atsf sp wrote:Some of the trolley lines today were old B&M tracks.
True, most of the current NPS trolley operation uses former B&M freight spurs that were part of the downtown network. The "main line" to Boardinghouse Park survived for years as the B&M freight connection to the Lowell Sun and was active as a freight spur into the mid-1980s. The line that runs past the Tsongas Arena originally branched off just beyond Cobblestone's restaurant on now-gone B&M track when the trolley started up in the 1980s. The current wye junction and the track north of that were built by the NPS several years later and the original route was pulled up. There originally was track all the way to the current site of LeLacheur Park, but it was severed when the arena was built and the whole area was completely regraded.
The B&M Historical Society's display in the combine has an early 20th century map that shows the Lowell industrial trackage at its peak. It's quite amazing how much there once was. The combine will be open to visitors next weekend during the Lowell Folk Festival.