Dedham Junction – Dedham railway line
| Dedham Junction MA-Dedham MA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 2.7 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dual track : | - | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Society: | most recently NY&NH | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The railway line Dedham Junction - Dedham (also Dedham Branch ) is a railway line in Massachusetts ( United States ). It is around three kilometers long and is located in the urban area of Dedham . The line is closed and the track systems are dismantled.
history
In the 1870s, the New York and New England Railroad took over the Boston – Islington and Dedham – Willimantic routes . In competition with the Old Colony Railroad , which had two branches to Dedham and was able to offer continuous trains from Boston to Dedham, New York & New England wanted to create such a connection. So they built a short branch line from their Boston to Dedham rail line, which opened in 1881. Due to the longer travel time, the connection with the Old Colony Railroad was not competitive and passenger traffic on the route was abandoned as early as 1884. In 1888, the State Railroad Commission ordered the railroad company to resume passenger services. Now on weekdays some trains ran from Boston to Dedham via the branch line. In 1893 there were three trains in the direction of Dedham and four in the direction of Boston.
In 1898, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad took over New York & New England and with it the branch line to Dedham. Since this company had also taken over the Old Colony Railroad , it now had three branches to Dedham, of which the one dealt with here from Dedham Junction was still the one with the longest travel time on the Boston – Dedham route. One of the other two branches turned off the main line in Readville, where the railway line through Dedham Junction also crossed this main line. Thus a change from the direction of Dorchester and Fairmount to Dedham in Readville was possible and in September 1899 the new owner finally stopped the passenger service to Dedham via Dedham Junction. Freight traffic continued for some time, as there was no connecting track to the Readville – Dedham branch from Dorchester and so the trains could be directed to Dedham without shunting. Long before the line was closed in 1932, freight traffic was also stopped.
Route description
The line branched off at the Dedham Junction junction on the open stretch of the Boston – Islington railway line and initially headed west. In this area the route is overgrown, but still there. At what is now Dedham Corporate Park, it turned northwest and ran alongside Legacy Boulevard. South of Dedham, the line merged into the Dedham – Willimantic railway line, which is now used by US Highway 1 . The Dedham station itself, where four railway lines once ended, has also been closed and the four-lane road built over it.
Sources and further reading
- Individual evidence
- ↑ Traveler's Official Guide, June 1893. Page 160.
- 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