Air Line Limited using B & P Park Square Terminal, Boston

I have been buying timetables lately and got some great ones. Two are for the New England Railroad. The New England was a reorganization of the New York and New England and it wound up firmly under the control of the New Haven. I have NE public timetable #7, June 13, 1897, corrected to September 23, 1897. The New Haven also had taken over the Old Colony and with it the Boston & Providence. South Station, built pretty much on the site of the New England's Summer Street station in Boston, was under construction at this time. On the Mainline schedule page of the timetable, the 1 pm departure of the Air Line Limited is shown as leaving from the Park Square station, which was the B & P's terminal. A sidebar contains a little more information and says "running by way of Dedham." What's even more interesting is the time; 5 hours flat, Park Square to Grand Central. Boston 1 pm, Willimantic 2:48, Middletown 3:32, New Haven 4:15, Grand Central 6:00. 5 hour time eastbound too. I always thought 5 hour time was not achieved until about 1903 or so with the Mayflower, Bay State, Knickerbocker and Merchants Limiteds on the Shore Line Route. Would anyone know the route the Air Line Ltd. used from Park Square to get to the New England's rails? (Other New England trains left from their Summer Street station.)

Since I asked my question on the route of the Air Line Limited operating out of the B & P Boston Park Square Terminal, I have spoken to an expert and he gave me this answer. The Air Line Limited operated out the B & P Mainline to Forest Hills, out the Dedham Branch through West Roxbury to Dedham to the New England (formerly NY & NE) connection out the Dedham-Islington Branch to the NY & NE mainline at Islington. It must have been quite a sight to see some big time railroading with big engines, long distance equipment and some fast running on a suburban branch even if it was only for a short time.

Keep in mind of course that the original alignment for the approach/departing rail in/out of the Boston & Providence Station was at Park Square and that the New Haven later cut there way over to it on Boston & Albany track to Clarendon/Columbus (Back Bay Station) where it cut away heading south while the B&A continued west. Most of what we know as "Park Square" now was Boston & Providence Railroad then. Arlington from Boylston to Columbus didn't exist. If I'm not mistaken, in B&P days, the Main Line in Boston was three tracked to accomodate passenger and freight, which must have, even back then, been a busy path. It wouldn't have been until the cutoff through Bussey's Wood (The Arboretum) after the Forest Hills junction that it would have taken on a less busy character. I'll bet it was a lot busier than the Needham Branch is now though as back then a lot more shipments were made by train. I'll know more in a few weeks as I get into my latest aquisition, the State Railroad Commission's Report on the B&P's Bussey Bridge Wreck in Bussey's Wood.

Here's Park Square as she appeared in those days with the B&P Depot smack dab in the middle of the Square. The Depot itself is just about where Park Plaza sits today. Follow the edge of the Boston Public Garden and you'll see that Arlington ends at Boylston with a row of buildings on the east side of what would later become the Boylston/Arlington St. intersection. When you look at this drawing, you realize two things: that the B&P got the right location for a terminal and that the New Haven didn't, and that the Sanborn Transportation Library is in a pretty fitting area.