6/3/01
The weather was lousy today, but I made the best of it by taking an early morning ride out to W.Concord to hike a section of the old F&L out there that I have never actually been on, just seen from the car while driving on route 2.

I parked at the W.Concord train station and started walking. Of note here is that they have finally disconnected the F&L from the Fitchburg main, though not totally. A small nub remains splicing off of the main line and makes it to the road, but the iron has been removed from the road, across the parking lot and a little beyond before resuming and leading you into a 3 track
yard. Here only the middle track is still passable, the other 2 have trees sprouting through that could be up to 40years old if I had to guess. Of interest here is a whistle post and parts of the former spur that lead into the prison complex, only part is visible, but it looks like there is more buried going a ways in.
Its not really a good idea to spend too much time here, the last time I did the tower sent a unit in to see what I was up to, fortunately not today.

At this point now I'm up to the Commonwealth Ave. crossing, the iron is still in the road an connected on both ends. Once you cross here and continue walking you immediately pick up a line of telegraph poles, initially they are in good shape, but their condition gets worse and worse the further in
you get, and eventually most end up being in 3 pieces on the ground, however the ones that
were still standing were still strung up with telegraph lines, interesting.

Of note on this side of the road is the excellent condition of both the r.o.w. and of the iron, growth on the tracks here is minimal, no real impediments to speak of. Going around a long bend I see the remains of a battery box followed by a whistle post. Now the track is dividing 2 cornfields, and I
am quickly closing in on busy Rt.2. walking a little farther, I come up on an impressive
bridge, definitely double tracked at one time. The F&L trestle remains on the abuttments on the right side, and the left side has been taken out, you can see where the former bridge rested, and a couple of threaded studds are coming up out of the stone here. From what I understand, the F&L once shared this bridge with the old NA&B, until that track was taken out sometime
around 1925 or so?

Here is where things get a little confusing. While standing on the bridge, you can see the remains of a smaller scale iron bridge about 20 yards down stream, I walked down to check it out. Getting to it was easier said than done, a chainsaw would have come in handy, what it is is the iron/steel perimeter of a
former bridge at the spot, with the top deck/planking removed. At first I wondered if this was somehow railroad related, but the more I think of it it is doubtful, the angle that this spur would have had to break off the mainline is too severe, and the abuttments are light-duty when compared to the F&L
structure up stream. I think that this probably was a bridge crossing for farm equipment and or tractors at one time, because there is farm land on both sides of the brook, but I could be wrong?

Anyways, back up on the rail bridge, I am onlt a few yards from RT.2, all of the electronic signal equipment/flashers were removed a couple of years back, but the control boxes remain on both sides of the highway. The tracks on the other side of the highway are easily accessable from the buildings along Rt.2A in Acton, I wouldn't recommend trying to cross here!

All in all a good morning out on the old F&L....
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

12/10/00

Todays mission was an in depth look at the old Hanscom A.F.B. spur track, which broke off of the Lexington branch at the junction of Hartwell and Maguire roads in Lexington. I remember walking to this "split" years ago, probably around 1985, from Bedford center, which is easily a couple of good miles. At that time all of the rails were still in place, although unused for a good four or so years. For a track that had only been out a few years, it was already pretty overgrown at that time, likely due to the fact that the last years of service were light at best. This used to be an interesting junction where the A.F.B. spur broke off the mainline. I remember the switch stand was unlocked, and worked excellent. In the 15 years since, it is a whole different scene
here. The mainline is now paved with asphalt, and the first 100 yards or so of the spur are buried by a very recently built parking lot, obliterating all traces of what was once here. It is not until you walk out to Maguire rd. that things come together. The road itself still has the iron in it, and from here on its easy walking and riding all the way out to the base.

Of interest is the fact that this spur was ballasted by stones, where the main line was a cinder r.o.w. Actually, its good walking,
but it makes for a rough ride. Occasional ties may be seen all through here, some still in the ground in their proper location. By far, the bes surviving feature of this branch is an extremely impressive, well built "pile-driven" bridge over a good sized brook back there. The bridge is entirely wooden, constucted from telephone poles, with extra support coming from wooden crossbraces underneath. Lenghth-wise its probably 50 feet long, and 10-15 feet high. The rails have been removed, and the top planked over for walking. The only part of the bridge in poor condition is the ties, and its only a few of them, the rest of th structure is in
nice shape, its a nice looking piece of architecture.

Farther down beyond the bridge, the r.o.w. is now an access road for servicing a field of radio antenneas just outside of the base,
then you come to another split, where the historic r.o.w. goes straight, and the dirt road deviates sharply to the right. From here, almost until the end of the line the iron is still down, and extremely covered with brush. in fact, it can't even be noticed in the summer months. I was able to walk it for a bit before it became impossible, a little farther up I could make out a split in the track along with a switch stand. Supposedly there used to be a small yard here consisting of 2-3 tracks. The end of this spur was at or near the old base carwash, infact I remember working on the base in the late 1980's, and the trackage here was still in good visible condition, now except for this small stretch, it has all been removed.

All in all, there is still plenty to see out here, with this spur still heavily resembling the railroad era, unlike the former mainline from
which it broke off.

I'll soon be posting an update for 12/17, when I visited the F&L in W.Concord, and in Lowell, where it still appears to be serving
Interstate Container, and as dead storage for Guilford.

11/26/00
Today proved to be a brief, but very beneficial look at the "current" conditions of the old Eastern Route in Newburyport, between the current end of passenger service in Newburyport, and the massive steel bridge over the Merrimack River. Please keep in mind that the Eastern is, and has always been a favorite of mine, so I tend to shower it with favoritism from time to time!

Early this morning I walked the trackage in front of Owens Illinois(just after the current end of passenger service / Rt1 traffic
circle). I've been here many times, but I never recall seeing a three-way switch before Owens, I always remember it as a two way.

Anyways, you have the "main" track, the unique "down-grade" Owens siding, and a third siding branching off here, which looks like it served the lumber facility here. This is a small siding, so I can easily see how I may have overlooked it, I'd say it could only hold 5 or so cars tops.

Walking farther towards Low St, you reach a "R" / ring post, and then a bumper post, to stop any oncoming locomotives from ending up on Low St (the bridge has been removed). Telegraph poles are still in existance on this stretch, three being on the ground as of this time.

Part two of this mornings walk brought me to the other side of Low St, through the tunnel, past the former station site (on the right), over the High St . bridge, and over to the base of the massive span over the Merrimack River.

Points of interest / concern:

-New condos near the former station site are "ridicilously" close to the R.O.W. Given recent talks of possibly restoring service back through this stretch and into Portsmouth, I feel that this construction isn't very well thought out. Renewed service through here would make residents of this complex "miserable", lower resale values, and raise concerns of child-safety. I'd think the planners here would have heard some of these talks of possible rail-revival here? Maybe they live sheltered lives / or don't care about future difficulties for residents, long after they have taken the development "to the bank"?

-The old station platform remains intact, which is good.

-Milepost 37/37 should be duly noted at the base of the High St. bridge, and its in excellent shape.

-I counted 3 block-signal bases before reaching the Merrimack bridge.

-Rather impressive "retaining" walls remain on the "river" side of the tunnel under1A. I noticed that the iron is really close to the
left hand wall as you approach Low St, looks almost too close, yet intact?

-Interesting concrete "STOP" post noted at grade crossing before High St bridge. The only others I've seen of this type are on either side of

Arlington Ctr on the former B&M Lexington branch.

-The bridge over High Street was clearly double-tracked, you can't mistake it.

-Here is one for Scott(the master), there is some interesting stone work on the Low St side of the tunnel, my question is if its r.r. related? Tough to tell what it was, if so...

-There is patchy iron on this mentioned stretch, very little of it is unaltered. The confusing part is that a seemingly unaltered
stretch is a bit too close to the left-hand wall approaching the tunnel, which may be another one Scott may want to shed some light on!

Thats the current update on the eastern, I'll take another good look as soon as I can get back up this way.
 

11/24/00

Today(the day after Thanksgiving) I was fortunate to have off. I decided to embark on a motorcycle ride, for as long as I could stand the cold, which wasn't very long!

I took Rt 225 out of Bedford, through Carlisle, and into Acton. The mission today was to check if anything new has happened out in the area of the F&L. This entire area has been under seige for the last year to year and a half by repaving / road improvement operations by the town of Acton, which has resulted in NEARLY all remaining grade crossings of the
F&L(within town limits), to have been paved over and stripped of their former grade crossing equipment. This mind you is pertaining to the trackage that was in active use until 1993 or so by the Bay Colony R.R. to reach the former Wickes Lumber in N.Acton. All crossings beyond this point towards Chelmsford / Lowell have been dismantled for many years now.

In short, one crossing remains complete w/ crossing protection, and ironically its the one of the busiest crossings on the line,
Rt.2A. At the rate these crossings have been being dismantled / paved over, this probably won't be intact by this time next year, so if anyone wishes to view it "as it was", I'd act fast!

As recently as a year or two ago, all crossings were intact and unpaved, including the multi-lighted former RT.2 grade crossing of the line, keeping my hopes high that another shipper could arise and request service, but as it looks now, I'd say a rail-trail is more likely. The only other glimmer of hope that remains on this branch as far as I can see is the fact that it still hasn't been disconnected from the Fitchburg main line, hmmm? I've heard that trains are ocassionally "laid over" on this stretch, but I personally haven't seen anything on it since the 1993 departure of Bay Colony, but I keep checking.

I'll continue to monitor the condition of the old F&L, and report any / all of my findings to the page.
 
 
 
 

10/10
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Guest travel log entry by Jeff DeCaprio
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Hi, my name is Jeff DeCaprio, and i'll be doing some reporting for the page from time to time, as I get the time to go out and see lines of interest in my general area. This weekend being a long weekend, we managed toget out and see quite a bit.

Saturday 10/07/00

Started the morning with a ride down the old L&A branch, abd. 1981 (Lexington and Arlington), this line was converted into the Minuteman rail trail in 1991 or 1992, and is amongst the most popular in the country. Upon reaching the end, 11miles or so later,
in Cambridge we pushed further past the Alewife T station over to the Fresh Pond Parkway also in Cambridge, to investigate the old Watertown Branch.

It appears that this line is still "somewhat" active, the giveaway is that wheel flange marks are visible on the dirt alongside the
crossing. Of interest is that there are some new piles of stone and some bundles of new ties, so it looks like Guilford intends on some much needed improvements. visibly, from the points i've checked, its in poor condition, even flooding in one area, which
was also addressed, by a recent "makeshift" drainage ditch, on each side of the ROW.

A point of concern is the lack of crossing protection across the parkway. This is an extremely busy road, the crossing is at grade, and we are down to one set of crossbucks, for the traffic heading towards Arlington. At last check, there was one on the other side, but it mysteriously dissapeared

The railroad must be flagging this crossing, and in my opinion, electronic protection is a must, I wouldn't want to walk out there and try to stop those cars, the way they drive on the parkway. If I had to guess, they are probably about to addresse this with the work they are doing, we'll go back for another look in a week or two and see what, if anything has happened.

After this, we pedalled back to Bedford, took a break for lunch, and went back out for another look at a remote stretch of the Bedford and Billerica RR, abd. 1962, a section due to peoples backyards, we were never able to get into, but today, noone was around so we managed to get in and walk out to RT3.

In part 2 of the 10/7 entry, i'll share what I saw of this extremely remote stetch of the B&B, it proved to be a good accomplishment.

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10/07/00 (pt.2 / continued)

As previously mentioned, after getting back from Cambridge on the first ride, we had lunch and then headed towards Billerica on the old B&B, the countries first 2 foot narrow guage railroad onced operated here on this very same route, before conversion to standard guage.
The town of Bedford has turned its section of the line into the "narrow-guage" rail-trail. The line (within town limits) was purchased by Bedford shortly after abandonment in 1962, therefore remains intact. However, after crossing into Billerica, its an entirely different story. The line is soon dissrupted by a massive office park that extends all the way out to rt.3, with no traces of the line and where it crossed through it. To continue to
where the line resumes intact, you need to hop on Concord Rd., head over rt3, and pick the line back up off of the Middlesex turnpike, which is what we did.

As I had said, this is tricky to get into, because you feel as though you are tresspassing through peoples backyards, but since noone was around, we got the mountain bike in there and made it almost to rt.3, stopping just shy of there due to a massive tree across the ROW, which I could barely walk over, bit managed. My findings are that this stretch is still completely intact, and ridable for the most part. It is built straight through a swamp until reaching solid ground by the highway. There were no real railroad artifacts on this remote stretch, other than the cinder trail itself, and some old ROW fencing thats still there. I had been acting on a tip from a friend that said that there was a granite post out here before the highway, but if it was there I failed to see it. From here, we headed back to the turnpike and was satisfied that I finally made it out here, it was very rewarding.

Next on the agenda was crossing Concord Rd. again this time over to the Cabot Building, where the cinder trail resumes intact over to River St. just shy of Billerica Ctr. Of major interest here is a steel bridge built on high abuttments, which is in excellent shape. Far
below, you old ties and shackle plates can be seen. Coincidentally, the bridge has been
planked over, so the line remains contiguous if you are on a bike. Just north of here
I found a whistle post lying flat on the ground, and ahead of that before River St., a drainage culvert may be seen, along with another "unmarked" granite post at River St. I didn't cross River St. today, but last winter I was on the other side to see that there is still
iron on that stretch under some heavy brush, very interesting.

Billerica is planning to construct a rail-trail over its abandoned sections, so we will see how that goes. Unfortunately, the office park on the town line that I had mentioned will dissrupt the trail for a stretch. I've often wished that Billerica had thought ahead like Bedford
did and bought there section, so this could'nt happen, but unfortunately that wasn't the case.

Overall, a good day, which proved for the most part the B&B has survived relatively intact since its abandonment in 1962. I'll soon have another update for my 10/08 trip down to the Buzzards bay station, and on the way back, I swung through Acton, to check on the old F&L.

10/08/00

Even after yesterdays extensive adventures, I had plenty of energy left to head out today. I had a prior obligation to participate in a charity bikeride for a friends daughter who was killed in a car accident a couple of years ago, and it was being held along the Cape Cod Canal.

Upon arriving down there at the set meeting place I was pleased to see that on the other side of the parking lot was the Buzzards Bay Depot. Before and after the ride I took a good look at the building, its surroundings and last but not least the massive bridge
carrying the line over the canal. The building is in excellent shape, but the bridge is in dire need of some renovation. The first thing you notice is that there is more rust than paint. I was talking to some locals/railfans down there and they said that the bridge is still used, pretty much daily, which I was hoping to see, but no such luck. I did see an excursion train approach the bridge from the Cape side, but when it reached the bridge, instead of crossing, it doubled back. According to the people I talked to, the bridge is
supposedly slated for extensive repairs soon, which is good. Apparently, the two motor vehicle bridges carrying cars onto the Cape always take priority.

For those of you who have never seen this bridge, its about 4 stories tall, and can be seen for miles. The design is of the draw-span type, and when its not in use, rests at the upper-levels of the platform, very impressive indeed. Bay Colony supposedly is handles the freight duties on the line, and tourist excursions are run over it as well. I strongly recommend getting down to the Cape to see this, it is probably the most impressive piece of railroad architecture I've ever seen, right up there with the
Merrimack River bridge on the Eastern route in Newburyport.

Later in the day, I headed back towards home, but first I swung through Acton to take a quick look at the old Framingham&Lowell line there. This stretch of the F&L was operated by the Bay Colony R.R. until 1993. Most of the iron is still intact, though severely overgrown. Every once and a while some dissapears here and there, an example of this is the busy RT.2 crossing, which was removed a year or two ago. Today I noticed that another stretch has been removed behind Acorn Houses, and is being used as a back way into a business there, so I was able to drive down it a short ways. Of interest here is a milepost marked "13", denoting 13 miles from Framingham I would guess. There used to be a siding here, but that was recently removed as well. This construction is very fresh, because I get out here several times a year, and this wasn't the scene on the
last check. Farther down the line towards Chelmsford, the iron was just removed from the RT.27 grade crossing  within the last couple of weeks. Slowly, the line is getting broken up, little by little.

Two other things of interest are that the line is still connected to the Concord mainline, and also several crossings still have their electronic signal protection in place, though every time I check, there is one more missing it seems.

I will be doing alot more on the F&L this fall, so keep tuned, it always has been a favorite of mine, and there is alot more to
explore. Like the B&B, this line is also slated as a future rail-trail, as to when work begins, we will have to see. I would like to document as much as possible while the line is still in its railroad state, and more or less intact. After looking around out here in Acton for a little less than an hour, I called it a day, wrapping up a good weekend of railroading.