Where to find old maps in the system

Well, for one thing, service on the Wildcat branch didn't begin until the Downeaster service was launched. Prior to that it was only used for freight service.

It was long before that... I have a schedule from 1994 in front of me that shows one AM outbound and one PM inbound running over the Wildcat. Not sure how much further in the past it started, but at least 1994. By the 1998 schedule there were two outbounds and three inbounds over the Wildcat, which is the case today. The Downeaster started running in 2001, with four round trips all running over the Wildcat, and that was increased to five in 2007.

And then there's deadheads...

[edit] Looking at that very useful "Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA District" article published in Rollsign and formerly on the NETransit site (via Web Archive), it states that with the resumption of through commuter service to Haverhill on December 17, 1979, "Although most trains to Haverhill use the Western route entirely, some reverse-commute trips in each direction use the Wildcat Branch and the New Hampshire Main Line to travel from Haverhill to Boston."

1979!!! Waaaaay before the Downeaster, that!!

jwhite07 wrote:...
Looking at that very useful "Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA District" article published in Rollsign and formerly on the NETransit site (via Web Archive),...

very useful indeed ! thanks for digging that out.

I stand corrected... I always thought passenger service on that branch was a fairly new thing.

An additional note about that branch on the new maps, is that the Wildcat joins the Eastern Route before North Wilmington, which is not the case. The branch joins in between North Wilmington and Ballardvale.

I just saw in this link that JFK /UMass is a station only for the Ashmont branch and not for Braintree. The photo was taken in 2004. Is this map still there?

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?33582

rhodiecub2 wrote:I just saw in this link that JFK /UMass is a station only for the Ashmont branch and not for Braintree. The photo was taken in 2004. Is this map still there?

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?33582

It was until about 1988 or so when the Braintree platform was built. They renamed the station from Columbia to JFK when that took place. Prior to that it was Ashmont-only. This is why Malfunction Junction is near the portal instead of where the lines actually diverge down in the Savin Hill area...when originally built the Braintree branch bypassed Dorchester entirely and expressed over to Quincy.

That map, though, is probably incorrect unless the JFK name was slapped on later. And I don't think it was q late addition because that's one of the steel bolt-ons that aren't so easily amended.

rhodiecub2 wrote:I just saw in this link that JFK /UMass is a station only for the Ashmont branch and not for Braintree. The photo was taken in 2004. Is this map still there?

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?33582

That map was there as of last September. However they replaced some of the maps at Park St earlier this year, so it might be gone now.

A close inspection of my photo of that particular map shows no indications that the JFK name was a sticker added later; it appears to have been made that way.

rhodiecub2 wrote:Auditorium was renamed to Hynes Convention Ctr in 1990 and the JFK U Mass addition to the Braintree line was added in late 1988. So were there system maps that came out 1987 which had the Southwest Corridor on there but did not have the Hynes Convention Ctr name change and the JFK U/Mass addition to Braintree?

The original maps in the Southwest Corridor stations should have been this way.

MBTA3247 wrote:

rhodiecub2 wrote:I just saw in this link that JFK /UMass is a station only for the Ashmont branch and not for Braintree. The photo was taken in 2004. Is this map still there?

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?33582

That map was there as of last September. However they replaced some of the maps at Park St earlier this year, so it might be gone now.

A close inspection of my photo of that particular map shows no indications that the JFK name was a sticker added later; it appears to have been made that way.

I checked when I was at Park St today and the map is still there.

Today I was on the red line (car 1503 i believe) and I noticed a very old map that still had the redline ending at Harvard and Downtown Crossing still named washington. This map has to be about 30 years old. Why hasn't this been replaced? It could be very confusing for someone visiting the city.

Wow ! Nice sign ! That's unusual for that old a sign to still be on revenue equipment. It's at least 23 years old. Was it a sticker or a white plastic job ? (They probably didn't have anything on hand to replace it with.)

fitchburgline wrote:Today I was on the red line (car 1503 i believe) and I noticed a very old map that still had the redline ending at Harvard and Downtown Crossing still named washington. This map has to be about 30 years old. Why hasn't this been replaced? It could be very confusing for someone visiting the city.

I think that's a case of the replacement sticker having been peeled off by some joker. I suspect that if you were to peek beneath the signs in ANY of those old cars you'd find the same sign lurking there.

madcrow wrote:

fitchburgline wrote:Today I was on the red line (car 1503 i believe) and I noticed a very old map that still had the redline ending at Harvard and Downtown Crossing still named washington. This map has to be about 30 years old. Why hasn't this been replaced? It could be very confusing for someone visiting the city.

I think that's a case of the replacement sticker having been peeled off by some joker. I suspect that if you were to peek beneath the signs in ANY of those old cars you'd find the same sign lurking there.

I've looked for this a few times on 01500/01600 series cars, and it looks like there is an old metal sign showing the original map riveted to the wall with a sticker showing the Alewife extension on top of it. If you look closely at the sticker, you can sometimes see raised outlines of the original map caused by its very thick paint.

Finding those line map stickers unpeeled on the Red Line isn't common, but it's fairly regularly. When I used to ride daily, I'd honestly see one about once a month.

Although it could be possible that the map was ripped off, it did not have any of the sticky substance one would usually see when a sticker has been ripped off.