Can anyone out there shed some light on the way the New Haven handled passenger traffic on the Marlboro Branch off the Framingham to Fitchburg line? Passenger traffic lasted until 1938 and during the last years of passenger service was handled by a rail bus. My question is this: did trains originating in either Fitchburg or Framingham head directly down the branch to Marlboro or did they back down, like in Collinsville, CT? There was a station that served the main line and the eastern leg of the wye at Marlboro Junction (it burned in April 1963), but the greatest passenger traffic was handled by the downtown Marlboro railroad station that was torn down in 1938 to make a parking lot close to city hall(it is about where the main post office is today.) Was there ever a turn table in Marlboro? If not, the passenger trains had either to back in or back out. The freights in the 1950's backed down the branch and returned engine forward until the branch was abandoned in 1966.
I have NYNH & H employee timetable #95, Lines East, Sept. 28, 1924. There is no turntable shown at Marlboro. I don't know if trains headed in or backed out. Marlboro Junction had a train order office open from 7 am to 12:59 am daily; Marlboro's was open 7 days that covered the service but hours weren't as long as the Junction.
The Monday-Saturday trains from Fitchburg to Framingham and beyond connected at the Junction with a train that shuttled to and from Marlboro, probably using equipment that was laying over. On Sundays there were two round-trips in and out of Fitchburg and they are shown as making 's' stops at the Junction of 15-16 minutes while the equipment shuttled up to the downtown Marlboro station and back and then resumed their journeys.