The Ghost Stoneham Branch

60 years old, that means you finally make enough income to afford the sport!!!! You shoudl check out some of the group rides around, meet some fellow bikers!

I did a bit more research and from Robert Willoughby Jones' book "Boston & Maine: Three Colorful Decades of New England Railroading" it stated that there were three different charters to build the Stoneham Branch. One was in 1847, the second in 1851 and the last and finally succeeding one was chartered in 1859.

As quoted in Mr. Jones' book:

"According to historian Walter E. Lenk, 'In 1855 everyone expected the Stoneham Branch to enter Medford.' Nonetheless, the 1859 charter changed routes and the followed path went from Stoneham Village north to Farm Hill..."

Now the gentleman I spoke with at the Medford Historical Society, and I don't recall his name, seemed to back up what was said in Mr. Jones' book. From the first two efforts to build a Stoneham Branch ended when the funds dried up.

Now that ROW that runs along the back of Victory Park looked to me like it was the right width to support a standard gauge railroad. You also have to remember that if it is indeed the failed start of an early Stoneham Branch, it was built in the mid-1850's and could easily have been altered or used for other purposes over the past 150 plus years.

Just some thoughts. By the way, if you can get your hands on Mr. Jones' book, it is one of the best B&M books out there.

I was up in the Medford - Winchester area over the weekend and had a chance to re-explore the trails in question.

The trail leading off of Winthrop Street across from the end of Playstead Road, as I mentioned in a previous post, used to be a briddle path for the stables located at the end of Woburn Street - now long gone. The trail itself is most likely an unfinished road and although it looks like a railroad ROW, it is quite wide - probably as wide as Playstead Road. There's actually a street sign on the path "Whitmore Brook Road".

The trail off of Winthrop Street just before Victory Park has a chain link fence across the entrance, but you can easily walk around it. The trail is very short and just loops around into Victory Park. My guess is the the path in question was an acess road to the quarry that used to be located where the park is now. There are a vew other trails back there, but they are obviously not ROWs because they are too steep and narrow.

While in the area I bumped into a very knowledgeable mountain biker who informed me that there's a old plaque in the woods just off Winthrop Street that explains that the Middlesex Fells Reservation is a 2000 arce track that was developed during the WPA (Work Program Administration) during the 1930s. I was not able to locate the plaque, but that matches other things that I have read on the Middlesex Fells Reservation. He doubted that any of the trails in that area were intended to be railroad ROWs because the either are very steep and windy or don't go anywhere like the one at Victory Park.

I did some more research tonight and found out that Whitmore Brook Road runs from Winthrop Street in Medford to South Border Road in Winchester. On South Border Road it came out right next to the old US Army Anit-Aircraft Artilliary base that was active until sometime around 1958. It may have even been part of the base. My guess is that Whitmore Brook Road was never developed or finished because of its proximity to the base. On Google Earth you can follow the trail from Winthrop Street ot South Border Road.

Thanks for the info, I've always seen that path that comes out on South Border Road. I believe there was a Nike missile site there. I could be wrong though, I wasn't even thought of until 1981, haha

The base in question had a nike battalion stationed there for a short time, but they never actually had any missles on the site But yeah if they were going to bring missles there, running a track up playstead road, then up that fire road in the fells would make it easy

My cousin was in the Mass National Guard and was stationed at the AAA battery up on South Border Road. In addition to the Nike Missiles around Boston there were also a few AAA batteries in the Area. One other one that I recall was off of Rt 2A on the South side of Hanscom Field.

I saw my cousin a few months ago at a wedding and he was telling me about his duty at the AAA battery. His job was to set the fuses on the projectiles. His unit trained on Cape Cod. According to him, the AAA battery was part of the command that was responsible for the Nike Missiles, but there were no missiles on South Border Road, nor were there any plans to turn it into a Nike Missile base. Probably they felt they had enough coverage from the launch facility in Burlington (what is now the Northeastern Campus).

What is an AAA battery? (obviously you don't mean the ones made by Duracell)

AAA = antiaircraft artillery battery.

How did we go from "ghost roadbeds" to NIKE Missile Bases? I suggest we start a new thread somewhere else for guided missile subjects!

If, on the other hand, you want more NIKE stories here, I have some relating to the battery at Beverly Airport (that's a different kind of AAA Battery...not made by Duracell!).

Sorry to go OT with the stuff, haha

There were Nike bases all around Route 128, which is part of the reason it was originally conceived.

I don't know if the AAA battery being there would have been a purpose for a rail spur, but it's definitely possible. I've been to lots of old Nike sites though and I don't think I've seen them with rail access.

At Northeastern in Burlington, the old launch admin for the Nike site is now the university library, hahaha.