Nashua – North Acton railway line

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nashua NH-North Acton MA
Route length: 32.22 km
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Society: last BM
Legend
Route - straight ahead
 by Concord
   
 to Boston
   
 0.00 Nashua NH Union Station
   
 Lowell – Nashua route
   
 Link to Worcester
   
 Worcester – Rochester route
   
 Connecting track to Rochester
   
 1.27 Nashua NH Otterson St
   
 approx. 3 Sandy Pond NH
   
 10.28 Dunstable MA
   
 14.63 East Groton MA
   
 21.23 West Graniteville MA (formerly Graniteville)
   
 Ayer – North Chelmsford route
   
 22.64 Pine Ridge MA (formerly Westford)
   
 25.93 East Littleton MA
   
 from Lowell
   
 32.22 North Acton MA
   
 to Framingham

The Nashua – North Acton railway is a rail link between Massachusetts and New Hampshire ( United States ). It is 20 miles long and connects the cities of Nashua, New Hampshire, and Acton, Massachusetts . The line is completely closed and mostly dismantled.

history

To compete with the main line between Boston and Nashua via Lowell , the Nashua, Acton and Boston Railroad (NAB), founded in 1871, wanted to build a railway line further west that would connect to the main line of the Fitchburg Railroad in Concord (Massachusetts) . The connection via Concord was nearly ten kilometers shorter. On July 1, 1873, the line from Nashua to North Acton was opened, where it joined the Framingham – Lowell line of the Framingham and Lowell Railroad , which in turn met in Concord on the Fitchburg main line. The NAB trains also used this route to Concord. In 1876, the Concord Railroad leased the railway and from then on ran the company. This went on in 1889 with the takeover of Concord by the Concord and Montreal Railroad and in 1895 with the takeover by the Boston and Maine Railroad .

The initially planned competition to the main line via Lowell never materialized, as the line via Lowell was much better developed. The travel time from Nashua to Boston was similar, but had to change trains in Concord, which was not necessary via Lowell. Even in the heyday of the railroad, a maximum of three pairs of trains ran between Nashua and West Concord. The pure passenger traffic was stopped on June 27, 1921. A mixed train ran until June 23, 1924 . In May 1925 all traffic ended and the line was largely closed and dismantled in the summer of 1926. Only about one kilometer in North Acton and about three kilometers in Nashua remained in operation as sidings, the latter until about 1980.

Route description

The route begins in Nashua at Union Station . It heads south out of the city and shortly thereafter crosses the state line into Massachusetts. Through Dunstable and along the west bank of the Massapoag Pond , the railway leads through sparsely populated areas. At Graniteville it crosses the Ayer – North Chelmsford railway line, which is still in operation today, and turns south-east. The railway continues with relatively few bends to North Acton, where it joins the route of the Framingham – Lowell railway line, which is also closed .

Sources and further information

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