medford branch cleanup?

recently, the crossing lights have been removed, the row has been cleaned and a fence has been built along the tracks. seems like its not abandoned...why would the build a fence if nothings going to travel the tracks?


the tracks are probably in good enough shape so pan am doesnt mind a car or 2 a year, even though its been a year since the last move.

What is the Medford Branch? Which railroad? Thanks!

The Medford Branch is a short Branch off of the western route (MBTA's Reading/Haverhill Line) just north of the rte 16 overpass in the Wellington section of Medford, MA. It's about 1/3 the size that it use to be when it serviced downtown Medford. Today only about a quarter to half a mile exists with one grade crossing. The branch use to terminate in the vicinity of I93 and City Hall Mall road; I'm not sure when the last 2/3rds of the line was abandoned but I'm sure it was pre-1960's.
I don't know if the MBTA owns the ROW or Pan Am but it is or was servced by Pan Am, I’m not sure what the status is anymore.

While the branch is not officially out of service, PAR hasn't been up there in almost a year. Last
traffic was reefers for the cold storage (I think Costa Produce was the consignee).

I drove over the branch yesterday on the Fellsway and it does look to be significantly cleaned up. Last fall, it was barely visible through all of the brush, but all the brush is now gone.

http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/344/344mass50.html

This branch really saw some trains when they were building I-93. The above link references a related lawsuit which isn't terribly interesting, but it does mention how/when the line was cut back from Main Street and how there were three round trip movements of about 40 loads each per day between Medford and Madbury, NH (near Dover).

This past Saturday the 21st LA-X with the MEC 373 went down the Medford Branch to retrieve a an empty reefer from Crystal Cold Storage in Medford, MA.

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... 921975.jpg

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... 222062.jpg

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... 821934.jpg

Numerous people have stated the last move on the branch prior to Saturday was November 18, 2008!

Very "cool" pics. Thanks for posting. Does anyone know if this means more regular service on the branch?

Wait, so is this the branch from the commuter rail tracks or the branch from the Orange line tracks?

The branch connects to the Western Division tracks (aka Reading/Haverhill Line). Ironically though there is a track from the Medford Branch that runs down the west side of the Orange Line tracks (railroad north since the Western Route technically runs east/west) and connects with the Orange Line tracks just before the tracks cross under route 16 on the north side of the bridge. Judging by the looks from birds eye view on MSN the particular track I'm talking about looks to be unused and over grown.

thats what the tunnel is for in medford. the branch branches off, so the OL goes under it.

don't know if anyone saw this, but the medford branch now has brand new crossing signals, all wired up and everything.

must be here to stay.

FatNoah wrote:http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/344/344mass50.html

This branch really saw some trains when they were building I-93. The above link references a related lawsuit which isn't terribly interesting, but it does mention how/when the line was cut back from Main Street and how there were three round trip movements of about 40 loads each per day between Medford and Madbury, NH (near Dover).

My dad lived very close to the lowell line in WInchester as a kid. He used to tell me how when they were building Rt 93, there would be massive trains filled with dirt heading towards boston. Now we know where the final destination was. 120 cars per day though, thats a heck of a lot of dirt to unload every day!

tom18287 wrote:don't know if anyone saw this, but the medford branch now has brand new crossing signals, all wired up and everything.

must be here to stay.

Either that or it's some kind of red tape issue where PanAm sees the costs of crossing protection as being lower than some other cost imposed on them. From looking at the line on Google Earth, I can see 5 potential customers, 2 of which have existing sidings. I'm not sure how many active customers they have in there, but it looks like it can't be more than 2 currently. It's also interesting that you can follow the line through a bunch of back yards all the way to I-93, there's a few above ground pools, but the only visible permanent structure is one in-ground pool and a parking lot.

I remember going to the BJs on this line and always seeing a train. Ussualy it had a caboose on it. But that was when the Boston yard still existed. Nice to see it being used again. How long has the car been down there?