Hop River State Park Trail

Bolton to Windham - 12 miles - gravel - open to public use - paving proposed
Note Hop River Bridge is missing 

Vernon - 9.1 miles - stone dust -  open to public use

Historic Railroad Mileage Chart

Miles

Station

58

Willimantic

59

Columbia

63

Hop River

67

Andover

71

Steeles

73

Bolton

77

Vernon
(Vernon & Rockville)

79

Talcotville

81

Manchester

Italics - points beyond ends of trail

Mileage and Station names from Table 10  in The Rail Lines of Southern New England by Ronald Dale Karr, published by Branch Line Press in 1995.

Open sections:

Maps

A map of the currently open trail in Manchester, Vernon & Bolton through Valley Falls State Park is on the East Coast Greenway Web Site.

A map of the Hop River Trail is available on pages 4 & 7 of Appendix A of the Connecticut Statewide Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan posted on the Bike-ped Web Page of   CT-DOT. Other information suggests that the trail is also passable (for mountain bikes?) between Bolton Notch and the east end of the Vernon Section. 

East Coast Greenway

The Willimantic to Bolton section of this Rail-trail will be part of the East Coast Greenway, a multi-use trail that is planned from Maine to Florida. The East Coast Greenway has recently been selected as one of 15 trails for designation as a Millenium Trail, which should be very helpful in focusing public attention on all of the component trail projects.

Status Report to ECGA (2001 State of the Trail Report)

Relevant books

A 19 mile section of the Trail from Vernon (Church St) to Willimantic (Flanders Rd) is described in Section 3 of  the Official Rails-to-Trails Conservancy New England Guidebook by Cynthia Mascott published in 2000 by Globe Pequot Press. This trail listing contains a photograph, historical description, trail head directions and parking, a trail map, trail details, a local trail manager contact, and much more. Note that the 3.5 mile section of the Rockville Spur Trail running north from Vernon (Church St) into Rockville is also described in Section 5 of this book!

A 18.8 mile section of the trail between Vernon and Willimantic is described in Great Rail Trails of the Northeast by Craig Della Penna. The information includes a historical background of the trail as well as a detailed description keyed to bicycle odometer readings from the author's in person trip down the trail. This book is out-of-print, but many bookstores still have copies for sale.

Newspaper Articles

Public Transit to the Trail

Bonanza Bus (Hartford-Providence) stops in Willimantic at Bev's News Stand, 790 Main St. on a daily basis. 

Windham Region Transit District

Phone: 860-456-2223 or e-mail [email protected]

Arrow Line

Collins Bus Service

Commuter bus service to Hartford from Vernon. (Weekday rush direction only

CT Transit - Hartford City Bus Service in Vernon & Manchester:

Railroad Abandonment Summary

Item From To Year RR Miles
283 Manchester Columbia 1970 PC 19.4
284 Vernon Rockville 1970 PC 4.4
368 Manchester South Manchester 1986 CR 2.0

From the "Directory of Rail Abandonments 1848-1994" in the book Lost Railroads of New England, 2nd Ed. by Ronald Dale Karr, published by Branch Line Press in 1996.

Brief History of the Railroad

A brief history of the Hartford, Providence & Fishkill RR is published as Article #10 in The Rail Lines of Southern New England by Ronald Dale Karr, published by Branch Line Press in 1995.


Sign images are from the Manual of Traffic Signs by Richard C. Moeur.

Updated on August 06, 2001 by Kenyon F. Karl <[email protected]>.
  Unintentional errors are likely!

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