The Central New England Railroad was a single-track line originally built in 1871 from Hartford to Millerton, then extended in 1888 to the Poughkeepsie Bridge, making it the main trunk line across the Hudson River. Passenger service ended in 1927 and freight service in 1938. In its early years, it was the region's principal mode of transportation, carrying milk and fresh produce to market and running special Sunday picnic trains for family outings. Its telegraph lines also brought townspeople news of major events, including state-by-state returns in the close 1916 presidential race between Charles Evans Hughes and Woodrow Wilson, the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the battleship Maine in 1898, and baseball scores during the World Series. Recollections published in 1972 by Robert E. Ashman, whose father served for 47 years as a CNE stationmaster at Lakeville, Salisbury, and Taconic, preserve many colorful anecdotes, including one in which an intoxicated passenger was nailed into an empty furniture crate and shipped by rail from Taconic to Salisbury, where the Sheriff removed him and took him to the town lockup.