Newburyport Branch

SPACEMONKEY wrote:Learning from the past:

It's funny years ago the rail structure was put in place and with the independance of automobiles we let them fall to the way side.

But even worst then that, now a days when we hear of an old line (that might have still had a need or chance to come alive again) it's faced with the possibility of being turned into a walking path forever.

It's too bad ALL railroad lines were not placed under protection as National Historic pieces of US built history and slowly ALL put back in to use through federal funding vs. being torn up.

In many cities and towns a company or person can't even put up a sign on their own property without approval of the local historic commission, yet we let them tear up true history right through the center of town?

The tracks were put in place years ago and we just might be looking to have them back someday, because once they are gone, they are gone forever. Where is the historic commission on this one?

Well said spacemonkey!!

rr_explorer wrote:While driving down Rt.1 in Peabody yesterday, I noticed that the brush had been cut along the line heading west towards Wakefield. It looked like it was mostly the brush between the rails and not a full cutback of the ROW. This was done in the past week.

i noticed this also....anyone know why?

There has been quite a bit of movement going north and south through salem. These have been local the yellow gravel cars, as well as some black flatbed mbta cars. They are always led by a commuter engine, with an awesome orange caboose on the back!! These are mbta maintenance trains, and im wondering which town is getting serviced.

California olive oil company has officially shut its doors. The rail siding was a n excellent seeling feature of the property, but salem state will have its maintenance and printing building take up most of that end (side)of canal street within the next couple of years. That being said, is eastman gelatin the last of the last to get rail service on this line?? Do any businesses up toward newburyport or gloucester do any rail service whatsoever??

cabooser wrote:

rr_explorer wrote:While driving down Rt.1 in Peabody yesterday, I noticed that the brush had been cut along the line heading west towards Wakefield. It looked like it was mostly the brush between the rails and not a full cutback of the ROW. This was done in the past week.

i noticed this also....anyone know why?

They may be clearing it enough so they can do survey work for the planned rail-to-trail conversion. I noticed some similar line clearing this week on the Framingham-Lowell line which is also in the same phase of rail-to-trail conversion.

this makes no sense to me as the tracks cross rt. 1....am i missing something?

rr_explorer wrote:

cabooser wrote:

rr_explorer wrote:While driving down Rt.1 in Peabody yesterday, I noticed that the brush had been cut along the line heading west towards Wakefield. It looked like it was mostly the brush between the rails and not a full cutback of the ROW. This was done in the past week.

i noticed this also....anyone know why?

They may be clearing it enough so they can do survey work for the planned rail-to-trail conversion. I noticed some similar line clearing this week on the Framingham-Lowell line which is also in the same phase of rail-to-trail conversion.

i doubt that because i do not believe the rail to trail goes up that far.

I cant stand this stupid rail-to-trail thing. Why are all of Americas RRs being neglected and abused, left to become part of the dirt and weeds? People should realise the importance of these rail lines and the role they played in history. The railroad is what built America, before the automobile and before the trucks, yet here we are leaving the tracks behind as well as the history to be left in the woods never to be noticed or recognised. Here we have 18 wheeler trucks taking the place of the railroads driving and crashing on our highways killing more people that way than a train taking a back route through the woods never to harm a person yet here we are digging up the tracks and putting in a bike path that will probably hardly be used within a few years.

i wonder if we assembled a volunteer team to literally restore the topfield branch, at no cost to guilford, just volunteer effort. i wonder if they would maybe start to use it again. itd be alot of work, but who knows.


i dont know why they took out some of the crossings in lynnfield. technically, the line is not abandoned, so i wonder if there is some sort of agreement with lynnfield, that if they ever need to use the tracks again, they have to put them back.

I want to see more trains around just as much as the next train-geek on this forum but I don't think restoring lines for free is the right solution to the problem. I suspect the track maintenance unions would have some complaints. The bottom line, as far as I understand it from using this forum for 2 years now, is that we simply need a rail company in the area that wants to expand its business. Big G just wants to shrink it down. A big G buyout is the only way I can see that some of these out of service lines might ever come back into freight service.

This is all well and good to dream, but none of these lines are coming
back. The fork was stuck in them long ago. As I stated in my Watertown
post, New England (especially Massachusetts) isn't all that freight rail
friendly. You'd never get any railroad to reopen lines that have NO
customers, nor have any hope of getting enough to justify the cost. Not
to mention general population's abject horror when it comes to anything
the makes something.

As to the ownership of the lines, its either GRS or the state EOTC. I am
sure neither one would be happy at the news of this "brush clearing"
work without permission since, a) they'd never grant it, because b)
liability. Hopefully, these are the rail/trail folks.

Dave

I really dont like rails-to-trails but, I heard on another forum thread, that some people in New York worked with rails-to-trails to bring back a portion of an abandoned rail line for use as a tourist railroad. They were so succesful that they are actually expanding thier tracks now. If you want to read up on this, go to the forum index, find the region-specific threads, click on New England, and search for the topic called "want to open an abandoned railroad." Maybe something like this could be possible on the South Reading line (Newburyport Branch). I've mentioned this before on this forum and have had people asking to volunteer their services to do it, although an agreement with the MBTA and Guilford Rail Systems would have to be made as well as one with the Rails-to-Trails organization.

GP40MC1118 wrote:This is all well and good to dream, but none of these lines are coming
back. The fork was stuck in them long ago. As I stated in my Watertown
post, New England (especially Massachusetts) isn't all that freight rail
friendly. You'd never get any railroad to reopen lines that have NO
customers, nor have any hope of getting enough to justify the cost. Not
to mention general population's abject horror when it comes to anything
the makes something.

As to the ownership of the lines, its either GRS or the state EOTC. I am
sure neither one would be happy at the news of this "brush clearing"
work without permission since, a) they'd never grant it, because b)
liability. Hopefully, these are the rail/trail folks.

Dave

The branch was purchased by the MBTA in the 1970's as part of the sale of northside commuter routes by the B&M. They bought every branch line except the Watertown and Bemis Branches. In the 30 years since, not only has service not been expanded over any of them, but most have been abandoned. The T could have easily(did I mention this before?) expanded commuter rail over this branch, but chose not to do so.

The [u]Wakefield Daily Item [/u]newspaper on 6/1/07 reported that $500,000 in state bonds being sought for the rail trail between Wakefield and Lynnfield. The money would be used for design and engineering costs. The article further states that the Rail to Trail Committee will be meeting at the Wakefield Town Hall on 6/14 at 7pm with the firm Spofford and Thorndike that will be performing the rail to trail feasability study. Once the study is completed, the project can be designed and engineered (no date given as to when this might happen, except that State Legislature will be working on a bond bill this summer).

Wakefield Town Selectmen meeting on 10/22/07 heard from Wakefield’s Rail-to-Trail committee members about raising money for engineering costs in order to convert 4.5 miles of rail to trail between Wakefield and Lynnfield.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/wakefield/news/x1909897249

Are these tracks in MA or NH?