Quiz...

The Boston Elevated and MTA operated in fourteen cities and towns. Ten were the territory of the original companies which merged with the West End in the 1880s. Two were traversed by short sections of single lines connecting the original ten, and two were purchased from another operator.

1. Name the original ten.

2. Name the rwo served by short sections of lines and their primary operating companies.

3. Name the two whose rights were purchased and which company they were purchased from.

Total of 17 answers - five points each, fifteen points free. I will score responses until someone gets them all right (100 points)

Bonus Question: Name the first city or town to be totally devoid of street railway operation.

3rd rail not eligible.

0-55 Out of Towner
60-75 Just got off the Train
80 or over Never Pronounces an "R"
100 or 105 Transit Historian

Hello Gerry,

The only one off the top of my head is Question 1:

Arlington
Belmont
Boston
Brookline
Cambridge
Everett
Malden
Medford
Somerville
Watertown

JoeD

dieciduej wrote:Hello Gerry,

The only one off the top of my head is Question 1:

Arlington
Belmont
Boston
Brookline
Cambridge
Everett
Malden
Medford
Somerville
Watertown

JoeD

You get 65 points!

I'm guessing that the towns with "short sections" are Newton (Green Line 'A' branch) and Milton (Mattapan High-Speed Trolley). And of one the last two must be Chelsea. Is the other one Revere?

Ron Newman wrote:I'm guessing that the towns with "short sections" are Newton (Green Line 'A' branch) and Milton (Mattapan High-Speed Trolley). And of one the last two must be Chelsea. Is the other one Revere?

35 points...

Bonus question: Everett.

Fred Rabin wrote:Bonus question: Everett.

Good try, but wrong - 15 points for trying. Everett had non-revenue operation long after the cars were replaced by trackless

I really want people to take a stab at the whole thing. Giving some correct answers gives someone else a leg up on the whole thing!

I misunderstood the bonus question. I remember the service tracks from Sullivan Square to Everett Square to Chelsea. In 1945 when I was 10, I went to day camp at the Dorchester YMCA on Washington Street. We had a few excursions to Revere Beach - by chartered streetcar (type 5). Loaded at Codman Square, thence Talbot Avenue, Blue Hill Avenue, Seaver Street, Columbus Avenue, Tremont Street, Tremont Subway to North Station, over the bridge to Charlestown, Main Street to Sullivan Square, the service track to Chelsea Square, Broadway, Revere Street to the beach.

My next guess for the bonus question is Revere. The street cars were converted to trackless trolleys when the East Boston line was extended to Orient Heights in 1952.

Gerry6309 wrote: 3rd rail not eligible.

What ??!! What did I do??!! Hahahaha!!! (The answer is "C")

bonus - Chelsea?

0 - 15 is a "Pahk Street Fomah". (The answer is "D".)

Here are the answers. Nobody (not even 3rd rail) got them all

1. Name the original ten.

Boston was served by 7 different companies when the West End was chartered as the eighth. Several Mergers consolidated the West End and 6 of the others. The Lynn and Boston Street Railway remained independent, and after merging with numerous connecting lines, became the Boston & Northern. A similar series of mergers consolidated operations south of Boston into the Old Colony Street Railway. These two giants merged to form the Bay State Street Railway, which was reorganized into the Eastern Mass Street Railway. Here are the 10 Cities and Towns and their primary operating companies.
A. Boston(Metropolitan, Highland & South Boston) & Brookline(Metropolitan)
B. Somerville, Medford, Everett, Malden (Middlesex)
C. Cambridge, Arlington, Belmont, Watertown (Cambridge & Charles River)
2. Name the rwo served by short sections of lines and their primary operating companies.
A. Milton (Primary Operator was The Eastern Mass, Blue Hill also operated more route miles than the Elevated ever did)
B. Newton (Primary Operator was the Middlesex and Boston)
3. Name the two whose rights were purchased and which company they were purchased from.
Chelsea and Revere (Purchased from the Eastern Mass in 1936)
Bonus: Name the first city or town to be totally devoid of street railway operation.

The first municipality to lose all of its operating trackage was Revere on Jan. 5, 1952
In September 1952, the last trackage in Chelsea, which was kept alive to connect a Shuttle at Suffolk Downs, was abandoned. This also removed most, but not all of the remaining trackage in Everett.
In September 1955, the Arlington Heights line was abandoned, ending service in Arlington.
In November 1955, the Fellsway Line was abandoned ending service in Somerville, Medford and Malden. Only a few hundred feet of trackage remained in Malden, where most service ended in 1938, along with all passenger service in Everett.
In September 1958, Operation in Belmont ceased along with most operation in Watertown and Cambridge. Short sections on Galen St. Watertown and at Lechmere in Cambridge continued.
Late in 1962 or in 1963 the connection between Canal Street and the Everett Shops was broken, finally ending operations in Everett (on Broadway and Chemical Lane)
In 1994, an act of the legislature forced the MBTA to abandon the last trackage in Watertown.
In 2009 street railway operations continue in Boston, Cambridge (Lechmere), Brookline (Beacon Street and Highland Branch), Newton((Lake St. Yard and Highland Branch) and Milton (Mattapan High Speed line)

Gerry6309 wrote:Bonus: Name the first city or town to be totally devoid of street railway operation.

The term "street railway operation" encompasses surface cars, trackless trolleys, and busses. Street railway operation of busses still occurs in Revere. I know what you were thinking, Gerry - surface cars. Had the question referenced "surface car operation" or "trolleys on rail operation" and not "street railway operation", I'm sure Revere would be correct. I think that, however, if we are choosing from the 14 towns listed, that the technically correct answer is "None of the above". See MGL C161, S44:

http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/161-44.htm

You owe us all Bonus Points, by crackie !

Gerry6309 wrote:In 1994, an act of the legislature forced the MBTA to abandon the last trackage in Watertown.

"Forced"? I thought the T had been trying to abandon the A line since service was discontinued in 1969.