Boston – Fitchburg railway line
The Fitchburg Line is a railway line in Massachusetts ( United States ). It is 79.74 kilometers long and connects the cities of Boston , Cambridge , Waltham , Concord , Ayer , Leominster and Fitchburg , among others . The standard-gauge line belongs to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), which operates passenger traffic on it. Freight traffic operate the Pan Am Railways between Boston and Willows and Pan Am Southern west of Willows.
history
The centerpiece of the route is a horse-drawn tram that ran from what is now Somerville's depot to the center of Charlestown. On April 9, 1836, the Charlestown Branch Railroad Company received a concession for its construction . The line was built as a two-kilometer branch off the Boston – Lowell railway line and opened on June 1, 1839. Initially, the Nashua and Lowell Railroad operated the line, from December 1, 1841 the railway company itself. In the spring of 1842, the company opened an extension of the line to West Cambridge. The terminus was initially called Block Island . At the same time, locomotive operations began.
On March 3, 1842, the Fitchburg Railroad Company received a concession to build a line from Boston to Fitchburg. The company was established on July 13th of that year. The line was opened from West Cambridge in sections: on December 20, 1843 to Waltham, on June 17, 1844 to Concord, on October 1, 1844 to West Acton, from December 30, 1844 to Shirley and on March 5, 1845 finally to Fitchburg. The operator was initially the Charlestown Branch Railroad, from May 1, 1844 the Fitchburg Railroad itself. The Fitchburg used the route of the Charlestown Branch Railroad to Charlestown and finally leased it on September 1, 1845. She took over the management of the entire route. The companies merged on January 31, 1846.
Now the railway company wanted access to downtown Boston and built a line to Causeway Street, which went into operation on August 9, 1848. The terminus was east of Beverly Street, while the terminus of the other railroad companies were west of the intersection, where the Boston North Station is today. The short junction to downtown Charlestown, which was part of the first section of the line opened in 1839, continued to serve as a port connection and was extended by about 1.3 kilometers to the Hoosac Tunnel Docks on November 11, 1863. In 1849 the railway company expanded the entire line to two tracks. In the years that followed, the Fitchburg Railroad developed into a successful railway company with a route network that extended to the US states of New Hampshire, Vermont and New York. Nevertheless, the Boston and Maine Railroad leased the company in 1900 and began operating on the railroad on July 1 of that year. The passenger trains were taken to Boston North Station after the appropriate track connections were installed, and the terminus, built in 1848, was shut down.
From 1927 almost all freight trains between Hill Crossing and Boston ran via North Cambridge, but now all passenger trains on the routes towards Bedford and Northampton to West Cambridge or Clematis Brook drove over the Fitchburg route. After Boston & Maine discontinued express train services on the route in 1960, passenger traffic between Ayer and Fitchburg ceased entirely in 1965 and between South Acton and Ayer in February 1975. In 1976, the MBTA bought the line and operated the passenger traffic under its own control. It had subsidized suburban traffic around Boston since 1965. The Boston & Maine retained a right of use for the route for freight traffic.
In January 1980, the MBTA reopened passenger services on the entire route. In the same year the freight line via North Cambridge had to be shut down, which meant that the freight trains passing through were now led via Lowell and only reached the Fitchburg line in Willows. The second track between South Acton and Willows had already been dismantled. Guilford Transportation , which has been operating under the name Pan Am Railways since 2006, has been running freight operations on the route since 1983 after it took over Boston & Maine. In 2009, Pan Am Railways and the Norfolk Southern Railway jointly founded Pan Am Southern and handed over the management of freight traffic from Willows to Fitchburg to this subsidiary.
Route description
The original terminus of the line, operated from 1839 to 1848, was in the center of Boston’s Charlestown on City Square. The new Boston train station was northeast of the intersection of Causeway Street and Beverly Street. The line led in a north-westerly direction, crossed the Charles River and merged with the old line from 1839, which was still in operation as a port connection, but is now also closed and dismantled. At the height of today's Community College subway station, the old railway line turned west, crossed the main lines of the Eastern Railroad and the Boston and Maine Railroad at the same level and about one and a half kilometers further west the original route of the Boston and Lowell Railroad.
The railway line continues through the town centers of Somerville and Cambridge. Cambridge is now the first stop at Porter Square where you can transfer to the Boston subway . The station is the only one along the route that has a central platform. At West Cambridge station, which was the terminus of the line from 1842 to 1843, two lines branch off to Lexington and Watertown. Shortly afterwards, the railway line reaches the former Hill Crossing stop. From here to Clematis Brook, the North Cambridge – Northampton railway ran right next to the Fitchburg line. Track connections were installed later and finally the parallel line was shut down and all trains were run over the Fitchburg line. The passenger trains stop at Belmont Center and Waverley, a district of Belmont. After the former Clematis Brook station, the route runs through Waltham city center. For a short stretch, from east of Newton Street to the western part of Waltham Station, the line is single-track. The passenger station consists of two parts. Between Elm Street and Moody Street, there is an easy stop on the single-track section where trains to Boston stop. This breakpoint is located in the former Gleisdreieck, over which the West Cambridge – Watertown – Waltham railway converged. To the west of Moody Street, where the railway line becomes double-tracked again, there is another platform on the track in the direction of Fitchburg.
The route runs a short distance along the Charles River in a southwesterly direction, but then turns to the northwest. In the curve is the Brandeis-Roberts stop , which is still in the city of Waltham and connects Brandeis University and the Roberts district. The urban development that extends from Boston merges into a much less populated rural area. In the heyday of the railroad, many suburban trains ended in Roberts. Near the city limits to Weston , the disused railway line to Northampton crosses the route on a steel bridge that still exists today. This is followed by three stops, all of which are in the Weston metropolitan area, Kendal Green , Hastings and Silver Hill . There are track changes in Hastings, so trains can end here. The route continues through Lincoln, where the passenger station is on Lincoln Road. Another stop, Baker Bridge, was further north on Concord Road.
In the further course the railway line passes the Walden Pond and runs through an extensive wooded area to Concord. Close to the city center, passenger trains stop at Concord Station on Thoreau Street. Today the station is only a stop with the side platforms that are common along the entire route. The line turns west, then crosses the Sudbury and Assabet Rivers and reaches West Concord, which is also home to a train station. This station was originally a crossing station, where the Framingham – Lowell railway crossed at the same level. The crossing point was immediately west of the station building on the Fitchburg line. A memorial on the southern station forecourt today commemorates this track crossing. The railway now leads further west to Acton. The double-track section of the line ends in the former South Acton station. The disused route to Marlborough branches off here . The stop where passenger trains stop today is west of Main Street. The train now turns again to the northwest and crosses West Acton, where another passenger station used to be.
The route now continues through Boxborough and Littleton. In Littleton, the original station is no longer served, but a stop south of the city near Interstate 495 . At the former Willows stop, the route turns west again. The double- track North Chelmsford – Ayer railway ends in Willows and carries the bulk of freight traffic towards Maine. On the following section to Ayer, numerous freight trains run daily, coming from Maine turning off in Ayer in the direction of Worcester, or continuing west via Fitchburg. From Willows to Fitchburg, the line is double-tracked again. The North Chelmsford Railway was originally adjacent to the Fitchburg Line from Willows to Ayer, but this section was closed in 1946 and all trains were routed over the Fitchburg Line. A few kilometers further you finally reach Ayer train station, which was originally called Groton Junction and then Ayer Junction . This is where the Ayer – Greenville line ended in addition to the line from North Chelmsford and it crossed the Worcester – Rochester line at the same level , although it has now been closed to the north of Ayer and now joins the Fitchburg line in a track triangle. As in West Concord, the passenger station was located directly at the track crossing, and the trains still stop within the track triangle at the side platforms.
Further west, the railway line crosses Shirley, where there is another stopping point, passes the southern tip of Lake Shirley and turns to the south-west. The Lunenburg stop on Leominster-Shirley Road was actually already in the urban area of Leominster. The route continues to the southwest, but turns just before Interstate 190 in a northwest direction and continues parallel to a motorway slip road. On Main Street is the North Leominster station, which is equipped with side platforms. The line then crosses the city limits to Fitchburg, where there are several freight connections and stations. It crosses the North Nashua River twice and reaches the Fitchburg terminus, which was also used by the trains on the Sterling Junction – Fitchburg railway line, which was closed here . The route of this route joins the Fitchburg main route between the two river bridges. In Fitchburg the line merges with the Fitchburg – Greenfield railway line .
passenger traffic
Before the opening of the Hoosac Tunnel in 1875, only local passenger trains ran on the route. In 1869 there were four trains to Fitchburg, two of which continued on the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad in the direction of Brattleboro and Hoosac Tunnel. On Sundays an additional pair of trains went to Fitchburg. There was also a pair of trains to Groton Junction (Ayer), a pair of trains via South Acton to Marlborough, and a pair of trains to Concord and one to Waltham. Seven other trains ran from Boston via West Cambridge and Watertown to Waltham.
In 1901 several important express trains ran over the route, including the daily Continental Limited to Chicago and St. Louis. In addition, three more express trains ran to Chicago and one to St. Louis on weekdays and another train to Chicago on Sundays. Furthermore, the Boston & Maine offered express trains that drove via Fitchburg to Vermont and Canada. There were four trains on weekdays, one going to Montreal, two to Burlington and one to Bellows Falls. On Sundays only the train to Montreal ran. There was also an extensive range of train services on the route in suburban traffic. On weekdays 53 passenger trains left Boston North Station for the Fitchburg route. Of these, 19 turned in West Cambridge onto the route via Watertown, of which 12 again drove the route between Waltham and Roberts. One train ended in West Cambridge, ten in Waltham, six in Roberts, three in West Concord, three in South Acton, two in Ayer, and five in Fitchburg. One train went to Marlborough via South Acton, one to Greenfield via Fitchburg and two to Troy. In addition, a train went from Ayer to Troy. On Sundays, in addition to the express trains, there was a train to Troy, one to Fitchburg, one to Ayer, two to South Acton, and four to Roberts. In addition, seven trains drove via Watertown to Roberts.
After the First World War and again after the Great Depression in 1929, the range was significantly reduced. In 1932 the Minute Man , one of the most famous Boston & Maine express trains, ran from Boston to Chicago. There were also two daily trains to Montreal, namely the Ethan Allen , which was called the Green Mountain Flyer on Sundays , and the Mount Royal . Another express train ran to Rutland, Vermont on weekdays. In addition, three passenger trains ran to Troy on weekdays, one each to Williamstown and Greenfield, five (six on Saturdays) to Fitchburg, two to Ayer, two to South Acton, one via South Acton to Maynard and a single pair of trains via Watertown to Waltham. On Sundays only two passenger trains ran to Troy, one to Williamstown, two to Fitchburg and one via Watertown to Waltham.
According to the 2010 timetable, the MBTA operates 17 trains Monday through Friday, four of which ended in South Acton. There are eight trains on Saturdays and Sundays, two of which only run to South Acton.
Accidents
The only serious accident on the line occurred on the evening of November 26, 1905. The Boston – Marlborough passenger train, delayed in foggy weather, had just left Baker Bridge when the following Montreal Express hit the train at full speed. The locomotive crew of the express train had not seen the slow speed signals. A fire broke out due to leaking oil and 17 people were killed.
Sources and further reading
- Individual evidence
- ↑ see timetables of the route from the years mentioned.
- ↑ Official timetable of the MBTA (PDF; 176 kB) ( Memento from November 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Karr 1995, p. 203.
- 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
- B&M Corporate History, 2014, pages 189–192 ( Memento from June 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- List of stations (with miles) and staff from 1923 (English)