Connecticut Company 838

The Connecticut Company was formed in 1907 by consolidating operating companies in about eight cities in various parts of the state, including Torrington, Hartford, Middletown, Meriden, New Haven, New London, Norwich and Putnam. In addition, another large operator, the Connecticut Railway and Light Co., serving Stamford, Norwalk, Bridgeport, Ansonia-Derby, New Britain and Waterbury was leased. These fourteen cities formed the basis for thirteen operating divisions, each of which maintained its own roster of cars. The Connecticut Co. and its predecessors had ties or were owned by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. In 1915, the company renumbered all of its cars into a single sequence. Cars from a single order assigned to various divisions were kept together numerically, with a few minor exceptions. For that reason, each of Seashore’s Connecticut Co. cars has had two numbers. This is the most distinctive of our Connecticut opens, built in 1905 by the J. M. Jones car company of West Troy (now Watervliet), NY. (Some sources show the build date as 1904 or 1906.) Features of this car include its steamcoach roof, two 65 horsepower motors in place of 4 40 horsepower versions, an unusual lighting circuit, and trolley hooks which guide the pole into place. The roofline was adopted as a simpler surface to maintain than the earlier deck roof, but the deck roof returned when rollsigns were adopted. This car was No. 381 when built and was renumbered to No. 838 in 1915. Long after the Connecticut Co. withdrew open cars, such as No. 838, from regular service, the company used them in New Haven to shuttle football fans between the railroad station and the Yale Bowl on game days. The open cars also continued operating on excursions to the local beaches and on charter service including fan trips. The Yale service (along with the available extra space to store the cars at the James Street Car Barn upper level) was, however, the reason these cars were not scrapped in the 1930s or earlier when many other systems scrapped their open cars. The last Yale Bowl open cars ran in the 1947 football season, and all New Haven streetcar service ended in 1948. A number of these open cars were donated to museums. The Seashore Trolley Museum acquired four Connecticut Co. open cars (615, 838, 1253 and 1468) . The museum initially moved (under their own power) two of these cars (1468 & 838) to store them at the newly established Branford Electric Railway Association's museum before movement to Kennebunkport. The others were moved directly to Maine. Seashore also helped to move other open cars to the Connecticut Electric Railway Association in East Windsor CT. After a fire destroyed No. 1253, Seashore acquired former Connecticut Co. No. 1391, thus maintaining a fleet of four New Haven open cars. No. 838 long held the all-time record for car mileage at Seashore, though it took a back seat to No. 303 when it was taken out of service in 2005 for needed sill work. No. 838 returned to service for a few years and then was removed again in 2009 for a major body and mechanical upgrade including rehabilitation of one of its two motors. The body exterior of No. 838 was repainted and the interior flip over seats were refinished, and the ceiling had new birch paneling installed.