Montvale – Stoneham railway line

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Montvale MA-Stoneham MA
Route length: 3.77 km
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Society: most recently Guilford Transportation
Legend
Route - straight ahead
 from Boston
Station without passenger traffic
 0.00 Montvale MA (formerly East Woburn)
   
 after Lowell
   
 approx. 0.2 Grape Street
   
 0.95 Oakland
   
 Interstate 93
   
 Bay State Street Railway (Montvale Avenue)
   
 1.93 Lindenwood
   
 2.59 Farm Hill
   
 Bay State Street Railway (Main Street)
   
 3.35 Pleasant Street
   
 3.77 Stoneham MA

The Montvale – Stoneham (also Stoneham Branch ) railway is a railway line in Middlesex County in Massachusetts ( United States ). The route is 3.77 kilometers long and connects the cities of Woburn and Stoneham . The standard gauge line is closed.

history

When the main line Boston – Lowell was built in 1835, Stoneham was left east of the line with no siding. As the population continued to increase and small industrial companies settled, the Stoneham Branch Railroad Company received a concession for a branch line on April 6, 1859, which should branch off from the main line in East Woburn (now Montvale) and lead to Stoneham. In order to also connect the north of the city, the route should run in a large 180 ° arc around the center and finally end from the northeast in the city center. The railway company was formally set up in 1861 and opened the line on July 1, 1863. The operation led from the beginning of the Boston and Lowell Railroad , which leased the line on July 1, 1864 for five years and finally bought on April 15, 1870.

From 1887 on, the Boston and Maine Railroad , which Boston & Lowell had leased, was in charge of operations. The route developed well and numerous suburban trains from Boston drove to Stoneham. Often, however, you had to change trains in Montvale. In May 1958 the Boston & Maine stopped the passenger traffic after there was no longer sufficient demand due to the increasing individual traffic. Freight traffic continued and only ended in 1982 between Oakland and Stoneham. This section was then closed. The route was transferred to Guilford Transportation in 1983 . The new owner stopped the rest of the freight traffic in 1992 and closed the section from Montvale to Oakland station in 1994.

Route description

The line branches off the main line from Boston at the former Montvale station. She first turns east, where the first stop was still on the curved track, on Grape Street . Oakland Station was at the south end of Hill Street, just before the Interstate 93 flyover . The route then turns to the northeast and crosses Montvale Avenue. Here was the Lindenwood stop in the Stoneham district of the same name. The route continues on Lindenwood Road and William Street. This is where the 180 ° arc around the city center, which is further south, begins. On Main Street, which forms the north-south main thoroughfare through Stoneham, was the Farm Hill stop . The train then crosses Central Street and Pomeworth Street and now runs in a south-westerly direction. The last stop before the Stoneham terminus was on Pleasant Street. The station was at the corner of Franklin Street and Pine Street. The former station building still stands and houses a credit institute.

passenger traffic

Passenger traffic on the route was always geared towards Boston. Some of the trains continued from Montvale on the main line to Boston North Station . In 1869 six trains were available, and seven on Wednesdays and Saturdays. In 1881 the offer had grown to eleven weekday trains, with an additional Saturday train. After Stoneham had been connected to the dense overland tram network around Boston, the rail company withdrew the train offer somewhat. In 1916, nine trains ran on weekdays and an additional train on Saturdays. After the First World War, the offer was significantly reduced, since private transport and the tram represented increasing competition. In 1932 there were only four trains running on weekdays and one more on Saturdays. Before the cessation of passenger traffic in 1958, only one pair of trains ran Monday through Friday, running early to Boston and back to Stoneham in the afternoon.

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