Salisbury – Amesbury railway line

Salisbury MA-Amesbury MA

Route length:

6.20 km

Society:

most recently MBTA

		from Boston
	0.00	Salisbury MA
		to Portsmouth
		Interstate 95
	4.33	Salisbury Point
		Massachusetts Northeastern Street Railway (Elm Street)
		Industrial connections
	6.20	Amesbury MA

The Salisbury – Amesbury (also Amesbury Branch ) is a railway line in Essex County in Massachusetts ( United States ). It is 6.20 kilometers long and connects the cities of Salisbury and Amesbury . The standard gauge line is closed.

history

The up-and-coming industrial town of Amesbury on the Merrimack River had not received a railroad connection when the main lines from Boston to the north were built by the Boston and Maine Railroad and the Eastern Railroad . In the early 1840s, there were therefore numerous efforts to build a railway line from Amesbury to one of the two main lines. Finally, on March 15, 1844, the Salisbury Branch Railroad received a concession for a line to Salisbury on the Eastern Main Line. The concession was renewed on April 6, 1846 and the company was formally established. However, construction work was initially not carried out and on July 20, 1846 the railway company was bought by Eastern. The Eastern carried out the construction itself the following year and opened the line on January 1, 1848. The trains mostly went to Newburyport .

From 1884 on, the Boston and Maine Railroad, which Eastern had leased, was in charge of operations. In addition to passengers, the most important items to be transported were the car and wagon parts that were manufactured in Amesbury. Passengers were no longer carried on the route from March 1936 and after goods traffic had shifted to the road, Boston & Maine also stopped freight traffic in January 1972. In 1976 they sold the line to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority , which, however, did not resume freight or passenger traffic and finally closed the line in 1982.

Route description

The line branches off to the north of Salisbury station from the Boston – Portsmouth main line, which has also been closed in this area , and bends west on a generous curved track. The Salisbury Ghost Trail lies on the railway line until the previous level crossing on Rabbit Road . Shortly thereafter, the route crosses under Interstate 95 and reaches the only stop at Elm Street, a simple stop at Salisbury Point , where an intercity tram once crossed, which also ran from Salisbury to Amesbury. A shopping center has been built over the route to the west of the former stop. The Amesbury Riverwalk continues along the route. The route continues northwards via a spacious S-curve and reaches its end point in the center of Amesbury. A longer siding connected industrial companies north of the city center. In Amesbury, Railroad Street is a reminder of the former train station.

passenger traffic

In 1881 five daily train pairs ran from Amesbury to Newburyport, with connections to Boston. In 1893 the supply had grown significantly and eleven pairs of trains ran on weekdays, two of which went through to Boston. On Sundays, however, only two pairs of trains left Amesbury – Newburyport. Sunday traffic ceased entirely at the end of the 19th century. The tram line opened at the same time had little influence on the density of trains. In 1906 ten pairs of trains were made available, one of which went through to Boston. After the First World War, two trains were canceled, but in 1920 of the eight trains, two continued to Boston and one to Salem. Two more trains were canceled by 1926, including the pair of trains to Salem. After the Great Depression, the number of trips continued to drop, so that five trains were offered in 1931 and only three in 1932. In 1932, the continuous traffic to Boston also ended, all trains from Amesbury now ended in Newburyport. In March 1936, Boston & Maine ceased all passenger traffic on the route.

Sources and further reading

Individual evidence

↑ 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 19 (PDF; 11.1 MB) (English)
List of stations (with miles) and staff from 1923 (English)

[1] Timetables of the route from the years mentioned.