Bicentennial Quilt - Steam Locomotive

The Connecticut Valley Railroad, chartered in 1868, was built in 1870-1871. The construction was completed for the first run, from Hartford to Saybrook, on July 29, 1871. Ulysses S. Grant was in the White House and the first transcontinental railroad was barely two years old.

It began as an industrious line carrying cargo of lumber, farm produce, ivory piano keys and witch hazel. At its peak it operated from Hartford to Fenwick Station, on the Sound below Saybrook.

The new Valley Railroad obtained its Connecticut Charter in 1967. The state granted the permit for the railroad to go back to work under lease, with the state retaining the right-of-way land in the public domain. It took time, money, determination, and hard work, it took enthusiastic railroad buffs, and on July 29, 1871, the ribbon having been cut by Lieutenant Governor Hull and Railroad President Oliver Jensen, Locomotive 103 went "wooooshhhh", let out a cloud of steam, made a hell-of-a-racket , and hauled 400 passengers to a rendezvous in Deep River with a river-tour boat, and commenced the first known boat-train passenger service in this country in the past fifty years.