Was there once a railroad spur to Walpole state prison?

Here, with apologies for the too-long delay, is the link to the MassDOT scan of the plan for the roadway adjacent to the current MCI-Cedar Junction. Just above the bottom right-hand block is the pen or pencil annotation concerning the proposed NH spur. On my computer, at least, the zoom and scroll prompts are slow to respond to get a closer view of the block. Also, depending on your monitor, some contrast adjustment may be necessary to increase legibility. My usual problems with getting links posted seems to have manifested itself again, so more apologies, this time for the scan not being a simple click away.
Now if someone with access to DOC and/or NH archives would come forward to provide a definitive answer...

http://www.mediafire.com/?y1zmh02diz3

Interesting, to say the least!
So it looks as if the spur was proposed, the bridge built, and some grading completed, but apparently the siding itself never saw any rail!
It's difficult at best to read the annotation. Contrast aside, parts of the script just aren't there at all in the scan. A shame, really.
Have you had better luck deciphering the notation?
If so, can you post it here?
Also, I cannot find a date anywhere on the document. Do you know it's date? Is it there and I'm just not looking in the right spot?
Thanks for posting the link. Either way, it's another piece of the puzzle.

Cosmo-
The dateline in the bottom right block shows "Jan. 24, 52." That would be the date the inking was accepted for publishing.
I should have expected it, but there also seems to have been some additional generational degradation in the forum-accessible scan, so the marginally legible has gotten worse.

Oh, NOW I see the date! (DUH!)
Tried using a different windows program to view it, still just as degraded. (sigh).
Thanks.

Great plan jaymac thanks for sharing!

Just a wild guess but i wonder if the spur was proposed to bring in sheet metal to make licence plates.

There appears to be a row off the framingham secondary going though cedar swamp heading towards the prison

The ROW off the Framingham secondary going though cedar swamp heading towards the prison is the Wrentham Branch - which is the root of the subject of this thread.

CSX Conductor wrote:

elecuyer wrote: A short stretch of track is still in service in Norwood to serve a few industries.

The line actually ends at the run-around in East Walpole, just beyond Bird Co. where the siding for Hollingsworth&Vose goes off.

But you follow the row after it splits off at Hollingsworth & Vose all the way through downtown Walpole to the prison it crosses Washington st after h&v and the row continues behind jimmys pizza and follows east street till it crosses plimpton st then it crosses east st near Walpole woodworkers crosses diamondpond behind old diamond st then it turns toward stone st and Ellis st near Walpole high it passes behind Walpole high over a small pond you follow that then u see tracks where
south st and colony dr split follow the tracks and the row it takes u near the prison

Mbta fan wrote: But you follow the row after it splits off at Hollingsworth & Vose all the way through downtown Walpole to the prison it crosses Washington st after h&v and the row continues behind jimmys pizza and follows east street till it crosses plimpton st then it crosses east st near Walpole woodworkers crosses diamondpond behind old diamond st then it turns toward stone st and Ellis st near Walpole high it passes behind Walpole high over a small pond you follow that then u see tracks where
south st and colony dr split follow the tracks and the row it takes u near the prison

That is correct. That is the old Wrentham Branch as it runs past downtown Walpole and mostly parallel to the existing MBTA/Franklin Branch. The Wrentham used to cross the Old Colony & Northern/CSX line just East of the prison. The area of the crossing is quite visible on Google Earth. From this point, the WB ROW is easily traceable to the West. If you pan North a bit from the crossing, you will see the SE corner of the MCI complex just across RT 1A. The old bridge is easy to spot. If you use the "Historical Imagery" feature available under the "View" menu, you can click back to footage taken in less leafy seasons. There is a vissable "road to nowhere" from the prison toward the ROW maybe a 1/2 mi in length. It definitely heads for the WB, but peters out SW of the bridge. It could definitely have connected if it had continued on, but it's pretty obvious it was never completed.

This strikes me as a question which has a definitive answer laying within reach at one of two (or both) locations:
(1) The Sanborn Library.
(2) The main Boston Public Library at Copley Square.
If anyone really wants the answer to this question, I'd be very surprised if a one-day excursion including both of these locations wouldn't be quite productive.

Since we are talking about railroad spurs to prisons ( existing or proposed) are there any others in the state that we don't know about that had at least a row built

Using the oldest available 7.5' topos on UNH, what are now MCI-Framingham and MCI-Concord had NH service. Whether the B&M Reformatory Branch actually went up to or inside Concord wasn't clear on the topo or on the Scott Whitney track-charts disk. The Gardner Colony in its pre-NCCI and pre-razor-band existence had a B&M siding and its own passenger station. Another mental facility with a siding was Bridgewater. The siding, or part of it, is still there for MOW purposes. What is now MCI-Norfolk was old enough to have had a siding, but was far enough away from an existing line and with enough intermediate wetlands that it was probably more economical to truck in food and fuel. Charlestown Prison had the B&M grow right up to it as the yards in Charlestown expanded.

The facility once known as "Medfield State" Hospital had a spur complete with an unloading pit and a powerhouse at the end that came off of the Framingham Secondary around the base of the hill that the facility sits atop of.

Cosmo wrote:The facility once known as "Medfield State" Hospital had a spur complete with an unloading pit and a powerhouse at the end that came off of the Framingham Secondary around the base of the hill that the facility sits atop of.

The spur is probably not being used now. I also read somewhere that the state was going to redo the medfield state hospital area, sorry no link to story.

Mbta fan wrote:

Cosmo wrote:The facility once known as "Medfield State" Hospital had a spur complete with an unloading pit and a powerhouse at the end that came off of the Framingham Secondary around the base of the hill that the facility sits atop of.

The spur is probably not being used now. I also read somewhere that the state was going to redo the medfield state hospital area, sorry no link to story.

Oh no, it was already abandoned, grown in and largely forgotten when I explored it back in the early 1980's. No, they hadn't used it then since (I'm guessing) the 1970's. Both the switch and the rails in the grade crossing for the road that leads up there (to the hospital) were long gone by then.