Amesbury branch

This might be an annoying newbie question but I cannot find the answer anywhere.
There was an Amesbury. MA branch of the Boston and Maine for many years. I have photos of the depot in the late 1800s in its original location, on the east side of the Back River, and photos of it when it was moved across the river.
My question is - did they turn the locomotive around to head back to Newburyport, or was there one on each end? I've been told both.
Thanks.

The Salisbury Point RRHS might know more about the Eastern RR era, but by WWI, Amesbury and Newburyport both had 60' turntables. Passenger service ended early due to competition from trolleys, so I've never seen a timetable, but my parents & grandparents told me the normal service was a shuttle between Amesbury and Newburyport. Till the end of the steam era, the B&M operated a number of commuter schedules, mostly on the NH Division, where a steam engine ran in reverse on the head end of a regular passenger train (article in the B&M Bulletin maybe 20 years ago, title "Tender Headlight and Forward Steam Heat" or something close to that). So the engine might have been turned, or might have been run in reverse; you'd have to look at the schedule to see if there was time to turn the engine. Steam engines were expensive to operate and didn't do well being towed, so I doubt "pull-pull" operation happened except in emergencies.

I'm interested mainly in the 1890s, the height of the Amesbury carriage trade. I have a photo (I bought it from the Salisbury Point RRHS ) and postcards, that show the passenger train at the depot, facing downtown (and the end of the track). I had heard there was a turntable at the beginning of what is now the RiverWalk Trail, but that's maybe a half mile from the depot. Would they have backed the train up that far to turn it back towards Newburyport?
I have a photo of the Ghost Trains, loaded with carriages to be shipped, facing towards Newburyport. I also have a carriage seller's journal/diary from the 1870s, with lists of the different carriages loaded on the train (he sold the carriages mostly in New York). I'm guessing that the carriage trains were loaded in the freight yard on Railroad Ave., separate from the passenger trains.
I'm interested in any, and all, info concerning the Amesbury trains.
Thanks.

The Spring 1981 B&M Bulletin has a photo on page 23 of Eastern RR 4-4-0 108 in front of Amesbury station circa 1880 with the caption that it has been "turned, serviced, and polished ... ready to couple to Train 243." The caption and the orientation of the locomotive relative to the station (in the original location) would confirm that there was indeed a turntable at the end of the branch in the early days.

As for latter days, as indicated in an earlier post, it was common practice in the ending days of steam for short commuter runs the operate with loco leading out of Boston (or any starting terminal) and at the terminating point, run the loco around the train, couple to the rear and run tender-first back to the starting point.

PBM

The Scott Whitney track-chart CD doesn't indicate either a turntable or wye, although there are numbers of spurs at the end for industrial service, so I may have missed something. The B&M Society did put out a Characteristics book that included turntables and wyes, so a possibility -- if you haven't already done so -- is to check in at the Forum on the B&M Society webpage.

I think the Amesbury Branch turntable was back in the area where Marston St. meets Oakland St. Before the pit was filled in, a friend of mine fell into it when he was a kid, and darn near drowned.
I've been away from "Carriagetown" for over twenty years, so I can barely find where the r-o-w was with Google Maps now, but besides the B&M Historical folks, somebody from the Salisbury Point Railroad Historical Society probably knows the latitude and longitude of the original location.

You're right about the turntable location, Watchman. 1953 aerial:

^^^ Good find.

And now I see that SPRRHS was mentioned before I wrote it. :oops:

Assuming the present-day Amesbury Riverwalk is on the old r-o-w, and toggling between that aerial view and Google Maps, it almost looks like someone put a swimming pool where the turntable was.

One other thing to emerge is the lack of trustworthiness of topos. The archival maps at UNH show no turntable at all. The older maps -- 15 mins. -- wouldn't have been able to handle such a small detail, but the newer ones -- the 7.5 mins. -- could easily have included the turntable. Whether there was no new field reporting to accompany the change in size is unknown, at least to me.
What did we learn today? Just cuz it's not on a topo doesn't always mean it didn't exist, and even more unfortunately, just cuz it's on a topo doesn't always mean it did exist.

I had heard that there was now a swimming pool where the turntable had been, up around the Marston St area (at the beginning of the River Walk). I spoke to a member of the SPRRHS today and he thought there was a turntable on Railroad Ave, where Nichols scrap metal is now. He said there might be a photo on the wall of the SPRRHS. I'm going to try and get down there (they're open on Wednesday night, weather permitting).
So, a train would pull up to the depot near Water St....then what? Back all the way to the turntable? What about the cars being pulled?
Thanks for the responses.

I noted the 60' turntable based on the B&MRRHS reprint of the 1937 Characteristics Charts. There wasn't a lot of room at the station platform, between Water St. and the bridge over Back River. The bridge was single track, so while there could have been a 2-car run around at the depot, anything longer would have had to back out to the yard, where the engine could have been turned. At Newburyport, the coach yard was next to the engine house, where Clean Harbors is presently located along Rt. 1 E of Low St.

Battis wrote:So, a train would pull up to the depot near Water St....then what? Back all the way to the turntable? What about the cars being pulled?

I think JBVB is right; I seem to recall being told there was a short runaround track near the Water St. end, but it's been a long time since I even set foot in "the archives," as we used to call the offices upstairs in the building where the society was based.

I used to work part-time for one of the "founding fathers" of SPRRHS, but I haven't seen him in ages. I don't think he's still connected with the organization, but I'll bet he'd know all the ins-and-outs of how it was done.

I'm sure you'll find the information. Have fun with it.

Somehow in all this discussion I remembered the term "peanut train." I was thinking that was a name for the train with the carriages, but that was called the "ghost train" because the outbound carriages were on flatcars, covered with white tarps.
The "peanut train" might have been connected with Hoyt's Buffalo Brand Peanut Butter. In attempting to Google-up something on the peanut train, I ran across this site, which I thought was kinda cool because of the photo of the station so near the top of the page. I've probably seen that view of the station before, but had forgotten about it.

This one was interesting too:

Mr. Hoyt decided to buy a plant which could be arranged to suit his conveniences and recently purchased of the Shields Carriage Co. their three story brick manufacturing building and the land which extends from Carriage Ave. through to the B. & M. railroad. It is an ideal location for Mr. Hoyt's business, being so near the railroad that it will be possible to have an elevator at the rear of the building down to the tracks of the B. & M. so that the large amount of freight of the firm can be handled without any teaming.

You probably already know the building in the photo at the bottom of the page is on Oakland St., right opposite the end of Morrill St. I was trying to think where "Carriage Ave." might have been in those days; probably the former name of one of the present streets in town; er, the city. Back when I first roamed around that area, Chestnut St. was pretty much a dead end street. The section going downhill toward the Lower Mill Yard (Water St.) was still cobblestone, or at least was barely paved, and pretty much dead-ended at the track. I think vehicle traffic coming in from Elm St. had to turn left onto Oakland, or end up in a heap at the bottom of the hill. At one time, it might have accessed part of Nanco's yard, but I remember it being pretty well washed out in the Sixties and Seventies.

"Another priceless (free, and worth it) presentation by the Dept. of Useless Trivia."

That photo of the depot was one that I had mentioned earlier - it's on the east side of the Back River. They moved it to its current location across the river, near Water St, in 1888 (approx.). With the train facing east as it is, there would have been no room for the cars behind the engine at its current location (the track ended near Water St).
Carriage Hill was the entire section around Chestnut St., Oakland St. LeBaron Bonney, an antique auto upholstering company, has a plaque on their Chestnut St building that mentions Carriage Hill. Oakland St was Carriage Ave.
The train in that old photo is facing the turntable, further down the tracks towards Newburyport. So, after it stopped at the depot on its way into town, (either the old or new depot location), they would have had to back it up to the turntable, turn it, then back it to the depot. Unless I'm missing another turntable where Nichols scrap metal is now, on Railroad Ave.

If you go to the Amesbury site, http://amesburycity.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, click on Vintage Postcards - they have several photos of the tracks, buildings, etc. Look for "Railroad Depot Circa 1900". The depot is at its current location at the end of the tracks near Water St.

Okay, I had forgotten about the depot being moved across the river.

The train in that old photo is facing the turntable, further down the tracks towards Newburyport. So, after it stopped at the depot on its way into town, (either the old or new depot location), they would have had to back it up to the turntable, turn it, then back it to the depot. Unless I'm missing another turntable where Nichols scrap metal is now, on Railroad Ave.

I only know about the one discussed above, back by the end of Marston St. I've got a buddy in Newburyport who might know about turntable locations for both Amesbury and Nbpt. I'll ask him about that today.

Must have been a lot easier getting in and out of there once they started using diesels. Do you recall what the power was for the last carload out of N.A. Nichols? I've seen a photo of it, but don't remember what it was other than "some kind of switcher." That was what, 1972?

I had kinda forgotten about the name "Carriage Hill" for that area. When I Googled "Carriage Ave. 01913," it wanted to show me Carriage Hill Apartments. Nah, I know where those are.

Those old postcards are great; hadn't seen most of those. Now I'm inspired to go find some track maps.

Dang, I didn't even know the Sal. Pt. station had been moved to Water St. until I saw the 2006 flood photos on the SPRRHS site.