Worcester – Rochester railway line

Worcester MA-Rochester NH
Ayer station, 1910.
Route length:	151.77 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Dual track :	approx. 2 km in Worcester, formerly: Worcester – Nashua
Society:	Worcester – Barber: PW , Barber – Harvard: PAR , Harvard – Ayer: PAS , Ayer – Rochester: most recently BM
Right of joint use:	Worcester – Barber: PAR , Worcester – Ayer: CSXT
Legend to Providence , New London and Albany to Boston 0.00 Worcester MA Union Station ( wedge station ) Worcester Tram (Shrewsbury Street) St. Vincent Tunnel (approx. 310m) Goldsberry Street Tunnel (approx. 450m) 1.22 Worcester MA Lincoln Square approx. 2 End of two-way work Interstate 190 Worcester Tram (West Boylston Drive) to Winchendon 4.70 Barber (formerly Barbers, Keilbahnhof ) 5.66 Greendale MA 6.78 Bradley Worcester Tram (West Boylston Street) 7.42 Burncoat Street (formerly Summit) Worcester Tram (Sterling Street) 14.10 West Boylston MA Thomas Basin (formerly Quinapoxet River ) Connection to Northampton 16.35 Oakdale MA North Cambridge – Northampton line Connection from Northampton Stillwater Basin (formerly Stillwater River ) Worcester Tramway (Worcester Road) 19.15 Sterling Junction MA (formerly Sterling) to Fitchburg 24.03 Clinton Junction MA to North Cambridge Coachlace Pond Connection to Framingham Framingham – Pratts Junction line 26.97 Clinton MA Worcester Tram (Main Street) 29.11 Thayer MA (formerly Prescott, South Lancaster) after Hudson Nashua River 30.88 Lancaster MA Nashua River 37.32 Still River 40.86 Harvard MA PAR / PAS property boundary Connection to Fort Devens ? Hill Yard freight yard Connecting tracks to Boston / Fitchburg 45.08 Ayer MA (formerly Ayer Junction, Groton Junction) Boston – Fitchburg line Connecting track to Boston Fitchburg and Leominster Street Railway (Main Street) Groton School Pond 50.76 Groton MA (formerly Groton Center) to Squannacook Junction 58.23 Pepperell MA from Milford Nashua River Connecting track Massachusetts / New Hampshire 63.87 Hollis NH 72.68 Nashua NH Main Street Connecting track to Concord Nashua – North Acton route North Acton connecting track from Nashua City 73.80 Nashua NH Union Station (formerly Nashua Junction) Nashua Tram (East Hollis Street) by Concord to Boston Merrimack River Bay State Street Railway (Lowell Road) Massachusetts Northeastern Street Railway (Burnham Rd) 77.69 Hudson NH 83.76 Anderson NH (formerly West Windham) Interstate 93 Manchester – Lawrence 90.12 Windham NH (formerly Windham Junction) 96.51 Hubbard NH (formerly Hubbards (East Derry)) 99.53 Hampstead NH (formerly West Hampstead) Exeter River 104.02 Sandown NH Exeter River (3 ×) 111.99 Fremont NH ? Lyford Crossing ? Martin Crossing Connection to Portsmouth Portsmouth – Bow Junction Connection from Bow Junction 119.14 Epping NH Lamprey River 127.47 Lee NH 141.10 Barrington NH Isinglass River 148.34 West Gonic NH (formerly West Rochester) DS&R Street Railway (Gonic Road) Cocheco River from Dover Connection according to Jewett DS&R Street Railway (Portland Street) Dover-Alton Bay 151.77 Rochester NH to Alton Bay and connection to Intervale Junction Jewett – Intervale Junction section Connection by Jewett to Portland

The Worcester – Rochester railway is a rail link between Massachusetts and New Hampshire ( United States ). It is nearly 152 kilometers long and connects the cities of Worcester , Ayer , Nashua and Rochester . Most of the former main line, namely the Ayer – Rochester section, has been closed. The remaining section is operated by Pan Am Railways exclusively for freight traffic. The CSX Transportation has a shared use right for this section. The Harvard to Ayer section is owned by Pan Am Southern , a joint subsidiary of Pan Am Railways and the Norfolk Southern Railway .

history

After Worcester became an important rail hub in Massachusetts in the 1840s, plans were made to connect it to the routes to the north and thus enable continuous traffic to New Hampshire. The Worcester and Nashua Railroad took on this plan and built a standard-gauge, initially single-track railway line from Worcester via Ayer to Nashua, where it joined the Nashua – Concord and Lowell – Nashua lines that had already been opened in the 1830s . In July 1848 the section to Ayer went into operation, the provisional terminus in Nashua was reached on December 18 of the same year.

The Nashua and Rochester Railroad wanted to extend this line about 20 years later, so that through trains to Maine could run on it. The Portland – Rochester railway already existed between Rochester and Portland . She therefore opened the remaining section from Nashua to Rochester on November 24, 1874. Soon thereafter, through traffic between Worcester and Portland was added. From 1883 the entire railway line was under the management of the Worcester, Nashua and Rochester Railroad , which had emerged from the merger of the two older railway companies. In 1886 the line was leased by the Boston and Maine Railroad and bought in 1911.

The new operator introduced the Bar Harbor Express New York City - Bar Harbor in June 1887 , which used the full length of the route, but was directed from 1911 between Ayer and Portland via Lowell and Dover . Other express trains also used the route between Worcester and Ayer. The entire line from Worcester to Nashua was therefore doubled in 1913 and equipped with block signals.

However, traffic fell sharply after the First World War . In 1928, the continuous passenger traffic to Portland ended and trains had to be changed in Nashua as well. In 1930, through freight traffic between Worcester and Nashua was stopped, between Ayer and Nashua there was only local freight traffic. Passenger traffic between Ayer and Rochester - last carried out with a gas-electric railcar - was discontinued on March 3, 1934 (Nashua – Rochester) and April 14, 1934 (Ayer – Nashua). The second track north of Ayer had already been dismantled in 1929. In 1934 the railway line was divided into Ayer, as the continuous track connection between the sections to Worcester and Nashua with the crossing over the Boston – Fitchburg railway line was dismantled. In the same year all traffic ended between Hollis and Hudson, except for about two kilometers in the urban area of ​​Nashua. This section was closed in 1942. The Hudson – Fremont and Epping – West Gonic sections had already been closed in September 1935, and the tracks here were also dismantled in 1942. The state of New Hampshire built Highway 111 on part of these sections. In 1940, a connection line to the simultaneously closed Squannacook Junction – Milford railway line was built in Pepperell , via which freight customers in Pepperell could be served along this route.

Local passenger trains ran between Worcester and Ayer until April 1953 and the line was used by the State of Maine Express until October 1960 . For a few months a remainder of this express train, namely the section from Worcester via Ayer to Haverhill , continued to operate, before that was also over in early 1961. The second track between Barber and Ayer was also dismantled around this time.

Around 1981 traffic between West Gonic and Rochester ended and in 1982 between Fremont and Epping. After a paper mill in Pepperell, which was the only customer remaining on the Ayer – Hollis section, was closed, Boston & Maine also closed this section in 1982. 1983 took over the Guilford Transportation , since 2006 under the name Pan Am Railways , the operation on the remaining two route sections. The short siding in Nashua was closed in 1993, so that today only the Worcester – Ayer section is operated. At the beginning of the 21st century, the second track between Worcester and Barber was closed, only about two kilometers in the center of Worcester are still operated on two tracks. The second track is still up to Barber, but is no longer connected. In 2009, Pan Am Railways and the Norfolk Southern Railway jointly founded Pan Am Southern , which, in addition to the Fitchburg mainline crossing in Ayer, also took over the section from Harvard to Ayer.

passenger traffic

The timetable of September 28, 1913 provided eight pairs of trains from Worcester to Nashua on working days, two of which continued to Rochester and Portland , two pairs of trains to Bradley and one pair of trains to Barber. There were also two mixed trains between Nashua and Rochester. On Sundays three trains went to Nashua and Portland. These included the daily New York City – Portland express train, which ran the WNR between Worcester and Ayer and ran through Lowell and Dover to Portland. The travel time between Worcester and Nashua was between 85 and 131 minutes, depending on the stop in Ayer, and between Nashua and Rochester between 95 and 105 minutes for the passenger trains and three to four hours for the mixed trains.

According to the schedule of January 15, 1934, two working days and one Sunday passenger train pair Worcester – Nashua and the State of Maine Express , which ran daily between New York City and Portland via Worcester, Ayer, Lowell and between Worcester and Ayer, as in 1913 shared the railway line. Only one pair of trains ran between Nashua and Rochester every weekday. The travel time had hardly changed compared to 1913, at 95 to 123 minutes for the Worcester – Nashua section and 105 minutes for the Nashua – Rochester section.

Route description

The railway line begins at Worcester Union Station and exits northwards. For the first few kilometers to Barber, where the Barber – Gardner railway branches off, the line is double-tracked. The route now continues winding northwards and crosses two bodies of water at Oakdale that are offshoots of the Wachusett reservoir . In Sterling Junction , the route turns east and runs along the south bank of the Waushaccum Ponds to Clinton . Here the Framingham – Fitchburg railway crosses the railway line that runs northeast from here. At the Ayer railway junction , the line crossed the main Boston – Fitchburg line at the same level until 1934 . Today the railway ends here and joins the main line in a track triangle.

The now trackless route continues northwards and winds along the Nashua River to Nashua . Here the route turns to the northeast and crosses the main Boston – Montréal line at the former Nashua Union Station . Immediately after the station, the railway line crossed the Merrimack River . The bridge was demolished in 1942 after this section of the route was closed. In the further course of the route to Windham is now used by Highway 111. The route continues northwards and crosses the also disused Manchester – Lawrence line in Windham and the Portsmouth – Concord line in Epping at the same level. In this area of ​​the railway line, embankments and cuts can only be seen sporadically. The line ends at the Rochester rail junction and merges into the Portland – Rochester rail line .

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
• Robert M. Lindsell: The Rail Lines of Northern New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell, MA 2000. ISBN 0-942147-06-5
• 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

• Boston & Maine Historical Society (English)
• Page of the current operating company (English)
• List of stations (with route miles) and staff from 1923

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Issued November 1913. Boston & Maine Railroad, Table 63. page 199.
2. ↑ Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Issued February 1934. Boston & Maine Railroad, Table 30. page 79.