Welcome to Darien, a lovely Connecticut town filled with famous people, aspiring politicians, and people that make a whole lot more money than I do. In fact, Darien is considered part of Connecticut’s “Gold Coast” – a moniker I had not even heard of prior to today. Along with other railroad towns I’ve featured – like New Canaan and Greenwich – Darien is certainly one of the more wealthy destinations along the New Haven Line. The story is still the same – the railroad enabled people to move out of the city and establish suburban communities in Westchester and southern Connecticut. But really, who wouldn’t want to be able to work in the city during the week, and hang out at the yacht club on the weekend?
Postcard view of Darien
Darien station is one of two stations in the town of Darien, the other being Noroton Heights, which is one stop to the west. The station is slightly less than 38 miles from the city, and it takes you just under an hour to get to Grand Central. Stamford, on the other hand, is a short, approximately five mile, jaunt that takes a bit less than ten minutes.
The historic station building that still stands was built at some point in the 1800’s, and was restored in 2002. As with other stations we’ve seen on the line, building plans were often reused as a cost cutting measure. Darien’s station bears a strong resemblance to Westport, and is practically a twin to Southport‘s west-bound station
Photo of Darien from the lovely TylerCityStation
It was at Darien that I think I realized the true nature of my terrorist photographer tendencies. Metro North published a nice little “System Safety / Security Pocket Guide” for employees. Inside it lists various suspicious behaviors that should be reported straight away. One of which says, “Taking photos in areas of little interest to the public.” I don’t know about you, but I am not sure if light fixtures are of real interest to the public. In fact, I think I took more photos of light fixtures than I did of the 100+ year old Darien station. Thankfully it wasn’t a hot day – sweating is another suspicious behavior.
Below you will find all of the suspicious photos I snapped at Darien – which is the second-to-last station to be featured on our tour of the New Haven Line. Next Tuesday will be our final station stop – Stamford.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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I had to google Rainn Wilson, because I had no idea who that was.
As for Stamford, don’t hope for too much. I was really too afraid to take pictures because there were so many cops swarming the place when I was there.
Loved today’s post, but why didn’t Darien rate a panorama picture? I may be showing my ignorance, but I assumed each station post would include one of those left-to-right-and-everything-in-between pics for the panorama project. Is the definition of panorama broader than that? Or did internet gremlins steal one of your pictures?
Haha, you are correct… I wouldn’t totally consider any of the posted images a traditional panorama in the typical 180 degree sense. Many of my photos would be considered more wide angle shots, such as the final one. It was however stitched together from seven separate photographs, which is more along the lines of my criteria for the title. Though perhaps even that concept should be revisited, as I now have a lens that can essentially take around 160 or more degrees in a single shot.
But I think the underlying concept behind all of my so-called panoramic shots is the distortion – rendering a linear landscape of rails and platform edges with a graceful curve. The two stitched photographs present do fit that description.
And since you are asking, I did shoot a more “traditional” panorama, at least in the 180 degree sense, while I was at Darien. However, I was not happy with it, and thus was not posted. :P
A week from yesterday I went to a estate sale in the Rowayton section of Darien ; this was Andy Rooney’s house located not very far South of the Rowayton Depot. Very modest , non-descript house , no chandelier in the dining room—did Andy commute from the Rowayton Depot ? would depend on the MN schedule for a “limited stop” depot.