Rte 1 Peabody crossing

[John Smythe]

It is true that after so many years following official abandonment the ROW, yards, sidings, whatever occupied space when the railroad first acquired the land reverts back to the original parties, in most cased the town or city ends up with it. I'm sure their is a set legal procedure by which this is accomplished.

The 100' long backyard railroad that I assembled in my yard came from such a situation where a neighboring town wanted to build a hiking trail from what was left over from The Old Colony & Newport RR that got started back before the Civil War. The New Haven & Penn Central finally closed & abandoned the route from Braintree Highlands at North Street, Randolph all the way to Stoughton Jctn. just North of Easton, Mass. Some 70 pound rail is still on the ground in the woods, in other places just a narrow hiking trail is left. I created a display of rail & a switch using good hand hewn ties in a small park where the Randolph Center Train Station stood. In turn the town allowed me to take whatever I could use to make my backyard railroad. My (late) Grandad was a steam locomotive fireman for The NH RR & on occasion back at the turn of the last century he fired locomotives from S. Station to Newport, R.I over that route.

[edbear]

In Massachusetts and New England and probably many other states, abandoned railroad property does not revert to any entity unless the original deed specified, and that is not very common. I managed the Boston and Maine property records, 1973-85, and we did a land inventory. The B & M still had about 25,000 parcels of land after the MBTA sale, both active in railroad use or abandoned beyond the limits of the December 27, 1976 sale of most railroad assets in Eastern Mass. to the MBTA. The only properties that revert are those easements over, under or across public roadways, waterways or some public land. And to the railroad owner would have to state to the public entity it was through using the easement. For the B & M which retained rights to use MBTA property for freight use, it would notify the MBTA that it was done using the property and the MBTA would notify the public entity that there was no longer any need for that easement. B & M property was acquired by direct purchase, gift or eminent domain and most parcels are recorded on full warranty or quitclaim deeds. For property that reverted out of 25,000 parcels in the early 1980s, there were probably a couple hundred and almost all in New Hampshire.

[arthur d.]

Ha! But just because it happened once, or more than once, doesn't mean...

The idiocy continues, to this day bureaucrats continue to insert a blanket " contractor will provide trucking for materials..." clause in the contracts. The service my customer is providing is the pulverization of worn out pavement prior to the application of new pavement. The old pulverized pavement doesn't go anywhere, it is spread and compacted and used as a base for the new pavement. Once in a while some anal retentive pencil pusher will show up and have a fit because they aren't complying with the contract, so they have to go, get a dump truck and loader, fill the truck with ground pavement, drive around the block, come back and dump the stuff right where they got it from 5 minutes ago....

[l008com]

Here in Massachusetts, we are very lucky if we have lanes painted on our highways (and semi-highways). Nevermind filled potholes. But digging rails out of the road? I'm in my 30s so I'm confident the rails will be out of route one by my death. And they will probably only repaint the lanes about 4 times between now and then.

[CRail]

I'm in my 30s and I'm equally confident the rails will be in service again before my death.

[Jedijk88]

Is there a plan to reactivate?

[highrail]

Reactivate? Not in our lifetime. There is no business potential in that area.

[John Smythe]

I remember when my parents & I traveled to our vacation home in Maine during the 60's & 70's there was a Plywood Ranch lumber located on the Southbound side of Rt 1 in Peabody that was served by The B&M RR. The freight train was always heading East in order to spot cars on the lumber yard siding. The Plywood Ranch has been gone since the 1980's. But the tracks are still laying there in the overgrowth, taking the exit onto the ramp that leads to Peabody High School will allow one to cross a grade crossing that still has the signals intact to some extent.

[RenegadeMonster]

Reactivate? Not in our lifetime. There is no business potential in that area.

Hypothetical question, but Peabody keeps doing studies for light rail connection to Salem. I have heard rumors of it going potentially further than the mall.

Should this every become a reality in the next 40 years could that trigger the reactivation of this crossing?

[l008com]

I doubt it since there's already active tracks that go from salem to peabody. This line is deep in the woods, it really is a relic from back in the day before highways and cars for every individual. I'm no expert but I can't see any scenario where this line gets reactivated.

[Cseries]

Well it looks like the rails will be pulled soon, there is a resurfacing project on route 1 and it mentions taking them out.

[Trinnau]

Hypothetical question, but Peabody keeps doing studies for light rail connection to Salem. I have heard rumors of it going potentially further than the mall.

Should this every become a reality in the next 40 years could that trigger the reactivation of this crossing?

The line out of Peabody Square that heads toward the mall lines up with the Independence Greenway trail along Lowell St in Peabody. It actually is the old Salem & Lowell, which if you keep tracing it will take you through Middleton, North Reading, Wilmington Junction and all the way to connect with Wamesit near CPF-297 in Tewksbury. It actually crosses I-95/Route 1 just a little further south of the grade crossing, where the over/under interchange between the two highways has completely replaced the ROW.

The old Newburyport is what crosses Route 1 at grade, and heads more to the North towards downtown Danvers and Topsfield. On the North side of Lowell St it becomes the Boston to Border Trail. The Newburyport and Salem & Lowell cross just west of Route 1 in West Peabody.

[Cseries]

……….and the rails are gone