Thomaston Station – The Centerpiece of RMNE’s Restoration Work
The Boston & Maine Inaugural Special makes a stop at Thomaston Station in 1982, when the station was housing a small business. Photo by Carl Weber.
The restoration efforts of the Railroad Museum of New England aren’t just limited to railroad equipment. RMNE volunteers have also been slowly but steadily reviving the historic train station that serves as our headquarters.
After the Naugatuck Railroad was established in 1849, a small train station was built in Thomaston in 1851 to serve passengers as well as the major industries in town. In 1881, the current station was constructed and the former structure was converted to a freight house.
Thomaston Station in 1931, with the freight house that served as the original station at left.
The south end of Thomaston Station in 1955, prior to the flood in that year. Official New Haven Railroad photo.
Thomaston Station accommodated both passenger and freight service for many years, primarily serving the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad after this company leased the Naugatuck Railroad in 1887 and acquired it in 1906. The station included a waiting room, ticket booth, and a Railway Express Agency office for delivery services.
With the decline of the New Haven in the 1950s, Thomaston Station served its last passengers in December 1958. The building housed several small businesses after it ceased rail operations, until an arsonist set fire to it in 1993. By a stroke of luck, the Thomaston Volunteer Fire Department happened to be training nearby when the call came in, and they quickly extinguished the blaze.
Volunteers salvage slate from the roof of Thomaston Station for possible reuse in October 1995, two years after the fire that destroyed the building’s roof and attic.
Thomaston Station in September 1996, with New Haven locomotive 529 pulling one of the Naugatuck Railroad’s first excursions. The station’s roof would not be replaced until the next year.
Unfortunately, the fire destroyed Thomaston Station’s roof and attic, leaving the interior exposed to rain and snow. In the winter of 1995, RMNE volunteers discovered a buildup of ice in the former waiting area that measured three feet deep.
With assistance from the Thomaston Savings Bank Foundation, the roof was replaced in 1997. This step prevented further damage and allowed volunteers to begin cleaning and stabilizing the structure. Restoration efforts, aided by state and community grants, have included upgrades to the masonry, canopies and their brackets, doors and windows, and exterior woodwork.
Thomaston Station was added to the State Register of Historic Places in 2012. An article in Connecticut Explored in 2015 described the station as one of RMNE’s “most significant and visible accomplishments.”
Masonry repair and restoration work on Thomaston Station’s north end in 2014.
Wall and ceiling restoration work in the former baggage area in 2021.
While work is ongoing, the interior of the station has been restored to the point where it can showcase displays and exhibits related to the railroad history of the Naugatuck Valley. Today, Thomaston Station has once again returned to being an active railroad station, carrying passengers on the Naugatuck Railroad’s excursions.
