Somerville Yards

Does anyone know if the old rail yard in Somerville encompassed all of this area at one time? Also was the Boston and Maine roundhouse located where the BET is now or north of it?

http://www.google.com/maps?ll=42.378551 ... &t=k&hl=en

Google says it doesn't like my browser and won't let me open that link, but basically the B&M yard originally occupied just about all of the real estate in the triangle bounded by McGrath/O'Brien Highway, Washington St./Cambridge St., and Rutherford Avenue, as well as most of the land between Mystic Avenue and the river, plus the Mystic Wharf area that is now the container terminal under the Tobin Bridge. It's been shrinking steadily since the 1950s. The B&M roundhouse was located about where the east/south end of the current MBTA locomotive shop is now.

Thank you sir. The photograph that you can't access is centered in the area of Innerbelt Road and 3rd Avenue with the red bridge (?) in the lower left hand corner crossing the Fitchburg line. I was just trying to get a feel for where things were. Do you happen to know where the hump was located?

By the way, the Moran "container terminal" under the Tobin is now called the Autoport and is basically a parking lot with some rails under it and a container crane that doesn't work.

As for Moran Terminal, wasn't the rail severed between "FX" interlocking and the rest of the line a while ago?

TPR37777 wrote:Do you happen to know where the hump was located?

The B&M's hump was located next to the New Hampshire Division main track (MBTA Lowell line) just south of the Washington Street underpass, along Joy Street. It was active as a hump into the early 1970s, and the former hump yard (which was known as B&M Yard 8) parallel to Joy Street was used for flat switching well into the Guilford era. I think there's one track through the area now.

The new MBTA BET (or CRMF - Commuter Rail Maintanence Facility) was
built on the same footprint as the old B&M BET. Only change is that the
Fitchburg Route mainline got bumped out west between old Tower A and
the Gilmore Bridge to accommidate new Yard 14.

Tom was right in that the entire area between McGrath Highway, Washington St and Rutherford Avenue was all railroad yards - Yard's 8 & 9. The yards also extended south to the Charles River between McGrath/O'Brien and City Square in Charlestown.

The connection at FX for the Mystic Wharf Branch was severed in 2004 with the removal of the diamond.

All Guilford freights from the north (Lawrence or Lowell) now access former Yard 8 via handthrow crossovers between Cross Street and
Walnut Street. After two 2001 derailments on the 4th Iron between
these crossovers and Somerville Jct, GRS never bothered to fix the
track. Probably a moot point since the Green Line extension to
Medford would have eliminated the 4th Iron north of Cross St anyway.

Dave

To my great surprise, there is a car carrier docked at the Autoport today.

did you know that the area shown in that photograph was the original site of McLean Hospital? It was once a bucolic hill. Once it got surrounded by railroads, McLean no longer found it suitable and they eventually left for quieter Belmont.

Someone mentioned the Red Bridge. That was torn down during the Democratic National Convention in July 2004.