Rail Lines & Stations

Thompson was blessed with a good number of train stations, being a geographically large town well positioned between NYC and Boston, and near the busy mill towns of Southbridge, Webster, Putnam, Providence and the factory stops along the greater Quinebaug River to Norwich.

Rail Historian Robert Belletzkie, first archivist of Thompson’s Ramsdell Transportation Collection, spent many years documenting Connecticut railroad station. His lifelong hobby has been shared with all of us at Tyler City Station.

Remember to search by village on the website:
-Thompson
-Wilsonville (formerly Child’s Mills)
-East Thompson
-West Thompson
-Quinebaug (formerly New Boston)
-Grosvenordale (formerly Masonville)
-North Grosvenordale (formerly Fisherville)

Here’s a sample of the content offered on their site.

GROSVENORDALE1  [N&W, 1840; opened as MASONVILLE]
This station was in the town of THOMPSON. The view at upper left dates to 1877 and shows a depot with a hipped roof and two chimneys, a close-up of which is seen at upper middle. The N&W opened through the town of Thompson in 1840 but the earliest timetable we have is 1851, seen at upper right, and it shows this stop by its earlier name. The depot is not found at our red arrow on the 1856WC map at lower left but the location is seen on the 1869 map at lower right. The ten villages in this town were mostly all mill-related in some way, dating at least back to 1813 when the Mason family built a small cotton mill on the French River. The name of this station was probably changed in 1868 when then-owner Dr. William Grosvenor merged the Masonville and Fisherville Cos. as the Grosvenordale Co. and similarly, the station in FISHERVILLE at the blue arrow likely became NORTH GROSVENORDALE also at that time. In 1872, a huge steam-powered cotton mill was added and by 1900, this combined complex was the biggest mill and employer in Windham County with 1,750 employees. [REFS: SR/11/09/1869/04; CC/11/13/1869/01][rev071813]