New Britain Station
The Passenger station is located between Main Street and Elm Street. It is the the center of the block, and the center of the layout, located about 3/4 of a mile from both East Main Street and Curtis Street. From this point I've separated the layout and this site to The Highland Line east and west, although these are my own designations. Immediately to the west of the station is the Railroad Arcade, a collection of shops that face the railroad tracks rather than a street. In front of the station is New Britain Yard, and just beyond Commercial Street is the Landers, Frary & Clark factory.
From CT History Online:
New Britain Station from the street.
New Britain Station and Arcade from the track-side in the 1920's. The small New Britain Yard is visible in front of the station.
Railroad Arcade prior to the removal of the canopy. This is taken from Main Street facing east (Newington and Hartford). The station is at the other end of the platform. The building on the immediate right of the picture, where the canopy ends, faces main street. The arcade is the large building with a tower on either end.
There is also a great series of pictures on the American Memory page of the Library of Congress showing women working for the Railway Express Agency at the station in June, 1943. a few of the pictures show a little of the surrounding area, including rebuilding of the canopy over the rear doors and the structure of the underside of the passenger canopy.
Resources
New Haven Railroad
Peter Lynch
pg 128 photo: Train 131 in 1947 handling Railway Express at the passenger station.
Note: Just behind the Railway Express truck you can see where the siding in front of the station ends. There is a baggage car on the siding in front of the station itself (I've seen this in a lot of pictures) and if you look closely, there is a second Railway Express truck (also with the Camel ad) loading that car. In the earlier map I have of the tracks in front of the station, this siding is connected to the mainline by a turnout just about where the foreground truck is located.
