The Eastern Railroad revisited

Almost 90 years after the railroad was built, the B&M decided to upgraded this small stream crossing. After the work was completed, they inscribed the date '1929' into the cement retaining wall. This was not a common practice and only the 4th time I've seen a date to mark a crossing of any sort. It will probably remain a mystery as to why they chose to do so at this insignificant stream crossing.

Disused and abandoned granite blocks used for stream crossings. They probably have lain here since the railroad was built in the early 1840s. You can still see the drill marks on some of them.

Even odder, nearby, a giant iron eye bolt attached to a rock. My only guess is that it was used to move those incredibly heavy granite blocks around. Or tether an elephant.

A granite outcrop that had to be blasted away. I've seen these concrete "supports" at the side of another abondoned railroad ROW. Anybody know what their purpose was?

Mile post. On one side, you can faintly see the remains of white paint and a number. This would be around mile 90.

I'm guessing, based on what I've seen other places, that those concrete supports were to hold sections of rail if a replacement piece was needed.

Eric

Eric is right. Do a Google search on "rail rest" or see http://deepriverrailroad.com/scenery-an ... rail-rest/

yuh, spare rail stations. A couple pairs of these can also be found on the old Concord, west of Rockingham Jct and Epping NH, but I have yet to find any on the eastern in NH.

Some had concrete uprights while other uprights were made of scrap rail, so mebbe they got lifted when the other rail got lifted.

As of several years ago, the abutments of the Eastern's underpass over Old Cascade Road (old Route 9B) in Saco were still standing. Are they still there?

I haven't been down there in a while but satellite imagery dated 2019 appears to show the abutments still in place.

Manalishi wrote: ↑Mon Dec 16, 2019 8:50 pm Even odder, nearby, a giant iron eye bolt attached to a rock. My only guess is that it was used to move those incredibly heavy granite blocks around. Or tether an elephant.
DSCN0037a.jpg

Is this the only one at the site? I'm thinking anchors for guy wires, supporting a stationary derrick, used in setting the original stones.

There's what looks to be a bridge abutment on the bank of the Saco east of the 95 bridge. Is is an abutment? Did it belong to the Eastern?

Definitely not the Eastern - their bridge across the Saco is still intact, used to serve an industrial park.

A short stretch of ERR RoW still exists in Eliot, on the NE side of ME 236 at Wooster Rd. The highway builders bypassed a fairly deep cut. In the early 1960s, several driveways which probably had originally connected to ME 103 still had wood bridges over the cut. You could still see some of the rock walls of the cut last time I passed through, but it's been a convenient place to dump stuff for almost 70 years.

Spinney's Switch (about MP B60.5) was the RR West end of a stretch of double track whose East end was Jewett. This was removed before 1939, possibly at the same time as the ERR was single tracked from Newburyport to Emery.

Day's Siding ran between approximately MP B89.3 and B89.6 on the inland side of the main track and had a shorter siding next to it. The old track chart image I'm using shows several culverts and one private road, but no other detail.