And now, some rail history geeking
Jul. 18th, 2005 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dmazeYesterday's bike trip took us across several of the runs-north-and-south-between-main-lines lines north of Worcester, and across the failed Mass Central. I'm not entirely sure what value the lines that still exist add, in part because I'm not entirely sure how freight comes into New England. My current impression is that it mostly goes to Selkirk Yard in Albany on CSX, and then has two choices to get to Bostonish, on the B&M or CSX (ex-B&A). Given that, then, you could go from Gardner to Worcester and Providence on the P&W, or from Worcester to Ayer on the B&M, and from there to where you're actually going. (But, since it probably moved across CSX to Albany, it'll probably stay on CSX to at least Worcester.)
But this explanation doesn't actually cover lines like the Mass Central, or the ex-Old Colony line from Framingham to Leominster (formerly Fitchburg). The Old Colony makes sense in its own right; if you're going to Fall River, New Bedford, or the Cape, then you can come in on your choice of line from New York state and then run southeast. The MCRR, my hypothesis is, then failed for lack of a westward connection beyond Northampton. Then at some point somebody, possibly the B&A or the NYC, acquired the Old Colony in a bid to take traffic from the B&M. Yeah.
Google points me at Wikipedia, which reminds me that I forgot a player: the New Haven. If you can get your stuff to New York City (on the Pennsylvania, B&O, or C&O) then you can move it across the NYNH&H to Providence. From there you could use the P&W to go to Worcester, but the New Haven instead, according to Wikipedia, "leased" (not sure what this means) the Old Colony in 1893, giving them access to all of southeastern Massachusetts, and also through lines to Fitchburg via Framingham and Nashua via Ayer. Then, when the Penn Central formed, it took the New Haven and hence the Old Colony with it, and after a couple more reorganizations it's part of CSX today.
So, about that Mass Central. In Berlin and Bolton, the part we biked past, there's this big berm that's clearly the ex-MCRR right-of-way. (From West Boylston west, there's a unpaved rail trail; between Waltham and Sudbury there are power lines.) The point at which we crossed it had a "no trespassing, MWRA" sign. It's really visible; if you look at my Google Maps bike trip page, double-click on the 60-mile marker, zoom all the way in on satellite mode and go east to the next turn, you can see it winding along, parallel to the straighter CSX (ex-OC) line. Did they really build what looks like 15 or 20 miles of rail on a big pile of dirt? Or is this some kind of subtle aqueduct thing on an unused right-of-way?
But this explanation doesn't actually cover lines like the Mass Central, or the ex-Old Colony line from Framingham to Leominster (formerly Fitchburg). The Old Colony makes sense in its own right; if you're going to Fall River, New Bedford, or the Cape, then you can come in on your choice of line from New York state and then run southeast. The MCRR, my hypothesis is, then failed for lack of a westward connection beyond Northampton. Then at some point somebody, possibly the B&A or the NYC, acquired the Old Colony in a bid to take traffic from the B&M. Yeah.
Google points me at Wikipedia, which reminds me that I forgot a player: the New Haven. If you can get your stuff to New York City (on the Pennsylvania, B&O, or C&O) then you can move it across the NYNH&H to Providence. From there you could use the P&W to go to Worcester, but the New Haven instead, according to Wikipedia, "leased" (not sure what this means) the Old Colony in 1893, giving them access to all of southeastern Massachusetts, and also through lines to Fitchburg via Framingham and Nashua via Ayer. Then, when the Penn Central formed, it took the New Haven and hence the Old Colony with it, and after a couple more reorganizations it's part of CSX today.
So, about that Mass Central. In Berlin and Bolton, the part we biked past, there's this big berm that's clearly the ex-MCRR right-of-way. (From West Boylston west, there's a unpaved rail trail; between Waltham and Sudbury there are power lines.) The point at which we crossed it had a "no trespassing, MWRA" sign. It's really visible; if you look at my Google Maps bike trip page, double-click on the 60-mile marker, zoom all the way in on satellite mode and go east to the next turn, you can see it winding along, parallel to the straighter CSX (ex-OC) line. Did they really build what looks like 15 or 20 miles of rail on a big pile of dirt? Or is this some kind of subtle aqueduct thing on an unused right-of-way?
