Spur near Wellesely Ma Farms?

While on Commuter rail recently, I briefly noticed what appeared to be a spur of some sort near there. Couldn't tell if it is active from the distance I was at. Any ideas where it goes/went?

If you're talking the apparent ROW through Indian Springs Park, that's the Cochituate Aqueduct that carries Boston's auxiliary water supply (and once carried its primary supply before the Quabbin Reservoir was built) from Lake Cochituate in Framingham, stringing together several small reservoirs en route. Constructed 1846 only a decade after the Boston & Albany opened, and pre-dates all of the area branchlines. There never was any anything built on top of it because the ancient aqueduct roof is pretty close to the surface. Parts of it have walking path on top, and the rare times it's in use for emergencies (such as the Summer 2009 water crisis when the aqueduct pipe from the Quabbin/Wachusett reservoirs burst) you can hear the water gushing right below.

There is also a remnant of the original right of way at Wellesley Farms on the right hand side going inbound just west of the station. If memory serves (and ain't that a leap), there is a small rock cut at this location. According to the val plans the track was realigned in the 1880's between the Farms and the Hills.

DAW

NRGeep wrote:While on Commuter rail recently, I briefly noticed what appeared to be a spur of some sort near there. Couldn't tell if it is active from the distance I was at. Any ideas where it goes/went?

If it's the spur about 1 3/4 miles east of Wellesley Farms station that goes off Tk 2 that still has a track on it, then it's the Riverside switch that leads back into the MBTA Riverside station and car barn.

It could also be the track that used to go to wellsley lower falls, it serviced the Grossmans there

boatsmate wrote:It could also be the track that used to go to wellsley lower falls, it serviced the Grossmans there

No, that was the Newton Lower Falls line. It split off at Riverside on the track connection to the Green Line yard, ran behind the rearmost trolley track in the yard, crossed Recreation Road and 128 on bridges that are still there in good condition, hugged the edge of a golf course and a couple residential blocks, crossed the Charles on an ancient trestle, and dead-ended about a block past Route 16. Line never went any further than that, so it was always a short stub. Abandoned sometime around 1986 when Grossman's stopped receiving, so it lasted a very long time. Riverside Jct. and the beginning of the line are about a mile from where the aqueduct crosses the B&A at Wellesley Farms, and the end of the line near 16 was about 600-700 feet shy of the aqueduct.

They want to make that into a paved path for easy pedestrian access from 16 to the Green Line, and it would be a damn excellent access point because of the existing bridges that get you across the Charles and 128 and there's only two light-traffic residential grade crossings to traverse. It is damn hard to get to Riverside on foot or bike from 16 because it requires crossing treacherous highway ramps along Grove St. Community's all behind it, but a handful of neighborhood NIMBY's are throwing a snit over the usual "undesireables in my backyard" BS.