CSX Operations East of Beacon Yard and at Readville

[TomNelligan]

I looked throught the historial aerials, but could see no evidence of any diamonds.

That matches my recollections from the late New Haven RR era (1960s). There were a bunch of switches at South Bay Junction that enabled trains off the Dorchester Branch to either continue straight under the Old Colony bridge to the freight terminal, or turn north into what at the time was a mostly vacant coach yard with an outlet to South Station at the far end. But I don't remember a diamond crossing anywhere in the immediate vicinity. On the other side of the OC bridge were switches that led into the NH's Dover Street engine terminal.

[Noel Weaver]

I looked throught the historial aerials, but could see no evidence of any diamonds.

That matches my recollections from the late New Haven RR era (1960s). There were a bunch of switches at South Bay Junction that enabled trains off the Dorchester Branch to either continue straight under the Old Colony bridge to the freight terminal, or turn north into what at the time was a mostly vacant coach yard with an outlet to South Station at the far end. But I don't remember a diamond crossing anywhere in the immediate vicinity. On the other side of the OC bridge were switches that led into the NH's Dover Street engine terminal.

I don't recall any diamonds in this area either. Incidentally the switches mention as leading in to the Dover Street Engine Terminal were actually almost exclusive for outbound moves from Dover Street either to South Station or to the passenger yard to pick up a train. The inbound tracks for Dover Street were on the north end of the facility and every engine headed to Dover Street entered the facility at the north end. That was the main purpose during the NHRR days of the tracks to the west of the OC main tracks, engine moves in both directions.
Noel Weaver