Shepaug, Litchfield and Northern Railroad

The Shepaug, Litchfield and Northern Railroad was a short independent railroad in western Connecticut that was chartered as the Shepaug Valley Railroad in 1868 and operated from 1872 to 1891 when it was taken over by the Housatonic Railroad. In 1898 the Housatonic operation was assumed by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (NH). As the Litchfield Division of the NH the line was operated until abandonment in 1948. Much of the line remains as a rail trail.

History

Charter and commissioning

"Shepaug" in the railroad's name derived from the name of the Shepaug River that most of the line followed which in turn was a Mohegan name that meant "rocky water".

The railroad was chartered in 1866 or 1868 and opened for operation on December 7, 1871 as the Shepaug Valley Railroad. J. Deming Perkins was the company's first president. Henry R. Colt was the treasurer and Edwin McNeill was the superintendent. Regular service to Litchfield started by January 11, 1872. Due to the expense of building and maintaining the line through rocky rural terrain the railroad suffered low profitability throughout its existence. To help pay creditors it was reorganized as the Shepaug Railroad in 1873 and was again reorganized as the Shepaug, Litchfield and Northern (or SL&N) on May 9, 1887.