Mystery Railroads on Cape Ann

I was in the Beverly-Ipswich area last week and while there traced some of the ROW of the old Essex Branch of the B&M, abandoned in 1942. This morning, I looked up the roadbed on some old USGS maps via the Internet, and discovered --- quite by accident --- a couple of old railroads that used to operate on Cape Ann that were never connected to the B&M.
One ran from Pigeon Cove to Lanesville, the other southeasterly out of Bay View. They were both depicted on an 1893 map of Gloucester and vicinity. Does anyone know what they were? Quarrying railroads, perhaps?

I believe these were quarrying railroads.

Here's a map with the railroads...
http://historical.maptech.com/getImage. ... g&state=MA

The main quarries on Cape Ann were at Janesville, Rockport, Pigeon Hill, and Bay View. More historical info if you google "quarry cape ann."

PBM

I visited the Great Arch, granite piers and quarry in Rockport last year. I was impressed - those are some huge blocks that they managed to shape and move around. Although the old maps show tracks there, I'll bet the cars were drawn by oxen. My guess is that they did not use steam locomotives to service the quarries. I explored some of the area on foot and in my Jeep, but didn't get too far in the under growth. Also, my wife was bored silly, so we left sooner than I would have liked.

The website on Cape Ann Quarries is interesting.... http://www.cagenweb.com/quarries/articl ... rries.html

Don't know if it's one of the ones you refer to, but in Halibut Point State Park there are old railbeds, etc. from when the quarry there was active. You can see the indentations in the ground where the old ties were.

I might have already been to it before with my dad, but where is the Great Arch and other locations you mention? I'd like to check those out. Can you do some slight offroading to get to some sites?

At least two of the granite railroads on Cape Ann used steam locomotives. They were, the Rockport Granite Co. and the Cape Ann Granite Co. There are pictures of these operations at the Walker Transportation Collection, Beverly (MA) Historical Society & Museu;m. The Collection is open Wednesday evenings from 7 to 10 PM, or by appointment at other times.