From collection Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company Collection
Milk & R.R. Stations, North Brookfield, N.Y. 402
View of two sets of railroad tracks passing by a large frame building, a water tower, and a passenger station in a rural setting. This image is part of a series made by one of the three Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company photographers assigned to New England or upstate New York. The glass plates would be sent back to Belfast, Maine, and processed into postcards at the printing plant on High Street. As the photo reflects, the central New York State hamlet of North Brookfield was in an agricultural region with dairying at its center. Farmers would drive their milk cans up the banked ramp into the milk station, at the left, where it was likely kept cold until being shipped out by rail to Utica, thence to Rensselaer and down the Hudson River line to New York City. The passenger station at the right is relatively simple, suggesting passenger service was comparatively quieter than dairy freight.
