They Fought to Keep Trackless in the Triangle

TomNelligan wrote:I assume that you're referencing the Silver Line to Logan rather than the Washington Street bus route. The problem with all-electric operation to Logan is the trafic congestion around the Logan terminals, which as I'm sure you know can be a mess. A diesel bus can freely dodge and weave as necessary to get through, while a trackless would be limited to one lane (plus some lateral tolerance) that as a practical matter might not be possible to always keep free of obstructing vehicles. I think the current dual-power system with electric operation in the tunnels and diesel beyond Silver Line Way makes sense because of Logan traffic patterns. In my experience the power changeover never takes more than a minute or two.

No, I dont think the Logan portion should be electric, but SL2, SL4 and SL5 should be.

jamesinclair wrote: No, I dont think the Logan portion should be electric, but SL2, SL4 and SL5 should be.

The South End could have had trackless trolleys on Washington St. but they fought the T's trackless plans in the hope they'd get light rail instead.

TomNelligan wrote:

Two orange line tracks + two North East Corridor tracks?. How many tracks were there before? How many train stations?

It was a four-track brownstone embankment. The current Orange Line ditch is actually a little wider than the New Haven RR's early 20th century elevated ROW between Back Bay and Forest Hills. As for intermediate stations, very long ago there were a couple but they were closed long before the 1960s. I have that info at home and will post it tonight of no one beats me to it.

It was a gray/white granite embankment - at least on one side. The granite just got that black/brown discoloration over the years. The stations fell out of use by WWI.

I don't have timetables so I can't confirm exactly, but the last map I can find that shows them is 1915.

jonnhrr wrote:rebuilding the structure (as SEPTA is doing to the Market Frankfort El in Philly) to make it sound and using more modern techniques to make it quieter

SEPTA had finished the Market St El's rebuilding a bit more than 2 years ago, and the Frankford El about 10 years ago. In my opinion from the street the passing trains sound noisier than they did on the older unrebuilt structure.

The EGE wrote:From north to south:

227.8 Back Bay
227.1 Chickering (at modern Mass Ave station location)
226.3 Roxbury (at modern Roxbury Crossing)
225.6 Heath (at modern Jackson Square)
225.0 Boylston (at modern Stony Brook)
224.5 Jamaica Plain (at modern Green)
223.9 Forest Hills
222.8 Mount Hope (at Blakemore Street; open until 1979)
221.8 Clarendon Hills (at former Metropolitan Avenue grade crossing)
221.2 Hazelwood (at West Street)
220.7 Hyde Park

Don't forget Readville at 219.4.