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  • Lynn (Central Square) Station

  • Discussion relating to the pre-1983 B&M and MEC railroads. For current operations, please see the Pan Am Railways Forum.
Discussion relating to the pre-1983 B&M and MEC railroads. For current operations, please see the Pan Am Railways Forum.

Moderator: MEC407

 #1391474  by R36 Combine Coach
 
The elevated station at Lynn was built 1909-13 with four tracks. When rebuilt with high level platforms, why weren't the new platforms built directly on the old platforms north of Exchange Street, adjacent to the historic Fabens Building?

What was the space under the elevated station/viaduct used for? Were there once express/baggage facilities, stores or rooms in the space below?
 #1391537  by The EGE
 
The main reason was the relocation of the entire station - the modern site off Market Street allowed for the construction of a parking garage and drop-off lane (buses were moved to the dropoff lane in 2002) which wasn't possible in Central Square. The Market Street facility was designed to accommodate a Blue Line extension without major reconstruction of the Commuter Rail side of the station, and the garage was sized for BLX as well. (Remember, this was the early 90s, when BLX looked like a very likely thing).

The old platforms were fairly narrow islands - 20 feet wide in the middle, and narrowed on the ends. You'd have had speed restrictions for passing express trains because the center tracks weren't quite straight, and there's just nowhere near the frequency of traffic that there once was on the line that justified four tracks at the station. (Passing sidings between Lynn and Swampscott, or a BLX-2 to shift Swampscott + Salem State + a lot of Salem demand onto the BL, would be much more useful.) The old-quad-tracked station design was built during the brief era where the New Haven had a controlling interest in the B&M, and was planning a cross-harbor tunnel and complete quad-tracking of the Eastern Route out to the Beverly split. In practice, the outer tracks ends up being used mostly for Saugus and Swampscott Branch trains (neither of which will ever be CR again), and for letting expresses pass locals (more important in the days before bidirectional signalling).
 #1391541  by John_Perkowski
 
Admin note:

I did a wildcard search on Lynn in this forum. There is no topic directly focusing on the station itself. If the Moderator finds something close enough, go ahead and merge.

Report deleted. JP
 #1391649  by YamaOfParadise
 
The EGE wrote:The old-quad-tracked station design was built during the brief era where the New Haven had a controlling interest in the B&M, and was planning a cross-harbor tunnel and complete quad-tracking of the Eastern Route out to the Beverly split. In practice, the outer tracks ends up being used mostly for Saugus and Swampscott Branch trains (neither of which will ever be CR again), and for letting expresses pass locals (more important in the days before bidirectional signalling).
Huh, that's really interesting; I've read little about the grandiose plans from the effectively-joined NH-B&M system besides from the stuff with the Hampden Railroad + Central Mass. Railroad.
 #1391685  by TomNelligan
 
Another example of the New Haven influence on the B&M circa 1910 was the pagoda-roofed concrete signal tower that formerly stood just north of the Lynn station. This design was quite common on the NH and a number of examples still survive along ex-NH lines, but this was the only one on the B&M. I shot the attached photo of an inbound train passing the tower in the summer of 1978.
Attachments:
Lynn tower.jpg
Lynn tower.jpg (66.68 KiB) Viewed 7320 times
 #1397377  by jbvb
 
By the 1960s, the easternmost trackbed in the elevated station was empty. I recall reading that this was because either the bridge or the supports in the platform area weren't strong enough to support modern cars and locomotives. The westernmost track remained in place, and was frequently used by the Lynn Goat to clear up for passenger trains.
 #1467380  by BostonUrbEx
 
jbvb wrote:and was frequently used by the Lynn Goat to clear up for passenger trains.
Anyone know what the "Lynn Goat" was? I've heard of the "Camel" job (Lynn Camel or Salem Camel?) which was a local freight that would operate between Boston and Castle Hill, I believe. So named because it did the whole round-trip without needing to stop for water, I think.
 #1467383  by edbear
 
Local freights that brought cars to Lynn, placed them, took empties and returned to Boston. There was a Chelsea Goat too.
 #1469194  by jbvb
 
In some years' freight operating plan, the Camel or Oil Job (Mystic Jct. - Salem turns) could also exchange cars with the Chelsea and Lynn Goats, though I don't know how that traffic flow compared with cars the locals took to/from Boston themselves.