Salem – North Andover railway line

Salem MA-North Andover MA

Route length:

31.61 km

Society:

		from Boston
	0.00	Salem MA (old letter)
		Salem Tunnel (657 m)
		Bay State Street Railway
		to Portsmouth

		Connects Portsmouth and the port railway
	0.74	North Street
		Bay State Street Railway (North Street)
	1.37	Carltonville MA
	2.51	Grove Street
	3.20	Peabody MA (formerly Keilbahnhof , formerly South Danvers)
		to Wakefield Junction
		Bay State Street Railway (Central Street)
		to Tewksbury Junction
		Bay State Street Railway (Andover Street)
		Industrial connection
	5.21	Waters River
		Waters River
		Industrial connection
		Crane River
	6.21	Danversport MA
		Industrial connection
		Bay State Street Railway (Elm Street)
	7.87	Danvers East MA (formerly Danvers)
		Connection to Newburyport
	8.19	Danvers Junction MA
		Newburyport – Wakefield Junction route
		Bay State Street Railway (Maple Street)
	10.15	Ferncroft
	11.62	Hat horns
		Bay State Street Railway (Maple Street)
		Interstate 95
	13.57	Howe
		Ipswich River
		Bay State Street Railway (Maple Street)
	15.32	Middleton MA
	21.53	Ingall's Crossing (formerly Boxford)
	27.37	Marble Ridge
	29.19	Stevens
	30.69	Machine stop
		Sutton Pond
		Wilmington – Agamenticus line (until 1848)
	31.61	North Andover MA
		from Agamenticus
		to Wilmington

The Salem – North Andover (also Lawrence Branch ) railway is a railway line in Essex County in Massachusetts ( United States ). It is 31.61 kilometers long and connects the cities of Salem , Peabody , Danvers , Middleton and North Andover . The standard-gauge line is largely closed, only Pan Am Railways freight trains still operate between Salem and Peabody .

history

With financial support from the Eastern Railroad , the Essex Railroad Company received a concession to build and operate a railway line from Salem to Lawrence on March 7, 1846 . The line was to branch off the main line of the Eastern Railroad in Salem and lead via Danvers, Middleton and North Andover to Lawrence . At that time, the main line of the Boston and Maine Railroad still ran directly from Andover to North Andover without connecting the industrial town of Lawrence, which the Eastern hoped to have exclusive access to this city. The construction work therefore proceeded quickly and on January 19, 1847 the first section from Salem to South Danvers, today's Peabody, went into operation. But now the Boston & Maine had also built a railway line to Lawrence and moved their main line between Andover and North Andover. Since a separate route to Lawrence was no longer an option for financial reasons, the Essex Railroad agreed a right of use between North Andover and Lawrence with Boston & Maine and opened their route to North Andover on September 4, 1848. The Eastern Railroad was responsible for operational management.

The route did not pay off and passenger traffic was stopped on July 1, 1849. Freight trains stopped running since April. William Sutton, a local businessman, signed a contract to operate the railway line and on loaned vehicles from Eastern, traffic was resumed on August 1, albeit irregularly and temporarily. In 1850 two more railroad lines had been built from Peabody, operated by the Lowell and Lawrence Railroad (to Tewksbury ) and South Reading Branch Railroad (to Wakefield ). Both railway companies agreed with the Essex Railroad a right of use for the section from Salem to Peabody, which brought the railway additional income and thus secured the continued operation. On August 1, 1850, Eastern took over management itself again, reopened the line for regular operation in October 1851, leased the line in 1852 and finally bought it on June 28, 1864. From 1884 on, Boston & Maine were in charge of operations which Eastern had leased. From 1887 Boston & Maine also operated the line to Tewksbury, so that no further right of use was necessary. The route to Wakefield had been operated by the Eastern Railroad since 1851.

Around 1900 numerous overland trams were opened in the area, some of which ran parallel to the railway line. Passenger traffic on the line was therefore not profitable and as early as 1925, Boston & Maine applied for the line between Danvers Junction and Stevens to be closed. The Interstate Commerce Commission approved the application and the shutdown was completed in 1926. In the following year the tracks were dismantled. At the same time as this partial closure, passenger traffic was also discontinued between Stevens and North Andover. In the mid-1950s, the section from Stevens to Machine Stop was shut down. Passenger trains ran on the southern section between Salem and Danvers Junction until 1958. In 1981 the last section of the northern part of the line between North Andover and Machine Stop was closed and dismantled.

In 1983 Guilford Transportation , which has operated under the name Pan Am Railways since 2006 , took over the rest of the route. The bridge over the Waters River in Peabody burned down in 1985, which led to the closure of the section between Waters River and Danversport. The freight customers in Danvers were now served via Danvers Junction, the customers south of the Waters River continued to be served from Salem. Shortly after the turn of the millennium, the section from Peabody to Waters River and the line in Danvers were finally closed, so that only the 3.2 kilometers from Salem to Peabody are still operated.

Route description

The route begins in the Gleisdreieck Salem, where the passenger stop is today. The former Salem train station was south of the city center and was demolished in the 1950s when the line was moved into a tunnel. The railway initially runs to Peabody in a westerly direction. Several stops were served along this section of the route, all of which were still in the urban area of Salem. Peabody station, which was initially called South Danvers , was built as a wedge station . The northern part of the station with the lines to North Andover and Tewksbury has been closed, only the southern part with the line to Wakefield is still there. The route turns north and shortly thereafter crosses the Waters River and the Crane River. It thus reaches the urban area of Danvers, which is crossed in a north-westerly direction. Danvers Station, later Danvers East , was on Elm Street. 300 meters further is Danvers Junction, where there was a connecting curve in the direction of Newburyport to the Newburyport – Wakefield Junction railway line crossing here . From 1926 onwards, goods traffic on the route was handled via this connecting curve. The Salem passenger trains drove over this curve to Danvers station on the crossing line. The Danvers Junction stop, which was operated until 1926, was located directly at the track crossing and fell away with the closure of the line to North Andover.

In the further course of the route, the Maple Street is crossed several times, on which an intercity tram from Danvers to Lawrence was built. The railway line now runs further northwest through Middleton and then leads over sparsely populated area to the former Stevens station, which is already in the urban area of North Andover. In North Andover, the line had its own station south of the main line station, which the line then joined. The trains always went through to Lawrence, where several other rail lines were available for onward travel.

passenger traffic

The passenger traffic was very different. While numerous trains ran between Salem and Danvers, the train density north of Danvers was always low. In 1869 17 passenger trains left Salem every day. Five of them ended in Danvers, two in Middleton and only three went through to Lawrence. The remaining seven trains continued from Peabody on the routes branching off there. Three trains went through Salem to Boston. By 1893 the offer had been increased to a total of 23 trains. In addition to the eight trains to Wakefield and Tewksbury, there were four to Lawrence, four to Middleton and seven to Danvers. Five of the trains were from Boston. The five trains that ran through Peabody to Wakefield and on to Boston only ran on weekdays. From the end of the 19th century, Sunday traffic on the route was completely stopped.

With the opening of the tram lines parallel to the railroad, passenger traffic decreased noticeably and in 1920 only two trains ran from Salem to Tewksbury and five to Wakefield, which used the route to Peabody, as well as four trains to Danvers, two to Middleton and three to Lawrence . Seven of the trains that went to Danvers and on were from Boston. In 1926, after the line north of Danville was closed, only three trains to Tewksbury and nine trains to Danvers drove over the line. Seven of the Danvers trains came from Boston. After the cessation of passenger traffic to Tewksbury in 1932, there were still the nine trains to Danvers and a pair of trains coming from Boston via Salem to Peabody and back. The offer has now been gradually thinned out. In 1945 there were still seven trains going to Danvers, in 1952 there were four trains, which now only ran Monday to Friday, and in May 1958 passenger traffic was finally stopped.

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 22 (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.