Bedford – North Billerica Railway

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Bedford MA – North Billerica MA
(narrow gauge, 1877–1878)
Route length: 13.89 km
Gauge : 610 mm ( 2 foot track )
Society: Billerica and Bedford Railroad
Legend
   
 0 Bedford MA
   
 0½ Main Street (now Great Road)
   
 1 Spring Street (now Spring Road)
   
 3 Oak Hill
   
 3½ Bedford Springs MA
   
 4th Cliffs
   
 5 South Billerica MA
   
 8th Nuttings Pond (now Nutting Lake)
   
 9 Boston Road
   
 10½ Billerica MA
   
 12 Salem Road
   
 12½ Nasons
   
 14th North Billerica MA
Bedford MA – North Billerica MA
(standard gauge, from 1885)
Route length: 12.97 km
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Society: PAR
Legend
   
 from West Cambridge
   
 0.00 Bedford MA ( wedge station )
   
 to Middlesex Junction
   
 Middlesex and Boston Street Railway (Loomis Street)
   
 1.09 Spring Road Crossing
   
 3.25 Bedford Springs MA
   
 4.97 South Billerica MA
   
 Narrow gauge line, see above
   
 6.95 Turnpike
   
 Middlesex and Boston Street Railway (Concord Road)
   
 8.50 Billerica MA
   
 Bay State Street Railway (Main Street)
   
 9.46 Bennett Hall (formerly Main Street)
   
 End of the route south of Floyd Street
   
 Connection to Billerica Shops
   
 Narrow gauge line, see above
   
 from Boston
Station, station
 12.97 North Billerica MA (formerly Billerica Mills)
Route - straight ahead
 after Lowell

The railway Bedford-North Billerica is a railway line in Middlesex County in Massachusetts ( United States ). The route is 13 kilometers long and connects the cities of Bedford and Billerica . The normal-gauge line has been closed except for an approximately three-kilometer connection to the Billerica shops . The siding belongs to Pan Am Railways .

history

Narrow gauge railway

The city of Billerica was off the main Boston-Lowell line of the Boston and Lowell Railroad . There were two stops on this route that were close to the city, but they were each several kilometers from the center. After Boston & Lowell had also connected the city of Bedford, south of Billerica, to the railway network in 1873, the city fathers asked the railway company to build a connecting line between these two lines through the center of Billerica. Boston & Lowell was not interested. The entrepreneur George Mansfield wanted to build a narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of two feet (610 mm). He received the concession in May 1876 and founded the Billerica and Bedford Railroad Company . The line was built quickly and opened in October 1877 between Bedford and South Billerica and in November of the same year to North Billerica on the Boston & Lowell main line. Apparently, however, the line was not profitable and just six months after the opening, the railway company declared bankruptcy, closed the line, dismantled the tracks and sold tracks and vehicles for the Farmington – Phillips railway line of the Sandy River Railroad in Maine , which was under construction . which was also built in two foot gauge.

Standard gauge line

A few years after the closure, Boston & Lowell bought the southern part of the line and rebuilt the line in standard gauge . Between South Billerica and North Billerica, however, the new route did not run east past the city center like the narrow-gauge railway, but west, which shortened the route length by about one kilometer. It was opened on April 30, 1885. The company ran from 1887 on the Boston and Maine Railroad , which Boston & Lowell had leased.

Although there were a few continuous trains from Boston to Lowell that ran via Bedford and Billerica, the travel time on the main line was much shorter and so the line was hardly used. In 1933 the railway company completely stopped the sparse passenger transport. Continuous freight traffic ended in 1962 and the line was shut down between Bedford and Billerica, and in 1980 between Billerica station and Bennett Hall station. Since then, the track ends south of Floyd Street. The remaining part of the route serves as the western entrance to the Billerica Shops , one of the main workshops of the railway company. In 1983 Guilford Transportation took over Boston & Maine and with it the rest of the route. The railway company has been operating under the name Pan Am Railways since 2006 , with its headquarters in the Billerica Shops.

Route description

The line begins at Bedford Wedge Station, where it branches off the West Cambridge – Middlesex Junction railway line and heads north. On the section to South Billerica, the route is now used as a footpath and cycle path ( Bedford Narrow Gauge Rail Trail ). In the further course, the route was partially built over. Only after crossing US Highway 3 is it visible again as an overgrown railway embankment. The Turnpike stop was located at the former level crossing of the Middlesex Turnpike . Billerica Station was on River Street. There is still a boundary wall at Bennett Hall, the track area is used as a parking lot. The track, which is still used occasionally, begins shortly afterwards. The entrance to the Billerica Shops branches off north of Floyd Street and about two kilometers further north the line joins the main Boston – Lowell line just before the North Billerica station.

The narrow-gauge route ran from South Billerica along the northern edge of Nutting Lake and east around the city center. Several stops were on the intersecting main roads.

passenger traffic

In 1893 four trains ran the line on weekdays, one of which continued via Bedford to Boston. On Sundays there was a train that also went to Boston. The trains did not end in North Billerica but continued on to Lowell. After the First World War, the train service was significantly reduced and in 1926 there was still a pair of trains in weekday rush hour traffic on the Boston – Bedford – Lowell route, as well as a train from Boston via Bedford to Billerica on Saturdays. In 1933 passenger traffic was completely stopped.

Sources and further reading

Individual evidence
  1. ↑ see timetables of the route from the years mentioned.
literature
  • Ronald D. Karr: The Rail Lines of Southern New England. A Handbook of Railroad History. Branch Line Press, Pepperell, MA 1995. ISBN 0-942147-02-2
  • Mike Walker: Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. New England & Maritime Canada. (2nd edition) SPV-Verlag, Dunkirk (GB), 2010. ISBN 1-874745-12-9
Web links