Obscure Facts about MBTA

Hello all;

I know that it has been some time since I have posted on this forum, but I am currently in the midst of working on a massive project that covers obscure facts about various northeast commuter railroads, ranging from leased engines and odd consists to special trains and overlooked historic events. Therefore, it would be greatly appreciated if you could share any obscure facts about MBTA's commuter rail division that you can think of so that I can add as much info as I can to this project. Info must be limited to any time after the formation of said commuter railroad, and does not include any info about its predecessors. Thank you for your help.

What is the official start date for Commuter Rail? 1971 for north side? And when did Penn Central? Conrail? turn south side service over to the MBTA's contractor B&M?

The start of the subsidy era under MBTA would be January 1965. (1/18/65 per NETransit service history for B&M per terms of December 14, 1964 subsidy agreement) Major cuts were made in 1965. Subsidy for New Haven lines followed on 7/28/65, the agreement became effective with the April 24, 1966 schedule. Framingham subsidy
followed in 1973 when the MBTA acquired most PC trackage in the metropolitan region.

B&M took over south side commuter lines from Conrail on March 12, 1977 (per NETransit) long before Conrail was directed by Congress to end contract passenger services by January 1, 1983.

Amtrak locomotives pulling commuter rail trains, roughly winter or summer of 1997 obscure enough? I have a nice picture of one at Roslindale Village station.

The D&H locomotives they leased? and the GO Transit coaches.

Original F40PH-2s operating on the new old colony lines?

A complete listing of leased equipment is in the NETransit roster.

Riverworks station is another historical oddity: a rare employee only scheduled stop not serving railroad
employees, but a major factory (GE Aviation) and was completely absent from public timetables for years.

MBTA is home to the last F40s built: three built by MK in 1993, closing out a 17 year production run that began
at EMD in 1976.

Was Riverworks set up before the MBTA got involved? So it was a B&M decision?
Wasn't there a stop in Woburn for some warehouse or something?

That would been Lechmere Warehouse. Service began 1979 according to NETransit, but last service date unavailable. A 100' low platform that could fit a single car.

BandA wrote: ↑Fri Nov 17, 2023 11:00 pm Was Riverworks set up before the MBTA got involved? So it was a B&M decision?
Wasn't there a stop in Woburn for some warehouse or something?

I went through my ETT's as far back as 1922. There was a "West Lynn" listed in the B&M timetables, @ .70 miles from "Lynn". Could this have become Riverworks?

Wikipedia has a number of hits for Thomson-Houston and GE in Lynn, including some Red-scare attention from Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wisc, mebbe as part of a union-busting attempt. There's also a Wiki entry for the Saugus River that includes a portion of an older topo with sidings NW off the Eastern Division main. Given service for workers to other defense operations in WWs I and II, it would be surprising if Lynn GE didn't have the same.

arthur d. wrote: ↑Sun Nov 19, 2023 6:18 am I went through my ETT's as far back as 1922. There was a "West Lynn" listed in the B&M timetables, @ .70 miles from "Lynn". Could this have become Riverworks?

I believe that refers to the West Lynn section that was further north, just after the Saugus Branch Junction at Commercial Street. Riverworks is closer to a mile and a half from Lynn Station.

Riverworks is 1.65 miles from Central Square. There is an overgrown staircase and platform at Commercial Street, this is probably it.

Original F40PH-2s operating on the new old colony lines?

I believe I remember seeing some pictures taken in the late 90s of original F40PH locomotives running on the Old Colony Lines, after reading your comment, I went on rrpicturearchives.net and tried to find them again, but I guess the photos must have been from a different website because I could not find a single picture of an F40PH on the Old Colony, even after going through the entire collection of photos with MBTA F40s. Anyone here who could provide an image depicting this, or at least a link to it, would be greatly appreciated.

They were on flickr, look up "MBTA in 2003"

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jncarter1 ... Ukw2-wNZQ9

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jncarter1 ... PiV-4fBKXJ