The Woburn Loop remembered.

During the 50s my family lived in Woburn near Central Square down the street from the Woburn Loop and the remains of the Middlesex Canal. The was a small station in Central Square the was demolished as soon as they abandoned that line. Someone built a new house right next to where the station was. Has anyone ever seen a photo of the station? There must be one around someplace. My mother used to take my sister and I on the train to North Station to go to Filenes Basement. in the mid 50s the B&M was using Atlantic steam locomotives to pull the passenger cars. In the later 50s they started using Budd RDCs. We were all thrilled at the new technology. When they discontinued passenger service Central Square portion of the loop I remember one more freight train coming through - then that was it. I didn't realize that was the end. I wish we had digital cameras back then. They pulled back service first to the old train station in Woburn Center and then around 1975 they demolished the station for a new court house and moved the end of the line across the street. Around 1980 they terminated service on the rest of the loop although they used short stubs on either end for freight service. During the 90s I used to come up to Woburn on business and used to hike the remnants of the loop. I could find just about all of it but much of it has been redeveloped. As a kid it was fun growing up on the B&M and riding the train into Boston.

In the last year or two of the Woburn branch I sometimes commuted out to Cross St. Usually an F-10 or GP-7 pulling a couple of RDCs. Part of the reason Winchester still had a manned tower at the time.

One of the lines that would be nice to still have now that we have transit oriented development. Would have been a perfect place for the idea of 15 minute service inside 128.

Then-Governor Ed King was very much a limousine rider, and when the MBTA needed money he said "cut instead".

In a perfect (to me) world, Woburn would have been a good place to terminate the Green Line Extension, with the big commuter parking lot at Cross St. But there would have been a fight getting 4 tracks through Winchester.