Sometimes, at night, a sound comes across my granddaughterâs backyard, like the cry of a long-extinct animal. The low bellow of the train horn crosses the divide between present and past, and my granddaughter looks up at me, questioning: âWhat was that?â
âThe train is going through the North End, by Main Street.â
âTrain? Like Thomas?â
âNo, a real working train, a freight train.â
âWhere are the station and the roundhouse?â
âNot here anymore.â
Manchester, like most towns rooted in the 1800s industry, had a train station or depot. In fact, Manchester had more than one.
Most people remember the North End station in what was called Depot Square. The station, near where Farrs stands today, created a town center from the time the Hartford, Fishkill, and Providence Railroad came to town in the 1840s. Stores, a hotel and restaurants and bars filled the multi-leveled buildings constructed around the station. The various North End mills and industries shipped their freight and brought in raw materials along these tracks. Slowly, the number of train visits began to fade as this station was closed in the 1960s.