Northampton MA

I drove through Northampton MA today and noticed a 2 track bridge over MA route 9 for a train. Who runs on this line? Any hints on frequency?

That bridge carries the Boston & Maine's Connecticut River Line (now operated by the Guilford/Pan Am organization) and the right of way of the New Haven's Canal Line (abandoned 1969, now a bike trail). Service is infrequent -- just Guilford local freight and Mount Tom coal. The former B&M/NH passenger station is just a block south and now nicely restored as a restaurant.

Ddn't the old Central Mass RR end in Northampton? It seems to me I read about a Massachusetts Governor "commuting" to Boston on that line at one time.

Did it intersect the New Haven's Canal Line at any point ?

Paul

Sure did a long time ago, It's now a bike trail. The NH canal line used to run to Northampton long ago also and there are plans to turn that line into a bike trail. When completed I'll be able to ride my bike from Northampton to New Haven.

The story goes that then-Governor Calvin Coolidge, later 30th President, commuted each day from Northampton to Boston on the Central Mass. It is written that he normally sat in a rocking chair in the baggage car smoking his cigar and reading the newspaper.

The B&M's Central Mass branch crossed the Connecticut River on the long iron truss bridge that now carries a bike trail, just north of the Route 9 highway bridge, and it joined the Conn River line at the small B&M yard that used to exist just north of downtown. That section was abandoned in 1980 although the middle of the branch was gone more than 40 years earlier.

The NH Canal Line at that point ran parallel to the B&M trackage on the west side of the current right-of-way, where the bike trail is now. The Central Mass didn't really "intersect" it but there was a B&M-NH track connection in that area. No through service was ever operated.

TomNelligan wrote:The B&M's Central Mass branch crossed the Connecticut River on the long iron truss bridge that now carries a bike trail, just north of the Route 9 highway bridge, and it joined the Conn River line at the small B&M yard that used to exist just north of downtown. That section was abandoned in 1980 although the middle of the branch was gone more than 40 years earlier.

The NH Canal Line at that point ran parallel to the B&M trackage on the west side of the current right-of-way, where the bike trail is now. The Central Mass didn't really "intersect" it but there was a B&M-NH track connection in that area. No through service was ever operated.

Actually there was through service to Washington, D.C. and Harrisburg, PA, from 1890 to 1893. Trains traversed the Central Mass from Boston to Northampton and then switched over to the Canal Line. From Northampton they followed the Canal Line to Simsbury, CT, and the Central New England for a trip over Poughkeepsie Bridge. If you have a copy of The Central Mass. published by the B&M Historical Society see pages 20-22 for further details and copies of timetables

dcm74 wrote:Actually there was through service to Washington, D.C. and Harrisburg, PA, from 1890 to 1893.

Interesting... I guess I should have written "not in modern times"! I note that "never" is a long time.

I think what I should have said was that B&M-NH freight interchange at Northampton was minimal by the 1960s, being handled at Springfield and to a lesser extent at Holyoke. In fact the whole upper Canal Line north of Holyoke was a pretty marginal operation by then.

Does anyone know about the status of the reprint of the former "Central Mass Railroad" book ? I heard that the B&MRHS was planning on an updated version.

Paul