Mount Tom – Easthampton railway line
| Mount Tom MA-Easthampton MA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 5.33 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dual track : | - | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Society: | most recently Pioneer Valley RR | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Mount Tom – Easthampton (also Easthampton Branch ) railway is a railway line in Massachusetts ( United States ). It is five kilometers long and tied Easthampton to the main Springfield – East Northfield . The standard gauge line is closed.
history
The city of Easthampton had been connected to the New Haven and Northampton Railroad since the 1850s, but there was no direct connection to Springfield . To change this, the Mount Tom and Easthampton Railroad Company received on May 4, 1871 the concession to build a railway line from the main line from Springfield to Easthampton. The company was set up and opened on December 1, 1871 the railway line, which could be built without major obstacles. Between Hampton Mills and Easthampton, the railway line was built right next to that of the New Haven and Northampton Railroad.
With the opening of the line, the Connecticut River Railroad leased the railway and ran its operations. They also operated the main line to Springfield. On July 1, 1872, she bought the railway. From January 1, 1893, the Boston and Maine Railroad ran after it had leased the Connecticut River Railroad. At the end of 1926, passenger traffic was stopped. 1982 Boston & Maine sold the route to the Pioneer Valley Railroad , which also operates the route of the former New Haven & Northampton. However, they put the line in 1983 together with the subsequent line in Easthampton.
Route description
The line branches off the main line from Springfield at Mount Tom Station on the northern tip of the urban area of Holyoke and turns off towards the southwest. It runs parallel to East Street and Ferry Street to Easthampton. Near the Hampton Mills stop, the route meets the New Haven – Shelburne Junction railway line , next to which it runs to the Easthampton terminus. The line had its own terminus right next to that of the New Haven line, to which there was also a rail connection.
passenger traffic
In 1881 six pairs of trains were available that connected to and from Springfield in Mount Tom. After the takeover by Boston & Maine, eight train pairs were offered in 1893, nine in 1906 and ten in 1916, but these only ran on weekdays. After the First World War, passenger traffic on the route collapsed, as many passengers switched to their own vehicles and traffic shifted to the streets. In 1920 there were still six pairs of trains running Monday to Friday and seven on Saturdays. The 1926 summer timetable provided for five train pairs on weekdays and six on Saturdays. Passenger traffic was discontinued at the end of the year.
Sources and further reading
- Individual evidence
- ↑ 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