I checked the conversion, and it's correct. 48 km is 29.82 miles.
Then I spent a few minutes with Google and found a reference to it in:
MIXED TRAIN TO PROVIDENCE: A HISTORY OF THE BOSTON AND PROVIDENCE RAIL ROAD, THE TAUNTON BRANCH RAIL ROAD, AND CONNECTING LINES, WITH EMPHASIS ON MANSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
HARRY B. CHASE, JR.
MANSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
2006
http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaid ... 37_007.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
From page 77 (page 88 of the PDF):
We learn from a secondary source[38] that when Captain William Gibbs McNeill built the
railroad he set the kilometer-posts along the way. If we assume, despite some circumstantial
evidence to the contrary, that this was so, we must ask “Why?” It‟s possible that through his West
Point education or his visit abroad, McNeill became quite properly enamored of the un-American
but more practical kilometers instead of miles. The metric system was not entirely foreign to the
United States. The U. S. Coast Survey in the early 1800s used meters and kilograms, and
Presidents Jefferson and John Quincy Adams favored adoption of the system. It was
unquestionably the way to go, and it's a pity succeeding generations didn't follow the lead of
whoever introduced kilometer posts on the Boston and Providence. The story is that pressure
brought to bear by the conservative public or the railroad‟s board of directors unfortunately forced
the newfangled and unacceptably foreign kilometer markers to be uprooted and replaced by
mileposts. But not all were uprooted!
One kilometer post still existed in 1982 in Readville on the Dedham Branch. It read:
B.
48
Km
29.82
M.
This marker and its location were first reported by Jim Zwicker.[39] It appears to be in the
wrong place: the mileage from Boston ("B") suggests that it was moved from the main line
somewhere just north of Attleborough, perhaps by a history-conscious employe who recognized it
as an artifact worth saving, maybe after it had been uprooted by a track gang.
Now I have an interesting book to read....
Dave