Don't know if this is news to anyone but there are two old light blue box cars, plus another derelict car, marooned on a street level track west of Seaview Avenue north of the main line. one is unlettered, I think, and the other is lettered in script for Remington and is presumably on its old property. not sure about accessibility for photos.

I've always been interested in Bridgeport Industrial Trackage. I don't live there but a couple of towns away. I wish I had thought to take some pictures a few decades ago but----- Bridgeport is another old dead industrial city. Otherwise I'd swear somebody there is on a campaign to destroy any remnant of a railroad in Bridgeport Un-Sightly ? (sp?) They have got rid of everything !!! I think the only thing remaining is some segments going to Remington Arms north of Boston Avenue. Even here they want to take this area/land and build the standard 'mixed condo's and retail space' concept.

The Seaview Avenue line is totally gone I think. Possibly somebody might find a visible track left somewhere ? It served Carpenter Steel and other industries. I THINK it had it's own name at one time. (Seaview Avenue Railroad)

The line out to Bridgeport University area is the one you mention I think. It ran along Railroad Avenue and branched out to the Sikorsky facility out by the ocean and also the 'garbage plant'.

I think this last year Bridgeport bulldozed most of the last remnants. (a special project)

There was the Housatonic Railroad running north with one of the first passenger stops North Bridgeport Station ? I don't think anybody ever found a picture or it's exact location.

To the south in later years (old-Housatonic line) it served the Electric Generating Facility. In Railroad Avenue area but was original the southern section of the Housatonic. I recall they stored a whole bunch of 'junk rails' down there in the ex-rail yard. Now all is gone for the new Baseball Stadium.

There still is the Stratford Industrial Trackage that I think might actually start in Bridgeport. (?)

I could be wrong on some things above but that's about it.

In older days there was so much industry I can't guess WHO had their own industrial railroad.(besides the above lines mentioned above)

I took a short train ride to Bridgeport for jury duty a couple of months ago and the two boxcars are still there. They are between the tracks and an old building near the old Remington factory and access is very difficult. The area is almost completely overgrown and photos would be out of the question. A train ride would only yield roof top shots.

I didn't know about the third car being there. What type of car is it and is near the two BC's?

Several weeks ago, I saw a construction (demolition) crew attempting to drag the Remington boxcars away from the shipping/receiving dock with a front end loader. It appears they have moved the cars a few feet east of the building.

Sorry to say I was concentrating on the box cars. this other 'thing' looked like it had corrugated unpainted steel sides like a building but looked like a car sitting on the track just west of the box cars. the location is just north of main line and just west of Seaview Avenue., probably on a spur of whatever the Seaview Avenue Railroad was actually called. I'll try to get a better look next time, if it's not gone by then.

I have not posted here in years, but would like to share some info. on this subject. The track that the Remington Arms box cars are on, by description, is one part of the East end ramp trackage that ran north of the main off of track 3. It split before crossing Seaview Avenue. One leg ran parallel to the evevated main, across Seaview, through a chain-link fence gate, between a RA building-where the box cars are currently sitting and one city block further West to the Singer Facility. The other leg of the same ramp swung on a tangent, North, across Seaview, through a corner lot crossing Barnum Avenue and then running straight along the Remington Arms property. It then joined into a 4-5 track yard that ran along Seaview Avenue and a river(Yellow Mill?) on the West side all the way to General Electric on Boston Avenue. The rails continued, single track I believe, to the underground munitions bunker system owned by Remington Arms. The yard was capable of holding many cars and serviced Remington Arms, Union Metalic Catridge(Remington Ammunition), Bryant Electric, General Electric and probably a few other companies.

The other ramp, on the south side of the main line, paralleled track 4 heading West out of the East end yard. It crossed Seaview Avenue and through a corner lot on a tangent swinging South(basically a mirror image of the North side). After swinging South it ran down Seaview in the middle of the street for a 1/2 mile or so before moving to the West side of the road. There were numerous sidings, switches in the street, going off both right and left. Jacobs Bros Scrap Metal was the 2nd largest siding on the line which was at the corner of Stratford and Seaview Avenue. The line terminated at Steel Point where The Stanley Works, a large steel mill and foundry, was until the mid to late 1940s. The facility was then occupied by Carpenter Steel Co. until the mid 1980s.

I was in this area of Bridgeport many times visiting my Godmother. She lived at the intersection of Seaview and Barnum Avenue. The North side ramp ran along the back of the lot where she lived. Many times I watched switcher traffic, on the ramp, moving cars to the yard next to the river North of Barnum Avenue. I also explored the lower Seaview Ave trackage on foot numerous times when I was old enough to leave her house to venture on my own.

To my knowledge, all of the described trackage is gone except a short section of both ramp tracks. Those were still there when I visited the area 4 years ago. What remained of the lower Seaview trackage was pulled up when CT DOT completely revamped the Stratford, Seaview, I-95 area a few years ago as part of the enviromental cleanup of Jacob Bros scrap yard and the raising of the steel mill buildings.

A great modeling opportunity, lots of industry, lots of switching and street running.

I get confused where the Seaview Avenue line actually ran.

I think my memory is OFF but it seems I recall some other rail lines through the streets of East Bridgeport in that area but just Seaview Avenue ?

As to where lines came off the Metro-North line it's kind of confusing as there seems to be ramps (what do you call them ?) that match no rail line.

Difficult to explain with no notes to review at this time !!!

I have looked at a website for topographic maps listed on another thread for the D&NH. The map was for Bridgeport updated in 1951. WWW.maptech--online maps--select town maps--Bridgeport--1951--southeast quadrant--and scroll down to the harbor area. Look at Cooks Point. I was in error calling it Steel Point on my previous post. The track is visible on the point and so is the East End rail yard. This map shows major building groups as well as having many streets marked including Seaview Avenue. The 1941 map does not show these details...maybe because of WW2.

The street trackage is difficult to distinguish because of the scale. The black crosshatched lines are nearly impossible to see in detail when combined with the streets..but they are more easily seen where there is trackage only.

I used the term "ramp" because they are actually going from the mainline down grade, to the street. Maybe the wrong term, but none the less an accurate description in a geometry sense....a less than 90 degree angle connecting two horizontal planes.

Those two tracks proceed West out of the Western end of the East End Bridgeport yard near Central Avenue tower.

Thanks for the map link and the superb description of the industrial trackage in the heart of Bridgeport. I too used to see switchers on those tracks while riding in my Grandfather's car. This happened a few times and I was never disappointed.

Your mention of the underground munitions bunker system owned by Remington Arms feeds the imagination. I will try to obtain more information - my Grandmother worked for RA as a young woman, so I guess she must have seen some of the old NYNHHRR cars on that trackage you wrote about.

Thanks again for your splendid information.

There is one scene in "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Moon Marigolds", starring Joanne Woodward, which show a PC switcher with a few freight cars moving on Seaview Ave.

I wandered that whole area a few times the last few years trying to take some pictures but so many obstacles.

#1-it's a 'high crime' area.

#2-maybe somebody does not like cameras ?

I'm gonna have to check Bridgeport Library again. That's even a nightmare. Open limited hours. No parking. Feed meters.

Last time I got away with scanning some things from old newspaper articles but the lady who heads (?) the reference room I'd swear just wants to sell things. She had signs plastered everywhere once about fees per picture or some nonsense. Otherwise such 'delicate' things have to be protected from the public. My point is the material there was put there FOR THE PUBLIC supported by tax dollars. (not a private library,etc.)

Forget photocopies unless something changed. The machines stink. Laptop and scanner.....

ok--an example...there were 2 lines going north....

Probably track is still in place. I've been unable to find access to walk/snoop. I guess hang around upper Seaview Avenue trying to figure out where the tracks are and access. Lovely neighborhood.

As to lower Seaview I think nothing is left.

I just get confused as to the 'ramps' (wording fine with me) off metro-north.

I THINK I have seen it called Seaview Railroad and don't know years New Haven took over.(if they did) (did they ever to Remington and north ?)

The line out to Sikorsky (sp?) by the ocean. Years ? History ? (unknown?) ps..I'm not knocking anybodies 'neighborhood'. I just don't live there and not familiar with the 'territory'.

I am weary of urban abandoned industrial areas. I have enough problems without stumbling across bodies.

I guess I'm sounding strange by now)

If you look closely at the map (year?) in the link, you can make out the Seaview Avenue Railroad, whatever it was actually called - there is a Shoreliner article somewhere that talks about it - curving off the main northward and running west of Seaview Avenue, just as Walter described and as I vaguely remember, and going under Boston Avenue and ending at G.E., which took over that entire complex of buildings north of Boston Avenue in 1920 from, guess who, Remington Arms. Remington apparently just kept the Barnum Avenue complex thereafter. I also remember the southern line running down Seaview, curving through Jacob Bros, and then across Stratford Avenue on an southeasterly tangent into what was Carpenter Steel in my day but earlier was apparently Stanley Works, as in New Britain, where I always thought they only were until now. good memory....

Bridgeport Public Library is not a bad place to work. ------ in the Historical Collections Dept is very knowledgeable and helpful, as is her staff. I also know the head of reference, ------, and she is equally professional. maps up in the historical collection, especially from the Price and Lee city directories, would probably have enough detail to clarify all of this.

Everybody needs to head to Bridgeport, save those old box cars, and keep digging and posting!

Check out Shoreliner 28.3, p. 28. shows the southern line. not the most detail one could hope for but not bad. there was an earlier article about the electric power on this line and the Mfrs Railroad in New Haven. I'm still looking.

The tracks to the 'north' are still there to the best of my knowledge.(not for long I'd guess)

At those GE complexes it's all fenced in is it not ?? No way to photograph anything to the far north end ??

The tracks off metro-north to the north are 'walkable' but soon start going through abandoned industrial areas with some businesses still operating and making it impossible to snoop.

Maybe one can reach the tracks at Boston Avenue south of the bridge ?? Is the Harding High School there ?? Maybe tracks are easy to reach just by crossing 'high school' property ??

Bridgeport Library ?? Maybe it's because I look like a crook. They did not want anybody to access anything old maybe with the excuse of it's too old and brittle (??)

The photocopy machine could not even copy a Topo map it was so bad.

Last time I brought a laptop computer and scanner and my interest at the time was the old Pleasure Beach Amusement Park and newspaper clippings.

As far any 'railroad' 'folders' with old collected clippings I saw about nothing.

As to MAPS I've yet to get into that. (Sanford?)

I recall once they had a whole New England Topo collection and some 'RR Manuals' going back into the 1800's. I forget name. Poors ? Last time I asked zilch.

I was in Bridgeport last Sunday to visit the ABC Complete Home Makeover site on Holister Avenue and made a short detour to Seaview Avenue. I just drove around; did not leave the vehicle to walk and this is what I found.

All of the trackage south of the 4 track main is gone.....all removed as the upgrading of lower Seaview/Stratford Avenue done by CONDOT and the DEP. The Steel Mill sight surely has trackage on it still, but there is no evavated vantage point to determine how much is still there, unless stopping on I-95 northbound is an option, not mine!

The tracks on the north side are still in place. Trackage coming down grade from the East End yard is still intact along with both legs of the switch as it crosses Seaview. The boxcars are not really visable from the road, due to many trees filling the area between. Winter will take care of the foliage and more discovery could be done then. The chain-link fence is still in place, along the street, which eliminates any walking in.

The yard I mentioned, north of Barnum Avenue, is also sill in place, but is severely overgrown. In fact, where the tracks go under Boston Avenue, the trees have grown the 30 feet or so that brings the tops above the sides of the overpass. All of the buildings along this part of Seaview Ave, on the railroad side, haven't been occupied in at least 20 years and are imploding from deterioration. Harding High property is not an access point, since it is on the upper side of the street, opposite the buildings described.

As a side note: there was a newspaper article a few years ago about the Remington bunker property. It was turned over to the City of Bridgeport, about 15 years ago, when the company pulled out the last remaining pieces of the business. At the time of the article the city had only cleared some of the wooded areas and had not started any development of the property. I believe that the area was found to have significant chemical contamination from a hundred years or so of explosives storage.

This map shows everything in quite a bit of detail. the only odd thing is that the ramp and connection to the southbound leg of the Seaview Avenue Railroad is not shown. If you look closely you will see the track on the street with several sidings and a whole complex of tracks at the lowest end by the water (Stanley Works, later Carpenter Steel, now Direktor Shipyards?)

On the north end tracks go way beyond G.E. up to Remington Woods as it is now called (Remington bunker property?) where they used to test-fire ammunition and debase the property with lead (EPA clean-up site?).