Hello railfans! I live in Easton, MA and wanted to know of some hidden gem railroad locations to look for rail traffic and possibly semi-abandoned rail properties. I know right near Mansfield Station, you have a line that leads to a CSX yard, and Fall River has a grade crossing leading to a smaller rail yard. It's right near the battleship harbor (Correct me if I'm wrong). Avon might have a rail yard and apparently Middleboro has a commuter rail layover yard near the station. Feel free to fill in the blanks or inform me of other interesting locations.
Right in your own backyard in Mansfield, you can trace abandoned Mansfield-Taunton mainline south. Lifted from Mansfield to RT495. A segment of it is still in use in the Myles
Standish Industrial Park down to Fremont Street (Attleboro Jct) where the current active mainline from Attleboro south to all of SE Mass runs.
The next crossing south of that (W.Britannia Street) was called Whittenton Jct where the "New Road" or mainline to Raynham Jct came in. There was a wood tower here in the north west
quadrant of the crossing. Foundation should still be visible.
South of Whittenton Jct is Danforth Street Yard, which after being dormant for decades, now sees stone/ballast loading. This yard extended south to RT140/Tremont St.
Continuing south down at Oak Street is where the Old Colony freight house was, Taunton Locomotive Works, Mason Locomotives Works and Taunton Central station were.
Another mile or so is Weir Jct where the former Randolph to Fall River/Newport mainline crossed at grade. The Dighton Branch went off to the southeast here. Now all abandoned to
Somerset. The rest of that mainline is now the Dean Street Industrial to end of track at School Street. This line went all the way to Raynham/Easton.
Not a few feet south of Weir Jct is a small yard at Ingalls Street.
Marching south from there is Cotely Jct (out in the woods and not so accessible, though it can be seen from the east side of mainline when the foliage is off the trees. This is the line split
for Middleboro and New Bedford/Fall River. The north end of the siding for Cotely is at Hart Street.
Heading south to NB/FR, the next junction is Myricks, which is crossed by RT 79. This is the line split for New Bedford (straight south) and Fall River (swings southwest). The FR line is
easily followed for the most part by RT79 all the way to Fall River.
All for now...
D