packed humanity and damp, soiled straw to give the cars an unforgettable scent. In addition the straw was a fire hazard, although most fires were quickly stamped out.

Sweeping the used straw from the cars after a days use was a job eagerly anticipated by the stable help, as often coins and other items of value, lost during the day, could be retrieved.

Another problem in the beginning — and one that persists to this day in public transit — was overcrowding during the rush-hour period. This was overcome to some extent in the early days by starting the car and then stopping the horses quickly while winding on the hand brake. Momentum moved the standing passengers forward, allowing the conductor on the rear platform to push the last few passengers inside the car.

Snow was another serious problem from the start. In the early years of operation, an attempt was made to use sleighs on omnibuses fitted with runners, but this was not a profitable arrangement and was soon discontinued. Small, homemade "V" plows attached to the cars proved ineffectual. In 1870 an eight horse plow was purchased, and in 1886 a large, eight-horse sweeper was obtained from the Brookline Supply Company.

The sweeper weighed about two and a half tons and was fitted with a revolving broom at either end, these being geared to the axles so that as the car moved forward both brooms revolved, throwing the snow off the track. Providing sufficient adhesion between the wheels and the rail to turn the brooms was a serious problem that was solved by use of a deep flange on the wheels which actually ran on the bottom of the flangeway and provided additional adhesion.

In 1878 small snow scrapers were attached in front of the wheels on eight cars. These proved quite effective in pushing light snow off the rails, and soon all the cars were so equipped.

Cold weather was hard on the car crews. The driver, limited by his duties to the front platform, bundled himself up in coats and sweaters and then donned an oversize overcoat. He might also wrap newspapers around his chest under the overcoat. A heavy hat with ear laps was a necessity, and scarves wrapped around his neck and face often left only his eyes uncovered.

During severe storms and especially cold weather the company served hot coffee to the car crews and kept a crew on hand to relieve men who had become chilled through. One drug store along the route was designated an emergency hospital for the treatment of frostbite and minor injuries.

Operation of the big plows and sweepers was dangerous work. The eight-horse teams were hard put to keep the machines moving, and horses could and did slip and fall on ice and hard-packed snow, while the machine might derail for the same reason. The crews, consisting of eight to ten men, soon became chilled through and covered with snow. Custom called for passengers on passing cars to contribute toward drinks for the cold and weary crews. In exceptionally heavy snowstorms it was not uncommon for the line to cease operation. In the heavy snows of 1877 no cars ran for almost two months, depriving the company of 160,000 fares.

While plowing and sweeping cleared the tracks, it left the snow in the street, where it impeded other traffic. This finally resulted in a law requiring the street railroad to remove, or have removed, half of the snow in the streets through which it ran, the city to remove the remainder. In 1883 the Fair Haven & Westville removed over 6,000 wagonloads of snow at a cost of $524.

Another problem faced by the company was the long waits in passing tracks for opposing cars. This raised havoc with the schedules and exasperated the passengers. Not until the double-tracking was this worry eliminated.

Still another irritation to the passengers in the early days was the lack of destination signs on the cars. Prospective passengers had to ask the crews where the car was bound before boarding.

With the horse railroad in operation, the omnibus was doomed. An omnibus jolted along at four miles per hour over cobblestone pavements, while the streetcar's iron wheels on iron rails provided a much smoother ride at six miles per hour. In addition, the horsecars moved freely on the rails, permitting the same team of horses to move more passengers than they could when hitched to an omnibus. It was usual for the horse railroad to buy up the omnibus franchises. On July 28, 1862, the Fair Haven & Westville Railroad paid $2,250 for the King Orange Street omnibus franchise, $525 for four sleighs and $225 for sundry items. One exception was the Orange Street omnibus line, which continued in operation until taken over by the Connecticut Transit.

By 1863 manpower shortages brought on by the Civil Ware were troubling the Fair Haven & Westville management. Forced to hire men who were rude to passengers and lax in their duties, and who failed to keep cars to the schedules, management was unable to maintain the desired level of service. If rebuked, these men often walked off the job, leaving the Fair Haven & Westville to make the best of a sorry situation.

In 1864, with the service running more or less smoothly and with thoughts of expansion in their minds, the board of directors approved additions to the stables and car sheds on Grand Street. Improvements included a two-story section at the front of the buildings to accommodate rooms and sleeping quarters for the employees.

Extension of the track had been tabled during the Civil War due to the high cost of labor and iron, but in 1865 the track was extended out West Chapel Street to Day Street and through East and Bridge streets to the Steamboat Dock. After the track on Whalley Avenue had been extended to Fountain Street, eleven-minute headways were established between Fair Haven and York Street, and twenty-two-minute headways on West Chapel Street and on Whalley Avenue were maintained. Hamilton Park, located off Whalley Avenue east of the West River, was opened in 1859 and provided the Fair Haven & Westville with considerable revenue from the additional ridership. The park covered forty acres and included a trotting park, picnic area, provision for exhibits and ice skating in season.

In 1865 the New Haven & West Haven Horse Railroad and the New Haven & Centerville Horse Railroad entered the picture. This brought comparatively easy travel to the villages and created a real estate boom. It was no longer necessary for a working man to reside in a tenement close to his place of employment. For a five-cent fare he could travel to a less crowded area of inidividual homes. Residents of the outlying areas could visit the shops and facilities of the central city easily and at little cost. A feeling of camaraderie grew between the regular riders and the crews and among the riders themselves. It was not uncommon to see a baby carriage hung over the brake staff on the rear platform of a car while the mother and baby rode comfortable inside. The horses (on their own initiative) stopped at every watering trough along the route without regard for schedules.

A charter amendment in 1866 permitted the fare to be raised to six cents, although tickets good for one ride were sold at five for twenty-five cents.

In October 1870 the bridge over the West River in Westville was carried away in a storm, and it was ten months before rail service to the end of the line was restored. Because of pressure from the riding public, an omnibus service was operated from Hamilton Park to the end of the line in the interim.

At this time the roster of equipment included thirteen large cars, three small cars, one snow plow and ninety-six horses. The total number of passengers carried in 1870 was 1,210,846, only 4,022 more than the previous year. This meager increase was blamed on the loss of the bridge in Westville, disruption of the streets for repaving, and removal of old sewers in Chapel Street. In this year permission to use a steam dummy on lines west of Howe Street was received, but there is no record to indicate that one was used.

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