Boston – Lowell railway line

Boston MA-Lowell MA
Boston North Station (1890s), the rear part of the building with the antenna tower in the picture is the original reception building of Boston & Lowell.
Route length:	42 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Dual track :	entire route
Society:	MBTA
Right of joint use:	Entire route: PAR , Boston – Wilmington: Amtrak
Legend 0.00 Boston MA North Station Boston freight rail Charles River ( Lift bridge ) (old route) ? Goods base Charlestown Boston – Fitchburg line to Revere and Wilmington Junction from East Boston 1.69 East Cambridge MA (old route) Connection Massport (Mystic Junction) 3.01 Prospect Hill (formerly Walnut Street) 3.89 Winter Hill (formerly Somerville Center) 4.52 Somerville Junction MA (formerly Somerville) to Lake Street 5.73 North Somerville MA (formerly Willow Bridge) 6.45 Tufts College MA (formerly College Hill, Stearns Steps) 7.37 Medford Hillside MA (formerly Medford Steps) Mystic River Bay State Street Railway (High Street) 8.82 West Medford MA (formerly Medford Gates) 11.81 Wedgemere MA (formerly Bacons Bridge, Symmes Bridge) 12.59 Winchester Center MA ( BSS on Main St) to Wilmington 14.48 Winchester Heights MA (formerly Winchester Highlands) 15.71 Montvale MA (formerly East Woburn) to Stoneham 16.79 Walnut Hill (formerly Woburn) Bay State Street Railway (Salem Street) Interstate 95 18.72 Mishawum MA (formerly North Woburn) approx. 20 Anderson RTC ( Amtrak stop) 20.50 South Wilmington MA from Winchester (North Woburn Junction) Bay State Street Railway (Main Street) Bay State Street Railway (Burlington Avenue) 24.46 Wilmington MA to Wilmington Junction after Agamenticus 26.72 Silver Lake MA Shawsheen River 30.93 East Billerica MA (formerly Billerica & Tewksbury) Connection to Billerica Shops from Bedford 35.07 North Billerica MA (formerly Billerica Mills) 37.53 South Lowell MA Interstate 495 Concord River New Yard (Güterbf.) from Lowell Junction and Lawrence 39.69 Bleachery Connection of Lowell Jct. to Framingham Bay State Street Railway (Gorham Street) from Framingham 41.12 Lowell MA Gallagher Terminal (formerly Middlesex St.) Bay State Street Railway (Chelmsford Street) Bay State Street Railway (Middlesex Street) to Nashua Pawtucket Canal (in the Gleisdreieck) Beginning of the museum tram approx. 42 Lowell MA Merrimack Street Station (Tram Museum) Port sidings

The Lowell Line is a railway line in Massachusetts ( United States ). It is around 42 kilometers long and connects the cities of Boston , Somerville , Medford , Winchester , Woburn , Wilmington , Billerica and Lowell . The standard-gauge line is now owned by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority , which operates passenger services. In addition, freight trains run by Pan Am Railways , which has the right to use the route. Amtrak's Downeaster express trains also run the route between Boston and Wilmington . The end of the line in the center of Lowell, which was closed in the 1970s, now serves a museum tram in the Lowell National Historical Park .

history

After a large number of factories, especially the textile industry, had settled in Lowell at the beginning of the 19th century, the search for a way of transporting goods and raw materials that was not weather-dependent like the Middlesex Canal and faster than transport with wagons. As early as June 5, 1830, the Boston and Lowell Railroad received a concession to build and operate a railway line from the port city of Boston to Lowell. The railway company was formally set up on March 19, 1831 and began construction work shortly afterwards. On June 24, 1835, the entire line went into operation. Since the aim was to have as few curves and as few inclines as possible, the route passed far away from the town centers of the towns of Cambridge, Medford, Woburn, Stoneham and Billerica on the way. These places later had to be connected by branch lines. There were therefore no intermediate stops at first.

Initially, the route had a granite substructure on which the rails were attached. Since this led to considerable transverse instability of the tracks, which made it impossible to travel at the speed that had been planned, the entire line was converted to the still common construction with cross sleepers after a few years. Until 1841 the line was expanded to two tracks and in 1842 the first intermediate stations were introduced. After the main route network in the northeastern United States was largely completed in the 1850s, the route ran not only suburban trains from Boston, but also numerous express trains that ran from Boston to New Hampshire, Vermont and Canada. Only the terminus in Lowell on Merrimack Street had only a purely regional character, as the northbound routes already branched off on Middlesex Street and the trains going northwards after the opening of the new station on Middlesex Street no longer on Merrimack Street held. Only suburban trains that ended in Lowell ran to the old station until the beginning of the 20th century, which was then converted into a freight yard. It was not until the port connections were closed in the 1970s that this section of the route in the center of Lowell was closed. Today the Lowell National Historical Park's museum tram runs on the former railway line. In June 1873, the Boston & Lowell opened a port siding in Boston, which branched off south of the Prospect Hill stop and led east to the Mystic Wharf (now Massport ) port facilities . Today this line only serves as a connecting track in sections. The Mystic River Railroad Company had received the concession for this route on May 25, 1853, but did not start construction work. Boston & Lowell bought this company and the concession on December 15, 1871.

The management of the line went in 1887 to the Boston and Maine Railroad , which the Boston & Lowell had leased. From 1955 to 1957 the railway company raised the line in the urban area of ​​Winchester, replacing some level crossings with underpasses. At the same time, the Wedgemere and Winchester Center stations were renewed. In 1976 the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) bought the route, but initially left Boston & Maine to handle the suburban traffic. The Boston & Maine received a right of use also for the freight traffic, which increased sharply from 1979, after the freight trains in the direction of Fitchburg were directed over Lowell. Freight traffic has been operated by Guilford Transportation since 1983 , which was taken over by Boston & Maine and which has operated under the name Pan Am Railways since 2006 . Since the Guilford Transportation did not want to operate any passenger traffic, they handed over the management of the suburban trains to the Amtrak. Since 2001 it has also operated the Downeaster , which runs to Portland via Wilmington. In 2003 the MBTA itself took over the implementation of the suburban traffic to Lowell.

Route description

Boston North Station.

MBTA train heading for Lowell in Medford (Winthrop Street bridge) April 13, 2009.

Anderson RTC on an MBTA train towards Lowell.

Wilmington Railway Station.

Lowell Gallagher Terminal.

The route begins in Boston North Station, which opened in 1893 . The Boston & Lowell train station was at the western end of the property. The original station building on the line was only replaced by a new building in 1878, which was added to the new station complex when the North Station was built. In 1928 the entire complex was demolished and a new reception building was built. The line leaves the station in a north-westerly direction and first crosses the Charles River. The original route, which was still in use until the end of the 20th century, branched off here and bypassed the Charlestown freight yard to the south. The line then crossed under the main line to Fitchburg . Today the trains run north around the freight yard and over a double-track cross connection. Where the two lines meet again, the Mystic River Branch, the port railway of Charlestown, branched off from June 1873. The track connection to the Lowell line has been dismantled, but sections of the port railway are still in operation as a siding. The route now continues in a north-westerly direction through the urban area of ​​Somerville. However, there have not been any person holdings here since the 1960s. At the former Somerville Junction station, a link to Cambridge branched off, which was used by freight trains in the direction of Fitchburg until 1979.

A few kilometers further on is the town of Medford, where the first passenger stop along the route is today. Shortly thereafter, the route turns northeast and runs through Winchester, where the MBTA suburban trains stop at Wedgemere and Winchester Center. At the Winchester Center station a branch line branched off, which ran through the center of Woburn and north of the city in Wilmington rejoined the main line towards Lowell. In the further course the route reaches the branching station Montvale, where a branch line once led to Stoneham. The train station is located in the urban area of ​​Woburn, but far away from the center. Here the route to Lowell turns again to the northwest and crosses the north of Woburn. The Mishawum stop is located in an industrial area near the lake of the same name. It is only used in rush hour traffic. The most important intermediate station is reached shortly afterwards, the Anderson Regional Transportation Center , which opened in April 2001 . In addition to the MBTA suburban trains, the Amtrak Downeaster trains also stop here. Some Boston suburban trains end here during rush hour.

Immediately after the station, the line crosses the city limits to Wilmington. The original Boston & Maine mainline branched off from 1836 to 1848 at Wilmington Station. After the Boston & Maine had built its own route to Boston, however, it was shut down in Wilmington. It was not until 1874 that Boston & Lowell built its own railway to the Boston & Maine main line, which runs parallel to the old route to Wilmington Junction and also branches off at Wilmington station. The main route to Lowell continues in a north-westerly direction through sparsely populated land and shortly afterwards reaches Billerica. Here is an important railway workshop, the Billerica Shops , to which a connecting track branches off. Shortly before North Billerica station, the line from Bedford joins , which was operated from 1877 to 1878 as a narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of two feet (610 mm) and was only later replaced by a standard-gauge line.

Shortly afterwards, the city of Lowell is reached. The line first crosses the Concord River and then flows into the Bleachery freight yard , where the double-track line from Lowell Junction, the disused line from Lawrence and the line from Framingham join the main line. The rail field of the freight yard merges seamlessly into the Charles A. Gallagher Transit Terminal passenger station , where the MBTA's suburban trains end. This station had opened in 1983 and replaced the former Middlesex Street Station in almost the same place. The original route to Lowell continued over the Pawtucket Canal and along the Merrimack Canal into the center of the city, where the terminus Merrimack Street Station was reached right next to the old town hall . This area is now part of the museum complex of the Lowell National Historical Park . The Tram Museum is located in the station area.

passenger traffic

Passenger transport has always played an important role on the Lowell route. In 1869 two express trains and seven passenger trains ran the route to Lowell and some further north. There were also nine trains to Woburn, which ran to Winchester on the line, and two trains to Stoneham, which used the route from Boston to Montvale. After the branch line to Wilmington Junction was opened in 1874, trains were introduced over this line to Lawrence. In 1881, 38 trains left Boston, heading for Lowell. Of these, eleven trains only ran to Somerville Junction, where they turned off towards Arlington, eight trains went to Winchester and on to Woburn, five via Montvale to Stoneham, one via Wilmington to Lawrence and seven trains ended in Lowell. Six trains continued on toward New Hampshire. On Sundays there were only three trains going to Lowell, one of which went further north.

Shortly thereafter, with the takeover of the New Hampshire railways in the mid-1880s, numerous new express train routes were introduced. In 1916 there were twelve express trains running on weekdays and four on Sundays for New Hampshire, plus three passenger trains a day to New Hampshire, which also did not stop at many stations between Boston and Lowell. In local traffic, 56 trains used the route from Boston Monday to Friday, 60 on Saturday and 14 on Sunday. Only four, five on Saturdays, of these trains went as far as Lowell, the rest of them turned onto the branches at Somerville Junction, Winchester, Montvale or Wilmington. Most of the local trains to Wilmington and Lowell passed through Woburn, not Montvale.

The train service decreased with the increase in individual traffic and in 1960 there were only five express trains to New Hampshire, eight trains to Lowell, eight trains to Wilmington and on to Haverhill and 22 trains via Winchester to Woburn, one train to Winchester and on weekdays a train to Wedgemere is available. The suburban trains to Haverhill ran over the route from 1959 to 1979, after which only individual train runs in rush hour traffic. Due to the increasing settlement of the suburbs, the commuter traffic from Lowell to Boston has increased again. In 2010, the MBTA offered 26 trains on weekdays on the Lowell Line, four of which only go to Anderson / Woburn, all other 22 trains end in Lowell. In addition, five trains from Haverhill run via Wilmington in the direction of Boston during rush hour. In the opposite direction there is only one train available on this relation. Eight trains run from Boston to Lowell and back over the weekend. The Amtrak operates the route between Boston and Wilmington five times a day with the Downeaster to Portland.

Sources and further reading

Individual evidence

1. ↑ see timetables of the route from the years mentioned.
2. ↑ Current timetable of the Lowell Line (PDF; 178 kB) ( Memento from February 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

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, pages 87-88 (PDF; 6.9 MB) ( Memento from June 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
• List of stations (with miles) and staff from 1923 (English)