Pittsfield – North Adams railway line

Pittsfield MA-North Adams MA
Route length:	29.74 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Dual track :	-
Society:	Pittsfield – City limit: HRRC City limit – Renfrew St: most recently ST Renfrew St – North Adams: PAS
Legend from Albany 0.00 Pittsfield Yard (freight yard , formerly North Adams Jct.) BSRY (Junction Road) Tram to Worcester BSRY Tram (Merrill Road) BSRY Tram (Dalton Avenue) 1.69 Coltsville MA approx 4 Pittsfield city limit BSRY Tram (Old State Rd) 6.47 Berkshire MA BSRY Tram (Old State Rd) 9.91 Farnams Road BSRY Tram (South State Rd) 13.18 Cheshire MA Hoosic River 17.33 Cheshire Harbor MA BSRY (Grove Street) Tram Hoosic River 19.31 Maple Grove MA BSRY (Park Street) Tram 21.03 Adams MA 22.82 Renfrew Street 24.56 Zylonite MA from Greenfield 29.74 North Adams MA to Troy

The railway Pittsfield North Adams is a railway line in Massachusetts ( United States ). It is around 30 kilometers long and connects the cities of Pittsfield , Lanesborough , Cheshire , Adams and North Adams . Most of the normal-gauge line has been closed. In the urban area of ​​Pittsfield a short section is operated as a siding by the Housatonic Railroad , in the urban area of ​​North Adams the Pan Am Southern continues to operate freight traffic.

history

On March 3, 1842, local entrepreneurs founded the Pittsfield and North Adams Railroad Company with the intention of extending the Housatonic Railroad , which reached Pittsfield from the south, north to North Adams and later to Rutland , Vermont . The railway company was formally set up on March 18, 1845. The railway line was initially built to North Adams by the Western Railroad and when it opened on December 1, 1846, it was leased by them and operated as a branch of their main line through Pittsfield. In 1867 the Boston and Albany Railroad took over the Western and with it the route to North Adams. An extension to Rutland was considered unprofitable and not built.

Besides passengers, the main cargo was lime, which was mainly loaded in Adams, Renfrew Street and Zylonite. The passengers stayed away for the most part after the Berkshire Street Railway opened an intercity tram that ran parallel to the entire length and mostly within sight of the railway line. Due to the shutdown of the tram in the 1930s, however, passenger traffic on the railroad could continue until 1953.

In 1968 Penn Central took over the railway line and in 1973 applied for the Zylonite – North Adams section to be closed so that the lime only had to be driven south on its own main line and not to North Adams, where a main line of the Boston and Maine Railroad connected. The application was denied and in 1976 Conrail took over the entire route. This sold the route from the city limits of Pittsfields to North Adams in 1981 to Boston & Maine. In 1983, Boston & Maine was taken over by Guilford Transportation , which has operated under the name Pan Am Railways since 2006 and spun off part of its network, including the routes in North Adams, as Pan Am Southern in 2009. In the meantime, traffic between the Pittsfield-Adams city limits had ceased in 1988 and this section was closed two years later. Massachusetts bought this section in 1993 and over the next two years converted it into a bike and hiking trail. At the beginning of 1994, freight traffic on the section from Adams to Renfrew Street was also discontinued and the route was closed in the same year.

The section in the urban area of ​​Pittsfield was operated by Conrail until its dissolution in 1998, after which the Housatonic Railroad took over this section and has operated freight traffic on it ever since. There is no longer any traffic between Coltsville and the city limits, but the section is not officially closed. The Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum in Lenox intends to operate sightseeing trains between Adams and North Adams in 2014.

Route description

The line branches off at the Pittsfield freight yard from the Worcester – Albany main line and heads north. The Pittsfield passenger station, still in use today, is 3.5 kilometers to the west in the city center. The railway line runs through the Coltsville district, where there are several freight connections. Shortly before the city limits, the tracks end bluntly without a loading point. The district prison is located here, but there is no rail connection to it. The Ashuwillticook Rail Trail , a cycle and hiking trail that was laid out on the route after the railway was closed, begins right at the city limits .

The railway line continues parallel to State Road through the place Berkshire, a district of Lanesborough. Shortly afterwards the Cheshire Reservoir is reached, on the eastern bank of which the railway line continues to Cheshire. As far as North Adams, the route now runs along the Hoosic River , which rises here and crosses it near the former Cheshire Harbor train station and again in Adams. The cycle path ends in the center of Adams and on Renfrew Street there are again tracks on the railway line, which are still used for freight traffic. Large amounts of limestone are mined around the Renfrew Street freight yard and also at the Zylonite train station further north, which is then transported away by rail. In North Adams the line joins the Greenfield – Troy railway line .

passenger traffic

In 1868 four pairs of trains ran daily on the route. By 1893 the number of trains grew to five, but they only ran on weekdays. At the turn of the century, Sunday traffic was reintroduced with three pairs of trains. To meet the competition from the streetcar, the rail company introduced through cars from North Adams to New York, which were coupled to trains on the main line in Pittsfield. In addition, a sixth pair of trains was added on weekdays until 1910. After the end of the First World War, the supply of goods decreased noticeably. On weekdays in 1920 there were four more trains, on Sundays a pair of trains, but the through cars to New York were retained. In the 1920s, a pair of weekend trains for short vacationers were added, which ran from New York to North Adams on Saturdays and in the opposite direction on Sundays. Tourist traffic soon predominated and by 1945 two of the four pairs of trains running on workdays were canceled. 1953 ended the passenger train traffic on the railway line.

Sources and further reading

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Homepage of the museum (accessed January 20, 2013)
2. ↑ 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