Deerfield Junction – East Deerfield Railway
| Deerfield Junction MA-East Deerfield MA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 1.67 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dual track : | - | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Society: | Pan Am Southern | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The railway line Deerfield Junction - East Deerfield (also East Deerfield Branch ) is a railway line in Massachusetts ( United States ). The single-track line is 1.67 kilometers long and connects the railway lines Springfield-East Northfield and Fitchburg-Greenfield in the urban area of Deerfield . The standard gauge line belongs to the Pan Am Southern , which only operates goods traffic on it.
history
In Greenfield, northwest of Deerfield, two important main lines of the Boston and Maine Railroad crossed from the 1870s , namely the connection New York – Montréal and the connection Boston – Albany. A large freight yard was built in East Deerfield. However, trains on the north-south route from New York and Springfield could only reach this freight yard via Greenfield, where no connecting curve could be built due to the topography, so the trains had to move. On January 11, 1906, Boston & Maine therefore opened the link from Deerfield Junction to the East Deerfield freight yard. From the beginning, the route served exclusively for freight traffic. From 1983 the Guilford Transportation , operating under the name Pan Am Railways since 2006 , the route after it had taken over the Boston & Maine. In 2009, Pan Am Railways and the Norfolk Southern Railway jointly founded Pan Am Southern , which took over the route and has been operating it ever since.
Route description
The line branches off a few kilometers north of Deerfield station from the Springfield – East Northfield railway and initially runs in a northeastern direction. After a few hundred meters, a siding branches off that leads to a gravel pit south of the route. There was also a connecting track to the parallel, but disused railway line South Deerfield – Turners Falls . The route continues in a generous S-curve around the site of the gravel works, crosses River Road on a bridge and shortly afterwards joins the East Deerfield freight yard on the Fitchburg – Greenfield railway line .
Sources and further reading
- 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