3-8-03 Saturday, nice day, temp in the mid 40's, which is warm for us, it's been a very cold winter, and sunny. I had been reading the messages in the New England Railfan forum on www.railroad.net about the remains of the former South Reading branch on the Wakefield end and decided to go and check it out for myself.

This trip was fairly easy as most of the work had already been done for me. I knew what I was looking for from reading the posts. I decided to prepare for the trip anyways so I printed out a current map with Delorme's Street Atlas 9 as well as a 1944 topo of the area. I studied the topo and drew in the path of the branch on the current map.

I put the local and current maps into a three ring binder and brought it along for the trip. It should be  pointed out that at the time that this branch was built, Wakefield was part of South Reading, hence the name of the branch. .The branch does not go through the present S. Reading.

This is part of a 1944 topo map that shows the Wakefield end of the branch. Note that a few miles of route 128 was built on the old right of way. The track shown on this map is the Newburyport branch that ran from Wakefield Jct to Newburyport. You can see the right of way for the S. Reading branch going off to the right and then heading straight for route 128.

This is a current map with the S. Reading branch drawn in.

I started at the route 128 end of this section. Unfortunately there was so much snow that I decided to wait and look at this section after the snow cleared. I'd like to have a close up look from my bike and without the snow piles being in the way. Hopefully that will be possible before June.

I then headed down Montrose ave. Unfortunately there are curbstones so you can't easily pull over. The right of way was visible on my right, There were a couple of railroad ties vertically stuck in the ground.

I took a right onto Whittier road and road around the neighborhood and found the right of way at the corner of Aldrich and Andrews. See the map above.

This view is looking west at the corner of Aldrich and Andrews.

Here is the view looking East. The tracks were most likely between the road and the houses. Down further there is a rock cut that was undoubtably made to allow the tracks to go through.

This view is looking East at the other end of Aldrich. The right of way continues but is obliterated by construction.

Looking West on Aldrich street, opposite the previous view. The rock cut is visible on the left. I beleive the tracks were on the very left side of the road where the sidewalk is probably hidden beneath the snow.

The next stop was Davey Lane where at the end and off to the left I found this embankment. This view is looking East.
 
 


View from the top of the embankment looking towards Aldrich and Andrews streets.

Standing on the end of the embankment looking West and where the embankment would have been had it not been bulldozed to make way for the houses.

Views of the embankment from Davey Lane.


At the end of Curtis Street Extension I took a right and was greeted by this bridge abutment. It's in surprisingly good shape.  Unfortunately the one on the other side of the road is gone and the embankment has been bulldozed behind this one.
 

This is where the other abuttment should have been and the embankment of the right of way should have been as well.
 

View from half way up the embankment looking East.

Standing at the same place, looking West, the embankment has been bulldozed.

Another view of the abuttment, you can see up top where the bridge was mounted.

There was little more to be seen of the branch on this end. I'll explore the ends a little more when the snow clears.

While I was in the area I decided to head over to the former Jefferson Smurfitt and see what was up over there.

The track on the right is the former Pleasure Island spur while the one curving towards me served Jefferson Smurfitt.

That's Jefferson Smurfitt behind the truck.

Looking back towards the Newburyport branch where the spur to Smurfitt broke off.

I thought that this old wooden sign had something to do with Pleasure Island but it turned out to say something about Wakefield Conservation.

The power company cleared this whole area.


This is about where the Pleasure Island spur turned in towards Pleasure Island. I was hoping there would be some iron left but there isn't. The only iron on the PI spur is what is left in the road that I'm on here.