Boston & Maine Engineering Records at Iron Horse Park?

I just joined the forum, although I have lurked anonymously a few times, both for work-related reasons and because I grew up near and love railroads. I have some fuzzy basic knowledge about the sequence of RR ownerships in eastern Mass, but it's been good to spend a few hours reading postings here to learn about the latest CSX acquisition of PAR and other events.

I now have a land survey project adjacent to the old Lexington Branch of the B & L/B & M/MBTA and am trying to learn whatever I can about past and current records. My job is to locate the sidelines of the ROW in one particular spot. This branch is now the (paved) Minuteman Bikeway and unfortunately the tracks have been torn up. Since the tracks on this branch are a possible basis for measurements to the sidelines of the ROW (according to location plans), I'm missing one way to get oriented in space. There are other ways to locate the sidelines, but the more confirmation I can get, the better.

I have done many surveys before on and near Boston-area railroad property and made much use of Boston & Maine Val Plans and B-plans. Occasionally we visited the B & M engineering office at Iron Horse Park to get records and I'm wondering if that office is currently there, or if the redevelopment, toxic cleanup, corporate restructuring or other things have relocated them. I've searched railroad.net, the CSX site and generally searched the internet, but have come up with no contact phones or emails for the office. I have some very old contact numbers for Guilford in Merrimack and will try those if nothing else.

Worst case, I'll drive up to IHP and knock on a few doors (I'm close by), but I just thought I'd see what people here might know.

I hope I'm posting in the right part of the forum. I did some looking around and this one seemed to make as much sense as any. Sorry if my aim is off! This is a great forum and it's very encouraging to see so much knowledge and enthusiasm for rail.

Ok, I apoligize for not doing enough homework. I had forgotten that I have an old file of contacts and, upon remembering just now, found an old number for B & M Engineering at Iron Horse Park. So I'm going to try that on Monday, and expect I'll find out where they are. Still, if anyone has anything to say about B & M Engineering, I would read it with interest.

B&M Historical Society has picked up a lot of records-- you should ask them for sure.

https://www.bmrrhs.org/

To echo what 9634 said, get in touch with the society. They have a staggering amount of paper archived at the U Lowell library.

It's owned by the MBTA ask them.

Can't you get that info at the Middlesex County Registry of Deeds?

Thanks for all the suggestions. I did scour the B&M Historical Society website, but it sounds like they might have more material at the library. I'll look into that.

I have also gone through the 1870s county RR location plans, county engineering field notes, and county road layouts (where they cross the RR), all at the Registry of Deeds. Not to mention going through every survey plan index going back to earliest recording days at the registry.

The Val Plans were at the registry, but only because the MBTA bought the ROW. Some of the B-plans are at the registry, too, but B&M sometimes has plans in their files which are not at the registry.

Out on the ground, I've found some of the stone bounds shown on the county road plans, and these may ultimately be what I rely on. But what the county set and documented is not the same as what the RRs set, and depending on various factors, may or may not be what you'd want to hang your hat on.

The RRs set some bounds along the baseline of the ROW, but those were in the middle of the tracks, and long gone, like the tracks thenselves. So maybe B&M has some plans which show other objects (houses or county bounds) and their relationship to the ROW sidelines. A few of the houses near my survey are that old.

I like to collect all the evidence I can from as many sources as reasonably possible, so I don't end up locating a boundary based on partial info.