Abandonded Watertown Station

I came across this picture on Universal Hub on an article about somebody photographing most of the abandoned Watertown Branch.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/111058139 ... 4989947410" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My question is where exactly is this location? This seems like a really cool place to see an old station close to Boston and keep from trespassing. Are there more locations like this on the line where stations haven't been re-built or remodeled?

That's the former Church Street station in Weston, on the Central Mass Branch (closed 1971), located here. Not even close to Watertown. There's a private property sign on one of the other pictures in that photo set; while the ROW is probably fine (should be state-owned, bought in the 70s along with the other B&M commuter assets) I wouldn't go poking around the building too much.

Go to http://maps.google.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and request a map of Weston. Follow Church Street a short ways northward from the center of town. A dotted line shows where the Central Mass passed under Church Street. Put the little yellow man down at that spot, and a photo of the station will appear amongst those below the street view, at least it did for me. The photo shows the station area overgrown a lot more than in the picture you posted, so much so that the stairway barely shows and the leftmost bridge arch not at all. One of the key elements of the Central Mass photos in that general area is the electric transmission towers along the right-of-way.

-John

Central Mass has a number of well-preserved stations:

Waltham Highlands: http://goo.gl/maps/V93Y0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Weston (previously mentioned): http://goo.gl/maps/7AwlN" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, and here in vintage days: http://www.wickedlocal.com/storyimage/W ... 189861.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Wayland: http://goo.gl/maps/YFqnK" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
South Sudbury: http://goo.gl/maps/ftqrZ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And those are just the ones that saw commuter rail service into the MBTA era.



Watertown Branch only has the freight house on Fresh Pond Pkwy. as its lone surviving historical building: http://goo.gl/maps/y4E0w" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

There's some crumbled pieces of stone and concrete behind the Cambridge Waterworks (Huron Ave. side, a little bit past the driveway overpass of the tracks) that used to be a hillside ramp to an old platform, visible if you're on the jogging path. Look for the pieces of steel and discarded rail haphazardly thrown to the side by years-ago Guilford and B&M work crews and you'll see what's left of the outcrop. But that's about it. I don't get the impression this line in its heyday had much in the way of station buildings at its stops.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:Central Mass has a number of well-preserved stations... And those are just the ones that saw commuter rail service into the MBTA era.

Explain to this out of towner, please? This line was served by MBTA at one point?

=otto=

The definition of "served by the MBTA" might get a little stretched, since the MBTA district was significantly smaller four-plus decades ago, and subsidies were involved.
From footnote 3, p. 60, of the hardcover reprint of the B&MRRHS The Central Mass. discussing the Jan. 15, 1965 cutback of service to South Sudbury:
"Cities and towns outside the district were invited to contract with the MBTA to assure continued service and a number did so. However, the town of Hudson chose not to, resulting in the cutback to South Sudbury." Further service declines are detailed in following pages until -- on p. 62 -- the end of passenger service on Nov. 26, 1971 is discussed.

Otto Vondrak wrote:

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:Central Mass has a number of well-preserved stations... And those are just the ones that saw commuter rail service into the MBTA era.

Explain to this out of towner, please? This line was served by MBTA at one point?

=otto=

1964-71 under subsidy to B&M.


Somewhat fluid evolution, but for all intensive purposes state control began in '64. . .

-- The T's 1964 agency charter allowed the agency to pay all in-district service costs on the lines B&M and NYNH&H had ICC permission to discontinue (at the time, basically everything except Providence/Stoughton and the then B&A-owned Worcester Line). RR's would still own and operate, but state subsidy dictated the routes, stops, and schedules. Once they accepted the settlement for public subsidy on ICC discontinuation, RR's no longer had a choice in the matter.
-- Out-of-district towns (basically, everything past the halfway point between Route 128 and I-495) had to cut their own subsidy deals with the RR to retain service because the T couldn't help them. So long as they did subsidize the RR's were bound to the same obligation to serve those stops. Rules were loosened in the 70's so the local bus authorities (where available) could subsidize the out-of-district stops instead of the towns, and a few years later the T charter was amended to outright expand the district to its current size and put every stop under T control.
-- Official start of the subsidy era is 12/14/1964 on the northside, when the T and B&M agreed to terms. 7/28/1965 was official start of subsidy era on southside, when the T and NYNH&H agreed to terms. In between those dates the town-by-town agreements were settled up and service was truncated, schedules slashed back, and intermediate stops dropped based on which towns paid for what service.
-- Whole system rebranded as "MBTA Commuter Rail" in '74. Purple Line color scheme, system maps, T logos adorning equipment all adopted that year. Even though it's still B&M and Penn Central owned/operated service.
-- Conrail and B&M sell all commuter rail equipment and assets to the T in '76. Both retain operator-only contracts same as T contracts out today. Official end of the subsidy era, official beginning of the ownership era.
-- B&M outbids Conrail for the systemwide operator contract in '77. Official start of the 'unification' era where northside and southside ops are consolidated same as today



Central Mass MBTA subsidy began on 12/14/1964 with the rest of the northside. Service was retained at the 1 weekday-only rush trip each direction that it was under B&M, with same stops: Porter Square, Waltham North, Waltham Highlands, Weston, Cherry Brook, Tower Hill, Wayland, East Sudbury, South Sudbury, Ordway, Gleasondale, Hudson. Ordway, Gleasondale, and Hudson got cut 1 month later when town of Hudson declined to subsidize its stops. Schedule stayed static for 5 years until T began discussing discontinuing subsidy (and thus discontinuing service) due to low ridership. Did a few months' trial of increased frequencies to see if that would generate new riders, then threw in the towel and discontinued service for good on 11/26/1971.

The Westin station seems to be the only one that hasn't been renovated into something else and consequently the most interesting to visit. Has all the rail been torn up from the entire line?

theseaandalifesaver wrote:The Westin station seems to be the only one that hasn't been renovated into something else and consequently the most interesting to visit. Has all the rail been torn up from the entire line?

Weston station was a private residence for awhile, but it's unoccupied right now. Hopefully it gets some love before it decays too much more.

Rails are still in the ground most of the way to Hudson, albeit deeply buried in the brush. The line is still connected to the Fitchburg Line at Beaver St., Waltham with an active power switch...the first few feet have been used sparingly over the last 25 years as MOW equipment parking, although the ties are so rotted at the junction you probably couldn't attempt to store a full railcar on it without running aground. Kind of amazing since it's been abandoned at the east end in Waltham since 1987. Couple hundred feet of rail removed at Jones Rd. on the west side of Route 128 when that office park driveway went in a decade-plus ago. Couple hundred feet more recently removed in the last 1-2 years on the east side of 128 for land-clearing on the whole Polaroid complex redevelopment. About 2 blocks in downtown Hudson are paved over for the Assabet River Rail Trail coming off the Marlboro Branch. Other than that and the grade crossings all being paved-over, it's pretty much intact from Waltham to Hudson. Those gigantic power line towers have prevented anything in the way of encroachment. Ancient, flimsy stick rail. And there's still some remnants of B&M's old concrete spare rail storage racks at intervals along the ROW where crews could grab a spare piece of stick for quick repairs without needing to bring their own.


Rail trail's going to be plowing east to South Sudbury where it'll meet Phase II of the Bruce Freeman Trail extension (Westford-Sudbury...the Sudbury-Framingham leg is still owned by CSX and snarled in a staredown over asking price). Weston vetoed its trail extension thanks to NIMBY kvetching so it's going to be a long time, if ever, before the rails come up in most recent commuter rail territory or past Weston Station. Waltham's itching to get started trailing the portion in-town that's largely redundant with the Fitchburg Line in order to link all that extremely dense north-of-downtown residential with the big Polaroid complex. If the T ever gets around to building that Route 128 park-and-ride on the Fitchburg Line the Central Mass overpass of the highway will basically be the station egress to that massive mixed use development.

Excuse my ignorance but this isn't the same ROW that cuts off from the Waltham MBTA station?

IIRC Weston has come around a little bit since vetoing the trail in 1997, but they will probably remain the last link in the chain. Maybe RTC can take some of the energy they're expending on ripping up tourist railroads in New York and divert it toward pacifying the Weston NIMBYs . In any case, if anyone's curious about MCRT progress, here's a progress report from June.

The ROW branching off at the Waltham station is the former Watertown Branch (in the thread title), but the original posting (and much of the thread) has referred to a depot on the Central Mass branch, which splits from the Fitchburg a bit east of the Waltham station at Clematis Brook.

Here's the Google Maps satellite view of where the line splits off the Fitchburg at Clematis Brook (a controlled point):
https://goo.gl/maps/3WNPH

It's a very easy line to follow on satellite view through Waltham, over the Fitchburg Line again just east of Kendal Green, and all the way to Hudson where it meets the Assabet River Rail Trail. That's where I lose it on pure satellite view alone, and from there on west it's tough to follow when it's not a rail trail or the active Mass Central Railroad. It does share Pan Am's Worcester Main Line between Clinton Junction (just west of the dam) and the Oakdale neighborhood of West Boylston.

TrainManTy wrote:Here's the Google Maps satellite view of where the line splits off the Fitchburg at Clematis Brook (a controlled point):
https://goo.gl/maps/3WNPH

It's a very easy line to follow on satellite view through Waltham, over the Fitchburg Line again just east of Kendal Green, and all the way to Hudson where it meets the Assabet River Rail Trail. That's where I lose it on pure satellite view alone, and from there on west it's tough to follow when it's not a rail trail or the active Mass Central Railroad. It does share Pan Am's Worcester Main Line between Clinton Junction (just west of the dam) and the Oakdale neighborhood of West Boylston.

You can follow the ROW pretty easily out of Hudson because it parallels Route 62 at about the same distance away up to 495. On Google trace the curve in 62 as it crosses I-495 and you'll see the rail underpasses on the highway. The one on the southbound side is much closer to 62 because the ROW takes a steep dive closer to 62 as it's crossing under 495. It's literally at the back fence of that small park-and-ride lot at the exit and house down the street with the big swimming pool in the backyard. Then it peels back out. Then 62 takes the sharp turn north and meets back up with the ROW at the corner of Carter St. These stone abutments about 100 ft. before the Fitchburg Sec. grade crossing are where it passed over 62, the Fitchburg Sec. tracks, and that 5-way intersection en route to Clinton: http://goo.gl/maps/oBfkx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. This is the part that was abandoned way back in the 1930's.

MBTA ownership ends at the intersection of 62 and Carter St. On Historic Aerials' topo maps of Berlin as late as 1988 it still shows tracks terminating at that spot. Past there to where it crossed over the CSX Fitchburg Secondary it's lapsed into private ownership (but still fully intact). I'm guessing the last B&M customer had to be here at the ownership break, and had to have lasted at least into the 1970's, because otherwise that whole section from Hudson to Berlin would've never been able to be landbanked under MBTA control. Can't for the life of me figure out what that business might've been; there's nothing out there except the town DPW lot and Historic Aerials overhead shots don't give any clues.

I live out here so I'm actually familiar with the area and the route; it's just tricky on satellite view without help (thanks for the great writeup, by the way).

This mystery customer may be Berlin Stone, the quarry on Sawyer Hill Road immediately adjacent to the tracks. The current owner, Massachusetts Broken Stone Company, says on their website that the quarry opened in 1961.
http://www.massbrokenstone.com/

On another note entirely, you may find this historical mapping tool immensely valuable for this type of research.
https://historical.northavenue.net/

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:1964-71 under subsidy to B&M... Whole system rebranded as "MBTA Commuter Rail" in '74. Purple Line color scheme, system maps, T logos adorning equipment all adopted that year... Central Mass MBTA subsidy began on 12/14/1964 with the rest of the northside. Service was retained at the 1 weekday-only rush trip each direction that it was under B&M, with same stops: Porter Square, Waltham North, Waltham Highlands, Weston, Cherry Brook, Tower Hill, Wayland, East Sudbury, South Sudbury, Ordway, Gleasondale, Hudson. Ordway, Gleasondale, and Hudson got cut 1 month later when town of Hudson declined to subsidize its stops. Schedule stayed static for 5 years until T began discussing discontinuing subsidy (and thus discontinuing service) due to low ridership. Did a few months' trial of increased frequencies to see if that would generate new riders, then threw in the towel and discontinued service for good on 11/26/1971.

Thank you and jaymac for the details!

-otto-