Worcester – Albany railway line
The railway Worcester Albany is a railway line in Massachusetts and New York ( United States ). It is 251 kilometers long and connects the cities of Worcester , Palmer , Springfield , Pittsfield , Chatham , Rensselaer and Albany , among others . The standard-gauge line belongs to CSX Transportation , which operates freight traffic on the entire route. The Amtrak has a shared right across the track and drives on them by express train from Boston to Chicago.
history
construction
On February 15, 1833, the Western Railroad of Massachusetts received a concession to extend the Boston – Worcester railway line under construction on the Boston and Worcester Railroad to the Hudson River . The Western Railroad was founded as a subsidiary of Boston & Worcester, but the two companies later fell out over disputes over the division of the revenue. In the winter of 1836/37, construction began in Worcester, where the railway company first built its own terminus (later called South Worcester ) about one and a half kilometers from the terminus of Boston & Worcester. However, a connecting track was built in from the start. The concession was only valid for the state of Massachusetts. In order to get to the state of New York, the company acquired a right of use for the West Stockbridge – Hudson line of the Hudson and Berkshire Railroad, which was completed in 1840 . On October 1, 1839, the first section of the line from Worcester to Springfield went into operation. The Connecticut River was a natural obstacle and had to be bridged at great expense.
In 1840 construction began from the state border eastwards. On May 4, 1841, the first trains ran from Pittsfield to the border. On May 24, 1841, a section of line from West Springfield to Chester was opened, which initially had no track connection to other parts of the line. Only on July 4, 1841, the bridge over the Connecticut River and thus the section from Springfield to West Springfield was put into operation. The first trains ran from Pittsfield to the top of the pass at Washington Station (then Summit Station ) on August 9, 1841. The gap between Chester and Washington was closed on September 13 and on October 4, 1841, the entire route from Worcester to the border was officially opened. The trains continued on the Hudson & Berkshire route to Hudson .
The Castleton and West Stockbridge Railroad had received a concession to build a railway line from Greenbush to West Stockbridge, Massachusetts in 1834, but could not raise the funds to carry out the construction. On May 5, 1836, the Albany and West Stockbridge Railroad took over this concession. The Western Railroad provided the money for the line construction and on December 21, 1841 the railway from Greenbush to Chatham was opened. On September 12, 1842, the section from Chatham to State Line went into operation, parallel to the Hudson & Berkshire line, whose shared use was discontinued at the same time. After the Western had acquired Hudson & Berkshire in 1854, the older parallel line was closed around 1860, as it was built on a weaker substructure and with more bridges, tighter curves and steeper climbs. In Greenbush (since 1897 Rensselaer) there was initially a ferry across the Hudson River to Albany.
Further development
From 1847 to 1868 the line was completely expanded to two-track. From February 22, 1866, the trains drove over the Livingston Avenue Bridge of the Hudson River Bridge Company to Albany, where they first ended at the station of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. The bridge company belonged to a quarter of the Western Railroad. In addition, the Maiden Lane Bridge was built further south shortly afterwards in order to be able to enter the new Albany Union Station . The new bridge went into operation on December 28, 1871, and Union Station the following year. Freight trains and express trains with no stops in Albany continued to use the Livingston Avenue Bridge. In 1900 the Maiden Lane Bridge was replaced by a new building of the same name, and the Albany Union Station received a new reception building in the same year.
In 1867 the Western Railroad merged with Boston & Worcester and Hudson & Berkshire, which had been owned by Western since 1854, and in 1870 with Albany & West Stockbridge to form the Boston and Albany Railroad , which now operated the route. In 1876 the new owner opened Worcester Union Station . The station building was replaced in 1911 by the new building that is still in use today. In the meantime, the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad (later New York Central Railroad) had taken over Boston & Albany in 1900 . However, Boston & Albany continued to operate.
After a connection from the Post Road station (from this point on Post Road Junction ) to the main line of New York Central and over the Hudson River to the main line of the West Shore Railroad was opened in 1924 , the section from Post Road Junction to Albany was named Post Road Branch . In 1968, the section from south of Rensselaer station to Albany Union Station over Maiden Lane Bridge was shut down and dismantled. The bridge was also torn down. The long-distance trains now stopped at Rensselaer station, which was renamed Albany-Rensselaer .
Due to the mergers and dissolution of the railway companies, the owner and operator of the route changed several times. From 1968 this was the Penn Central , from 1976 the Conrail and since 1999 the CSX Transportation now operates the freight traffic on the route. Passenger traffic was taken over by Amtrak in 1971 . Initially, in addition to the daily Lake Shore Limited from Boston to Chicago, two pairs of trains ran from Boston via Springfield to New York, but these were discontinued in 2004. Local passenger traffic on the route had already ended in the 1960s. The second track was largely dismantled in the middle of the 20th century, only on short sections in the urban areas of Worcester, Palmer and Springfield and between Chester and Pittsfield is it to this day.
Route description
The line begins in Union Station in Worcester and is the western continuation of the Boston – Worcester railway line . It is initially double-tracked, but the second track ends shortly after the former Jamesville station. The route runs roughly in a westerly direction, but had to be artificially lengthened in many places due to the topography in order to avoid steep gradients when crossing the river valleys and ridges. Worcester Union Station and Albany Union Station are only 166 kilometers apart as the crow flies and the route is 251 kilometers long. Overall, it is very winding and has numerous river bridges and a short tunnel west of the border with New York.
The railway line first crosses the ridge between the Blackstone River , on which Worcester lies, and the Quaboag River . The valley of the Quaboag River is reached in Brookfield and the railway follows this river through West Brookfield and Warren to Palmer. The Palmer Union Station is no longer used as a passenger train station. The New London – Brattleboro railway crosses here at the same level. The route does not continue along the Quaboag, but rather in a relatively straight line parallel to the Boston Post Road to the Chicopee River . South of this river, the route crosses the urban area of Springfield, in the center of which is the Springfield Union Station . The transfer hub is not only a station of the Lake Shore Limited, which runs the route from Boston to Albany and on to Chicago, but also the terminus of numerous passenger trains from New York and New Haven and a station of the Vermonter .
Immediately after leaving Union Station, the train crosses the Connecticut River and now runs in the valley of the Westfield River via Westfield and Russell to Chester. Shortly before Chester station, the Chester and Becket Railroad branched off from 1897 to 1930 to several quarries in Becket. The steep and winding connecting line was operated as a branch line of the Boston & Albany only in the summer half-year. Shortly afterwards, the railway line reaches the end of the Westfield Valley in Becket and climbs up to the pass. Here it crosses the same ridge that made it necessary to build the Hoosac Tunnel around 30 kilometers further north on the rival line of Boston & Albany, the Greenfield – Troy railway line . The railway reaches the valley of the Housatonic River in Hinsdale , which it follows to Pittsfield. Pittsfield is one of only four Amtrak Lake Shore Limited stops along the route. This is where the Housatonic Railroad from Bridgeport and a branch of the Boston & Albany to North Adams flow . The train now crosses another ridge and reaches the state border to New York and the former State Line branch in West Stockbridge.
The railway now leads northwards to Canaan and descends into a side valley of Kinderhook Creek , which it follows through Chatham. Chatham was once an important hub station with two track triangles, where four lines from three different railway companies met. Today only the main line to Albany is in operation, which turns here in a north-westerly direction and leads via Chatham Center and Niverville to Rensselaer. At the former Post Road railway station, the Albany southern bypass has been branching off since 1924, via which the freight trains passing through travel westwards. The railway line to Albany reaches in Rensselaer the main line New York City – Albany , in which it joins today south of the passenger station Albany-Rensselaer. Boston & Albany used to have its own Rensselaer station right next to New York Central and only joined this route north of the station, around the southern end of the Amtrak's Rensselaer depot. From here the actual railway line to Albany is closed, the bridge over the Hudson River in the eastern extension of Maiden Lane has been torn down. The line made a sharp turn in Albany into Union Station, the area of which was built over after 1968. The Lake Shore Limited , whose two train parts from New York and Boston are connected in the Albany-Rensselaer station, travels over the Livingston Avenue Bridge further north and joins the main line of the former New York Central in West Albany.
passenger traffic
In 1869 three express trains and a Boston – Albany passenger train and a Sunday Post Express and two daily passenger trains from Boston to Springfield ran on the route. Another passenger train ran from Pittsfield to Albany.
In 1901, after the takeover by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad and after the opening of the Boston South Station, a daily express train ("Boston and Chicago Special") left this station via Cleveland to Chicago with through coaches to St. Louis, a daily (" North Shore Limited ") and a weekday (" Chicago Express ") train via Detroit to Chicago, two daily, two weekday and one Sunday express trains via Springfield to New York, a weekday express train to Albany and a daily express train to Cincinnati (" Pacific Express "). There was also a weekday passenger train to Albany, one to Chester and two to Springfield. A weekday passenger train from Worcester to Springfield completed the offer. From Springfield there was also a daily and a weekday passenger train to Albany, as well as a train to Pittsfield on weekdays and two trains on Sundays and one on Saturdays to Westfield. There was also a passenger train from Hinsdale to Albany on weekdays, and one on weekdays and two trains Palmer – Springfield on Sundays. From Pittsfield there were two trains on weekdays, one train to Chatham on Sundays and on to New York City via Brewster .
In 1945 passenger traffic on the line had already declined significantly, but many trains were still offered. Five express trains drove daily from Boston via Worcester to Chicago, namely via Cleveland, the "New England States" with through cars to Pittsburgh, the "Paul Revere", the "Fast Mail" with through cars to Detroit, the "South Shore Express" with through cars to Detroit and via Canada and Detroit the "New England Wolverine". Furthermore, the "Southwestern Limited" drove daily to St. Louis with through cars to Cincinnati, Cleveland and Toronto, the "Niagara" via Canada to Detroit, the "Advance Knickerbocker" to St. Louis with through cars to Buffalo and Cincinnati, the "New York" -Berkshire Express “to Albany with through coaches to New York, three express trains via Springfield to New York and one daily and one Saturday express train to Springfield. There was also a weekday passenger train to Albany, two passenger trains Monday to Friday and one to Springfield on Saturdays. In addition, there were two trains on weekdays and three trains on Sundays from Pittsfield via Chatham and Brewster to New York City, as well as a daily train from Pittsfield to Albany.
Today only Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited runs once a day from Boston to Chicago.
Accidents
The most momentous accident on the line occurred on August 31, 1893 near Chester. The Chicago Limited heading for Boston fell from a collapsing bridge in the Westfield River , killing 14 people. The bridge was under construction at that time and parts of the structure had been removed to replace it, which reduced the load-bearing capacity of the bridge so much that it could not withstand the heavy express train.
In 1907 one of the numerous river bridges near Chester collapsed and an express train crashed again, claiming an unknown number of victims.
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