That was AWESOME! Thank you so much for sharing! Ahhhh! 
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Danvers MA rails about to be pulled
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Great video!
-Matt
"Hey, lets go snake hunting and dirt biking on the Saugus Branch, dudes!!!"
"Hey, lets go snake hunting and dirt biking on the Saugus Branch, dudes!!!"
question- I rode the danvers rail trail today and was happy to see quite a bit of historic stuff was left behind. I'd rather see the line in use than sitting dormant, however the surfacing needs some work for sure.
On the way back through towards Topsfield between the Pine Street and Holten St crossing (close to pine st), I spotted a curved section in the woods that was extremely elevated with 4 enormous culverts at the bottom where the stream passed. I mean this was maybe 50 feet up above the stream. I got off my bike and followed it, and took the photo I've attached, it was a gorgeous spot! I followed the ROW and suddenly I spot ties, then rails in tact too... As the tracks are paved over Adams St. they continue the curve and abruptly end at the parking lots edge of the Hospice of the North Shore and Greater Boston.
This looked like FAR more than an industrial spur and upon looking at google maps following where the ROW would have gone, there was more or less NO EVIDENCE at all, although not surprising considering how much the tracks were grown in, however going in the same general direction, past RTE 128 I found something very interesting, what looks like the remains of a very long steel trestle over the Crane River which seems to intersect more or less perpendicular with the Danvers Center to Peabody Square line.
So whats the story with both of these? I can't seem to find any history on either the line or the trestle, are the two related?
On the way back through towards Topsfield between the Pine Street and Holten St crossing (close to pine st), I spotted a curved section in the woods that was extremely elevated with 4 enormous culverts at the bottom where the stream passed. I mean this was maybe 50 feet up above the stream. I got off my bike and followed it, and took the photo I've attached, it was a gorgeous spot! I followed the ROW and suddenly I spot ties, then rails in tact too... As the tracks are paved over Adams St. they continue the curve and abruptly end at the parking lots edge of the Hospice of the North Shore and Greater Boston.
This looked like FAR more than an industrial spur and upon looking at google maps following where the ROW would have gone, there was more or less NO EVIDENCE at all, although not surprising considering how much the tracks were grown in, however going in the same general direction, past RTE 128 I found something very interesting, what looks like the remains of a very long steel trestle over the Crane River which seems to intersect more or less perpendicular with the Danvers Center to Peabody Square line.
So whats the story with both of these? I can't seem to find any history on either the line or the trestle, are the two related?
The first spur went to the former Sylvania plant on Sylvan Street.
The other spur went to the Hebb Leather Company.
John, the guy in the white car with the wing on back.
The other spur went to the Hebb Leather Company.
John, the guy in the white car with the wing on back.
The Sylvania spur was pretty interesting. Did you see where the line went through the fellows driveway at Adams Street!?
The attached link is a photo that I took just before all the ties were removed at the Sylvania spur. I seem to recall that the line went into the building.
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... highrail55
I have a couple others, but it is amazing how intact most of that little spur is. I will post a couple more at the nerail site.
The other trestle went up to a "beam house" near the back of the Hollywood Hits theater. It is a pretty contaminated site, slated for a clean up. If I recall correctly, there is still a sewer pipe attached to that small trestle, so the trestle will not disappear anytime soon.
Steve
The attached link is a photo that I took just before all the ties were removed at the Sylvania spur. I seem to recall that the line went into the building.
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... highrail55
I have a couple others, but it is amazing how intact most of that little spur is. I will post a couple more at the nerail site.
The other trestle went up to a "beam house" near the back of the Hollywood Hits theater. It is a pretty contaminated site, slated for a clean up. If I recall correctly, there is still a sewer pipe attached to that small trestle, so the trestle will not disappear anytime soon.
Steve
According to what I've read on here, Guilford continued running the beer train to Danvers until March of 1998. The collision at the Route 1 grade crossing happened in December of 1997, three months earlier. I remember reading a post on here by someone who said that on the night after the accident, he saw the involved train's locomotive parked between Route 1 and Lowell Street (it was a GP40 locomotive). Also, a guy who posts on here a lot said that after service to Danvers was terminated, Guilford still used the Newburyport Branch to service a customer in Wakefield called Jefferson Smurfit, which is located right near Route 128. And service to there was terminated in April of 2001. When service to Danvers ended, I was only ten years-old, so I never got to see the Newburyport Branch in use. It would have been so cool to see a train cross Route 1. Interestingly enough, the track is still intact on Route 1, and the crossing flashers are still there. The track is also still intact on Lowell Street, and there is an old signal box at the crossing, meaning that it too must have been protected by flashing lights.
Madjack wrote:The track in Peabody also looks in good shape. This line was done when a Guilford train struck a car crossing RT1 on a return trip from Eastern Seaboard back in 1997.
The train would stop on the northbound side of RT1. The crossing lights and bell were were activated, then the engineer would blow the horn until the traffic on the northbound side would stop. Once the northbound traffic was stopped the train would move across the northbound side to the median strip. The crew would then stop in the median strip, sound the horn and wait for the traffic on the southbound side to stop. Once the southbound traffic was stopped the crew would go the rest of the way across.
On the day of the accident traffic on the southbound side was stopped, the train started across, then someone decided to go down the breakdown lane and try to beat the train across.
The train T-boned the car and pushed the car down the tracks into the woods. The highway was shut down for the better part of the day while the accident was investigated.
I do not believe the beer train crossed RT1 after that incident.
where did the newburyport branch meet up with the mainline? also there was an accident at Route 1 mentioned, what happened?
MBTA F40PH-2C 1050 wrote:where did the newburyport branch meet up with the mainline? also there was an accident at Route 1 mentioned, what happened?Wakefield Jct., which is still intact and tied to the Western Route shortly south of Wakefield station. They stopped serving it out of Peabody Sq. via the Danvers branch after a river trestle burned in the 80's and strictly went the long way from Wakefield until the whole line was embargoed in 2001.
seems like a lot of river trestles were torched in the 80's...weren't both Mystic River bridges for the Eastern and Western routes torched during that decade?