Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad

Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad
The former company headquarters at Matteawan in 2012
Overview
Locale	Dutchess County, New York
History
Opened	July 21, 1869 as Dutchess and Columbia Railroad
Completed	July 24, 1871
Reorganized	January 15, 1877 as Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad
Merged	1907 into Central New England Railway
Closed	August 1, 1938 (one portion still operated by Metro-North Railroad)
Technical
Line length	58.9 mi (94.8 km)
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Route map

The Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad was a railroad in Dutchess County, New York, United States. Its line ran 58.9 miles (94.8 km) northeast from the Hudson River in Fishkill to the Connecticut state line near Millerton. The Dutchess and Columbia Railroad (D&C), was chartered in 1866 to link rural villages with the Hudson River Railroad and New York and Harlem Railroad. The under-construction line was leased by the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad (BH&E) in 1868. The first segment opened in July 1869, and it reached Pine Plains the following February.

The BH&E failed in March 1870, and the D&C officers took back the railroad in an overnight escapade. The final segment to the state line opened in 1871. In the mid-1870s, the railroad became part of the New York, Boston and Montreal Railway. That railroad's failure resulted in the D&C being sold at foreclosure in August 1876. It was reorganized in January 1877 as the Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad (ND&C). In 1881, BH&E successor New York and New England Railroad (NY&NE) began using the southwestern portion of the ND&C. It built a short new branch to reach Fishkill Landing on the Hudson River. The connecting Clove Branch Railroad, built in 1869 and extended in 1877, was closed in 1897.

The ND&C was bought by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (NYNH&H) in 1905. It was assigned to NYNH&H subsidiary Central New England Railway in 1907. Passenger service ended on parts of the line in 1921 and 1925, and on the rest of the line in 1933. Most of the former ND&C was abandoned in sections between 1925 and 1938. The remaining section between Beacon and Hopewell Junction was retained for freight use. After passing through several owners, it is now part of the Beacon Line, used by Metro-North Railroad for equipment transfers.