I was looking at the Massachussetts state railroad map that someone posted in another thread and saw something odd. What is the history of the ROW marked as Private that runs roughly parallel to Route 23 from Blandford, through Otis, and terminates in Becket? Was that an interurban? I thought the only crossings of the Berkshires were the Hoosac Tunnel on the B&M and Washington Hill on the B&A.
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Mystery ROW in Western Mass
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Sounds like the "Huckleberry Line," a short-lived interurban/trolley operation. In the leafless season the r o w is quite visable.
Mass GIS has a "shapefile" of all the railroad infrastructure in the state. It includes lines built and used, built but not used (Hamden RR), Partially constructed (SNE/Grand Trunk RR), and Trolley/Interurban. It appears that the map linked was created from this shapefile database - as it contains much of the same information (and errors.)
I have the raw shapefile and it can be downloaded from the Map GIS web site. (However, you will need GIS software to view it - such as my employer's Terrain Navigator Pro.) The map linked above contains a subset of the railroad data, the shapefile appears to be fairly complete. As an aside, it uses the numbering/reference system Karr published in his "Lost Railroads of New England" books.
In this example, the shapefile shows a portion of the "Huckleberry Line" from Huntington Road in Blanford to Cape Street in East Lee. It is flagged as "Trolley" and the ownership as "Private".
As to the SNE (in the other thread) it should be noted that construction for the "Titanic Railroad" started several years AFTER the sinking of the ship. While the maritime disaster did affect the Grand Trunk Railroad, it was not the sinking of the ship (and the perishing of its president) that ultimately killed the expansion, per se. (See "Titanic Railroad" by Larry Lowenthal.)
I have the raw shapefile and it can be downloaded from the Map GIS web site. (However, you will need GIS software to view it - such as my employer's Terrain Navigator Pro.) The map linked above contains a subset of the railroad data, the shapefile appears to be fairly complete. As an aside, it uses the numbering/reference system Karr published in his "Lost Railroads of New England" books.
In this example, the shapefile shows a portion of the "Huckleberry Line" from Huntington Road in Blanford to Cape Street in East Lee. It is flagged as "Trolley" and the ownership as "Private".
As to the SNE (in the other thread) it should be noted that construction for the "Titanic Railroad" started several years AFTER the sinking of the ship. While the maritime disaster did affect the Grand Trunk Railroad, it was not the sinking of the ship (and the perishing of its president) that ultimately killed the expansion, per se. (See "Titanic Railroad" by Larry Lowenthal.)
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It is indeed the old ROW of the old Berkshire Street Railway --- its Huntington branch, in particular, which opened in 1913 and ran for only a couple of seasons, hauling both passengers and freight. It was owned by the New Haven and was intended to compete with the B&A, which probably doomed it from the get-go. It wound through a sparsely populated area that included only three small villages (East Lee, Blandford [North Blandford, specifically] and Huntington). I've never been entirely clear on whether it continued southeast from Huntington all the way to Westfield; I believe that was the original intention, but I've never fouhd clear evidence that the line went the whole distance.
The roadbed can be very easily traced. It runs, as you said, roughly parallel to Route 20 to a point just up the hill from where Route 8 veers off to Otis. It crosses under the highway via a partially-filled in overpass and from thence to the corner of Johnson Road and the Lee-Westfield/North Blandford Road (see DeLorme's Massachusetts Atlas and Gazetteer). It parallels the Lee-Westfield/North Blandford Road and can be easily seen as there is a power line running along it. I haven't traced it east of North Blandford, but I know it makes a long descent --- a rather precipitous one at that --- down toward Huntington village.
The roadbed can be very easily traced. It runs, as you said, roughly parallel to Route 20 to a point just up the hill from where Route 8 veers off to Otis. It crosses under the highway via a partially-filled in overpass and from thence to the corner of Johnson Road and the Lee-Westfield/North Blandford Road (see DeLorme's Massachusetts Atlas and Gazetteer). It parallels the Lee-Westfield/North Blandford Road and can be easily seen as there is a power line running along it. I haven't traced it east of North Blandford, but I know it makes a long descent --- a rather precipitous one at that --- down toward Huntington village.
Would this be the ROW visible from I-90 as well, appears to now have an electric line following it?
According to O. R. Cummings in his BERKSHIRE STREET RAILWAY (Conn. Valley Chapter NRHS, 1972) the Huntington-Lee line of the Berkshire ended on East Main Street in Huntington, a few feet from the end of the Springfield Street Ry's line from Springfield to Huntington. There was no permanent connection. In July, 1917 a temporary connection was installed to return several Springfield cars that had been loaned to the Berkshire system. The Berkshire St. Ry. and Springfield St. Ry. were both subsidiaries of the New Haven Railroad.
In response to lvrr --- the trolley roadbed crosses the Pike twice. I wrote of the crossing near the junction of Routes 20 and 8 earlier. The trolley bed and the aforementioned power line diverge east of North Blandford. The ROW crosses the Pike the second time in the vicinity of the Blandford restaurant/gas station/rest area on the westbound side of the highway. A friend and I traced most of the Huckleberry by car and on foot early last week (I'll post some photos when I get them developed). It's very difficult to pinpoint where it crosses the Pike in Blandford. It definitely intersects the back access road to the rest area, but the alders, bushes and trees are so thick in that spot we couldn't find it. Beavers have also caused some flooding there. The roadbed CAN be fairly easily found a short distance to the north, where it crosses Huntington Road three times before descending the mountain into Huntington.
The New Haven and Lee ran from Lee to New Hartford,Ct. (?) The problem is it was never built.--BUT sections were graded--
Any information seems LOST as the libraries that had a booklet (about the railroad) had such stolen.
One member of the New Haven RR forum (not rr.net) promised me a photocopy years ago but it turned into a joke.
Any information seems LOST as the libraries that had a booklet (about the railroad) had such stolen.
One member of the New Haven RR forum (not rr.net) promised me a photocopy years ago but it turned into a joke.
coltsfoot wrote:The New Haven and Lee ran from Lee to New Hartford,Ct. (?) The problem is it was never built.--BUT sections were graded--There is a New Hartford, Connecticut-- it's on the Farmington River, and at one point was served by both a branch of the New Haven's Canal Line and the mainline of the Central New England Railway. Was the New Haven & Lee projected to be an interurban, or was it an extension of the Canal Line or the CNE?
Any information seems LOST as the libraries that had a booklet (about the railroad) had such stolen.
One member of the New Haven RR forum (not rr.net) promised me a photocopy years ago but it turned into a joke.
I don't think anybody knows much about the New Haven & Lee except that it was never built. I think it was 'plotted out' but track was never laid. I have been told some sections were graded but that was about it. Somebody said those graded sections are still visible today to someone who knows where to look.
There was a little booklet published about the railroad. Somebody promised me they would send photocopies but the years have gone by. (I'd guess this person was more into preserving 'rare books')
I've snooped around the old Hucklebury Line and the ROW is very obvious in areas. It appears as though the electric utility bought the ROW long ago.
There also was a quarry railroad in Lee that I forget the name. I once saw it on an old topo map. --- and that map does not seem to be one saved at places like Maptech/UNH ---
There was a little booklet published about the railroad. Somebody promised me they would send photocopies but the years have gone by. (I'd guess this person was more into preserving 'rare books')
I've snooped around the old Hucklebury Line and the ROW is very obvious in areas. It appears as though the electric utility bought the ROW long ago.
There also was a quarry railroad in Lee that I forget the name. I once saw it on an old topo map. --- and that map does not seem to be one saved at places like Maptech/UNH ---
Well it seems clear from those two texts that the Lee & New Haven was projected to be a regular steam railroad, that grading was started, and that the line would have essentially been an extension of the Canal Line branch to New Hartford. Fascinating stuff. Presumably the project got killed off by the depression of the early 1870's.
One wonders how successful this line would have been had it been completed. It would have provided a ready link (via the B&A, assuming it would have gotten trackage rights) between upstate New York and Hartford/New Haven. The NH kinda-sorta had that with its Canal Line extension from South Deerfield to Buckland where it met the Troy & Boston (B&M), but that never saw a great deal of business. This would have been more direct.