Needham Junction – West Roxbury Railway

Needham Junction MA-West Roxbury MA
Route length:	6.4 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Dual track :	- (previously: entire route)
Society:	MBTA
Legend from Harrisville after Brookline MBS tram (Chestnut St) 0.0 Needham Junction MA Evasion Hersey (formerly Birds Hill) BSS tram (Great Plain Ave) Interstate 95 Charles River Evasion from Dedham 6.4 West Roxbury MA to Forest Hills

The railway Needham Junction West Roxbury is a railway line in Massachusetts ( United States ). It is around six kilometers long and connects the cities of Needham and Roxbury . The standard-gauge line belongs to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority , which operates passenger traffic on it. Occasional freight traffic is operated by the Bay Colony Railroad , which has the right to use the route.

history

At the end of the 19th century there were numerous lines of various railway companies that led south from Boston . On them, suburban trains ran in S-Bahn-like intervals to the surrounding residential cities. The New York and New England Railroad ran the Back Bay – Harrisville line , which was served in frequent intervals to Needham. However, the trains on this route in Brookline had to be coupled to trains on the Boston and Albany Railroad in order to reach Boston. The Old Colony Railroad owned the Forest Hills – Dedham line , which branched off from the main Boston – Providence line in Forest Hills. There were also numerous trains running from Boston to Dedham.

Both companies were taken over in the 1890s by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , which now planned to connect the two routes to run trains from Needham and Harrisville directly to Boston. In November 1906 the connection went into operation and all trains from Harrisville and Needham now drove via West Roxbury and Forest Hills to Boston. In order to continue to offer a direct connection to the districts north of Brookline, the Needham trains now ran as ring trains from Boston via West Roxbury, Needham and Brookline back to Boston or in the opposite direction.

In 1926, through traffic in the direction of Harrisville ended. Passengers on these trains took ring trains to Needham Junction and had to change trains there. In 1927 the ring traffic was also stopped and the trains now ran from Boston via West Roxbury and Needham Junction to Needham Upper Falls, or from 1932 only to Needham Heights.

With the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, the route went into the possession of Penn Central in 1969 , which continued operations. However, they sold the railway line in 1973 to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), which has been operating passenger services ever since. The trains still run from Boston via West Roxbury to Needham Heights, just as they have been since 1932. From October 1979 to October 1987, passenger traffic was suspended due to extensive construction work on the main line to Boston. The only sparse freight traffic was operated by Penn Central until 1976, then by Conrail and from 1984 by the Bay Colony Railroad .

Route description

The line branches off the Back Bay – Harrisville railway line in a triangular track and heads east. Since with the opening of the line there were no more continuous trains from Needham in the direction of Harrisville, but instead all passenger trains drove over the new line to Boston, the Needham Junction stop was not set up at the actual junction, but east of the track triangle on Chestnut Street. The only stop in Hersey is in the Birds Hill neighborhood on Great Plain Avenue. At both stations there was a transition to tram routes. In Roxbury the line joins the "Dedham Branch" to the north. A connecting curve towards Dedham was not installed.

Despite the shortness of the route, some engineering structures were necessary to ensure a flat route. In Needham the route initially runs on an embankment with bridges over various roads, in Birds Hill in a sometimes deep cut that had to be bridged by the roads. The Charles River had to be crossed between Needham and Roxbury .

The line was initially double-tracked, but the second track was dismantled as early as the 1960s. The stations were dismantled into breakpoints. Between Needham Junction and Hersey and west of West Roxbury, the second track remained on two short sections as a turnout . The bridge, which was built over Interstate 95 in the 1970s , was not given a subgrade for a second track.

passenger traffic

In 1910, eight trains ran over the route from Boston on weekdays, which continued from Needham Junction in the direction of Woonsocket. One of the trains went to Pascoag. There were five trains going to Woonsocket on Sundays. In addition, ring trains ran from Boston via West Roxbury, Needham Junction and Brookline to Boston, or in the opposite direction. On weekdays ten trains drove clockwise across the entire ring, on Sundays two trains drove. In addition, three trains were offered on weekdays and two trains on Sundays, which only went to Newton Highlands and back, and a daily train only ran to Needham Junction and back. In an anti-clockwise direction, eight trains ran across the entire ring on workdays, but this connection was not offered on Sundays.

In 1945, the through traffic in the direction of Woonsocket and the ring traffic had already stopped. On the route from Boston via West Roxbury to Needham Heights there were ten pairs of trains on weekdays and eight pairs of trains on Saturdays. Traffic was quiet on Sundays.

In 2012, 16 pairs of trains run the route on weekdays; there are no passenger services on weekends.

Sources and further reading

Individual evidence

1. ↑ see timetables of the route from the years mentioned.
2. ↑ Needham Line (MBTA) timetable (accessed April 27, 2013)

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