Wellington – Medford railway line
| Wellington MA-Medford MA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 2.91 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Society: | PAR | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Wellington – Medford railway line (also Medford Branch ) is a railway line in the city of Medford in Massachusetts ( United States ). It is 2.91 kilometers long and connects the center of Medford to the Boston – Wilmington Junction railway line . The first one and a half kilometers of the standard-gauge route is served by Pan Am Railways in freight traffic, the only remaining loading point is an industrial connection from Anheuser-Busch Inc.
history
The city of Medford had a railway connection on the Boston – Lowell railway line since 1835 . However, the station was in the west of the city far away from the center. When the Boston and Maine Railroad built their own main line to Boston, they chose a route east of Medford through Wellington. Since the station would also be three kilometers from the city center there, the Medford Branch Railroad Company was founded , which on March 7, 1845 received the concession for the construction of a branch line from Wellington to the center of Medford. The company was formally set up shortly thereafter and merged with Boston & Maine on May 31, 1845. The main line of Boston & Maine went into operation on July 1 of that year and shortly afterwards construction began on the branch line. It was opened in 1847.
The route was mainly used for passenger traffic, but there were also several industrial connections. Several tram lines were opened from Medford to the surrounding train stations, but the trains went directly to Boston, so that passenger traffic on the route could continue until 1957. In 1959, Boston & Maine closed the section from Park Street to the terminus, and around 1961 the line from Glenwood to Park Street followed. The disused section of the route was subsequently partially built over. On the remaining section there is still regular freight traffic, which has been operated by Guilford Transportation since 1983 . This railway company has been operating under the name Pan Am Railways since 2006 .
Route description
The line branches off the Boston & Maine main line north of the former Wellington station in the Medfords district of the same name and heads west. The Boston Subway line, which runs parallel to the main line, crosses under the branch line in a short tunnel structure that was built in the 1970s. Apart from the connection to the main line, the railway line to Medford is straight. It passes under the Fellsway, on which an overland tram once drove from Boston to Middlesex Falls. Shortly afterwards, the former Glenwood station is reached, where the siding to the Anheuser-Busch Inc. facility branches off. From here the railway line is shut down and the route is partially built over. It continued south on Washington Street. Shortly before the terminus, the route crosses today's Interstate 93 . The terminus was right next to the town hall in the center of the city.
passenger traffic
In 1869 eight daily train pairs were offered from Boston to Medford. The train density remained the same until the First World War, but Sunday traffic was stopped in the 19th century. After the First World War, more and more commuters switched to their own vehicles, so that in 1932 four pairs of trains in rush hour traffic met the needs of transportation. 1957 ended passenger traffic on the Medford Branch.
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 16 (PDF; 11.1 MB) (English)
- List of stations (with miles) and staff from 1923 (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ see timetables of the route from the years mentioned.