Old Colony pre-MBTA

Do any pictures exist of the Old Colony ROW before the MBTA took over?

Mostly the South Station-Braintree portion.

There is a bunch of material- both text and photos of the Old colony Division out there. If you check out a RR book seller, you will find some. The West Springfield Show coming up soon will undoubtably have some, as well as dealers who specialize in photos. In my personal library I have at least a few, "The New Haven Railroad's Boston Division" by Robert A. Liljestrand (softcover) and "New Haven Passenger Trains" by Peter E. Lynch (hardcover). Seek and ye shall find. This is probably one of the easiest territories to find.

If you are looking for something before January and don't already know about them, there is the Images of America soft-bound series featuring 19th and 20th century photos of particular communities. Larger bookstores in the South Shore might be a good place to check since the books are local interest. There are generally at least a few railroad and trolley photos in each book. One other thing to look for would be back copies of the Shoreliner, the NHRHTA magazine. Some will probably be available at the show, and depending on your level of interest, membership is another possibility.

As Mr. Joyce notes, there are many good books on the New Haven RR that cover the Old Colony territory, among other lines. But if you want something more localized, try to find a copy of the BSRA's 1985 book Boston's Commuter Rail: The First 150 Years by Thomas Humphrey and Norton D. Clark. It's an excellent history with lots of pre-MBTA photos of all lines.

I don't want to go THAT far back. I'd just like to see what the ROW looks like in the early 90's at like JFK. Did it even see any service? Were the tracks even in place?

theseaandalifesaver wrote:I don't want to go THAT far back. I'd just like to see what the ROW looks like in the early 90's at like JFK. Did it even see any service? Were the tracks even in place?

The main line and Plymouth line always had freight, so the trackage was in active service. Greenbush east of the Fore River junction in Braintree was the only one that was abandoned. Trackage wasn't too bad because it saw regular traffic and the main line was subject to renovations in the 80's to improve access to the Cape and for Amtrak's Cape Codder to make revenue runs from New York/Providence. The freight trackage south of Middleboro station is still built to the 1980's renovations, and is holding up well. There's even a partially installed signal system going all the way to the Cape that was never finished when the plug got pulled on the Cape Codder in '96. Plymouth line probably showed a little more neglect, but neither of the active lines was allowed to fall into the kind of decrepit shape you saw on the northside with the ailing few remaining freight branch lines that Guilford let wither and rust.

is the mainline South Station to Braintree where middleboro and kingston line split?