Westfield – Holyoke Railway

Westfield MA-Holyoke MA
Route length:	16.61 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Dual track :	-
Society:	Pioneer Valley Railroad
Legend from New Haven Worcester – Albany route 0.00 Westfield MA Connection from Albany Westfield freight yard to Shelburne Junction Springfield Tram (Southampton Road) Connection arms factory Interstate 90 Interstate 91 12.59 Ingleside MA Port railway junction Interstate 391 16.61 Holyoke MA from Springfield to East Northfield

The railway Westfield Holyoke is a railway line in Massachusetts ( United States ). It is around 17 kilometers long and connects the towns of Westfield and Holyoke . The standard-gauge line belongs to the Pioneer Valley Railroad , which only operates goods traffic on it.

history

On August 31, 1869, the Holyoke and Westfield Railroad Company was founded. Both Westfield and Holyoke were already connected to well-developed main lines at that time. However, the industrial operations to the north and northeast of Westfield and west of Holyoke were far from these routes, so a link was planned to connect the two cities and serve the freight customers along the route. The line was opened in October 1871 and leased from the beginning by the New Haven and Northampton Railroad and operated as a branch line ("Holyoke Branch") their route through Westfield. Connecting tracks existed in Westfield to the main line of the Boston and Albany Railroad and in Holyoke to the route of the Connecticut River Railroad .

From April 1, 1887, lease and management were the responsibility of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , which New Haven & Northampton had taken over. They bought the line in November 1929 and Holyoke & Westfield was dissolved. Passenger traffic on the route had already been stopped in 1921. When the railway company was taken over by Penn Central in 1969 , the management of the Holyoke Branch was also transferred to this company. In 1976 it was replaced by Conrail . Conrail sold the route in 1982 to the Pioneer Valley Railroad , which has been operating freight services ever since.

Route description

The line branches off at the Westfield freight yard from the New Haven – Shelburne Junction railway line and initially turns east. In Westfield, an arms factory is one of the railroad's freight customers. After leaving the urban area of ​​Westfield, the route turns north and leads through a wooded area to Ashley Pond , on the south bank of which it now runs east again to Holyoke. In the district of Ingleside it turns north again and now runs parallel to the Connecticut River to downtown Holyoke. The port railway branches off at the southern edge of the center, via which the trains could also reach the Springfield – East Northfield railway line until around 2000 . The original connection to this railway line beyond the terminal station Holyoke had already been shut down in the time of Penn Central (1969-1976). The terminus is at Holyoke Heritage State Park .

passenger traffic

In 1881, before it was taken over by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, three weekday train pairs ran on the route that were connected to trains going to New Haven in Westfield. This did not change for many years, it was not until the mid-1910s that a fourth pair of trains was added. At the end of the First World War, however, the number of passengers dropped sharply due to increasing individual traffic, so that in 1920 only one pair of trains was offered and passenger traffic was completely discontinued in 1921 at the latest.

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

Individual evidence

1. ↑ see timetables of the route from the years mentioned.