Peabody – Wakefield Junction railway line

Peabody MA-Wakefield Junction MA

Route length:

12.91 km

Society:

		from Salem
		to North Andover
	0.00	Peabody MA (formerly Keilbahnhof , formerly South Danvers)
		Bay State Street Railway (Center Street)
		Industrial connection
	2.35	Hunt-Rankin Co.
	2.90	South Peabody MA
		Industrial park
	6.32	Lynnfield MA
	9.62	Montrose Avenue
		Bay State Street Railway (Water Street)
	12.15	Wakefield Center MA
		Bay State Street Railway (North Avenue)
		from Newburyport
		from Wilmington Junction
	12.91	Wakefield Junction MA
		to Boston

The Peabody – Wakefield Junction (also South Reading Branch ) railway is a railway line in Essex County and Middlesex County in Massachusetts ( United States ). It is 8 miles long and connects the towns of Peabody , Lynnfield and Wakefield . The standard gauge line is largely closed, only between Peabody and South Peabody freight trains of the Pan Am Railways still run .

history

In order to establish a cross connection between the main lines of the Boston and Maine Railroad and the Eastern Railroad , the South Reading Branch Railroad Company received a concession on April 26, 1848 to build and operate a railroad line that branches off the Boston & Maine line in Wakefield Junction and up to Peabody, from where the Essex Railroad to Salem already existed on the Eastern Main Line. A right of use should be obtained for this section. The company was formally set up on August 21, 1849, and construction work began immediately. She started operating the line on September 2, 1850. The trains ran from Boston to Salem via the Boston & Maine and Essex tracks. The Eastern Railroad, whose main line also connected Boston and Salem, recognized the competition, especially since its passengers had to use a ferry from East Boston to Boston, while the trains of the South Reading Branch Railroad drove directly to the center of Boston. The Eastern therefore leased the line in 1851, not least to forestall Boston & Maine, and operated it as a branch line from October 1 of that year. However, she had to keep the trains going through to Boston, otherwise the purchase would not have been approved. A few years later, however, the Eastern built its own route to downtown Boston, which eased the situation. In 1884 the competition problem was finally resolved completely when Boston & Maine leased the Eastern and finally bought the South Reading Branch Railroad on July 20, 1892.

After several tram routes had been opened around 1900, some of which were parallel to the railroad, the number of trams dropped rapidly. Boston & Maine now saw no need for the line and applied for its closure in 1925, which was approved in November and completed on January 2, 1926. The tracks were dismantled in 1927. Only the short section between Wakefield Junction and Wakefield Center remained in operation as a siding until around 1935.

The story of the route does not end there. In the early 1960s, an industrial park was built west of South Peabody, which made a rail connection appear lucrative. Boston & Maine then rebuilt the line from Peabody to the industrial park and reopened it around 1965. Further industrial customers in Peabody could now also be supplied again by rail. In 1983, Guilford Transportation , which has operated under the name Pan Am Railways since 2006 , took over the route.

Route description

The line branches off the Salem – North Andover railway line at the former Peabody wedge station and initially leads through the urban area of Peabody in a south-westerly direction. At the level of Allen's Lane, the route had to be swiveled slightly during the reconstruction, as the original route had meanwhile been built over. The route now runs in a straight line to South Peabody, where it turns west. Shortly afterwards, today's end of the route at the industrial park is reached. The original route, closed in 1926, continues westward. In this area, the railway line is still well preserved. Shortly after the railroad passes Cedar Pond, it reaches Interstate 95 , which was built here on the railway line. Only shortly before the stop on Montrose Avenue, where the railway line turns in a south-westerly direction, does the motorway leave the route. The train now runs through Wakefield. The route has now been built over in many places. Between Wakefield Center and Wakefield Junction, the line was right next to the Newburyport – Wakefield Junction railway line, which is still used in this area today . There were probably already connection switches between the two lines in Wakefield Center. The line joins the Boston & Maine main line at Wakefield Junction.

passenger traffic

Passenger traffic on the route was geared towards Boston from the start. The trains ran on the route Boston-Wakefield Junction-Peabody-Salem. In 1869 there were four daily train pairs, in 1893 there were five, but only two of them also ran on Sundays. Sunday traffic ceased at the end of the 19th century. In 1920, five pairs of trains still ran Monday to Friday and six on Saturdays. When the line was closed on January 2, 1926, passenger traffic ended.

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

B&M Corporate History, 1914, page 41 (PDF; 11.1 MB) (English)
List of stations (with miles) and staff from 1923 (English)

[1] see timetables of the route from the years mentioned.