Newburyport Harbor Railway
| Newburyport MA port railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 3.17 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Society: | last BM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The port railway Newburyport is a railway line in the city of Newburyport in Massachusetts ( United States ). It is 3.17 kilometers long and connected the port facilities in the city to the railway network. The standard gauge line is closed. The former branch of the route now serves as a parking facility for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority , which operates passenger services from Boston to Newburyport.
history
The port facilities in Newburyport are east of the city center on the south bank of the Merrimac River , which flows into the Atlantic here. The East Boston – Portsmouth railway of the Eastern Railroad , which runs through the city, does not touch the port area. A connection to Newburyport station itself was not possible because the inner-city development is in between. On June 12, 1869, the Newburyport City Railroad Company was founded to build a railway line from the port to a point south of the city, where connection to the two railway lines should be made that lead into the city. The railway line to Wakefield was opened in 1850 by the Newburyport Railroad and had its own terminus on Pond Street when it was founded. The port railway should branch off south of the intersection of the two railway lines from the Eastern main line. The construction work was carried out in 1872. A connecting track towards Wakefield, which crossed the main line at the same level, was also installed in order to be able to guide coal trains in the direction of Lawrence over this line. The Newburyport Port Railway went into operation on September 14, 1872.
One month before the opening, on August 14, 1872, the Eastern Railroad leased the railroad company and the port railroad for 20 years to prevent the Boston and Maine Railroad , which owned the Wakefield line, from taking over the port railroad and port freight traffic on their own route network towards Boston. The Eastern ran operations on the port railway. From 1884, however, management was transferred to Boston & Maine, after they had leased the Eastern Railroad. She acquired the Newburyport City Railroad Company on January 16, 1893. There was no passenger traffic on the route. Freight traffic shifted more and more to the road, especially after the Second World War , so that the line was closed in 1971 and subsequently dismantled.
Route description
The line branches off the main line from Boston near the current passenger station of the MBTA. The MBTA parking facility is located here today. The route runs in a north-easterly direction. It crosses under the High Road and after several level crossings the bank of the Merrimac River is reached. The route now turns in a north-westerly direction and runs directly on the river bank through the port facilities. The route is well preserved, only in the port area were many sections built over.
Sources and further reading
- 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