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Trackside Around Boston 1942-1962 with Lawson Hill by Carl R Bryon
Trackside Around Boston 1942-1962 with Lawson Hill by Carl R Bryon
Hard Cover w/ dust jacket REFLECTIONS from the lights on some photos
128 pages
Copyright 2000
CONTENTS
LAWSON K. HILL: Trackside Photographer 1911-19983
Trackside around BOSTON: A Brief overview4
Trackside at LAWSON'S FRONT PORCH 8
BOSTON & MAINE RAILROAD 20
Trackside at North Station22
Trackside at Boston Engine Terminal30
Trackside up to the New Hampshire "North Country"34
Trackside on the Central Mass Branch52
Trackside on the Fitchburg Division58
BOSTON & ALBANY RAILROAD70
Trackside on the main from Boston to Riverside 72
Trackside on the Newton Highland Branch to Riverside 84
Trackside from Boston's Suburbs to Springfield88
Trackside over the Berkshire Hills: The B&A Triumphant100
New York Central and the E7110
NEW YORK, NEW HAVEN & HARTFORD RAILROAD112
Trackside Boston to New Haven via the Shore Line114
The New Haven's Alco DL-109 Passenger/Freight Locomotives 120
Trackside by neighbors B&A and B&M 124
Trackside to Cape Cod126
Trackside with a HIGH GREEN!128
A BRIEF OVERVIEW
FROM THE BEGINNING, BOSTON AND ITS ENVIRONS WERE WEDDED TO THE ATLANTIC OCEAN.
After all, many of Boston's citizens or their ancestry had crossed it from Europe. By the late 18th Century, Clipper Ship trade to the Orient had made millionaires of ship captains and investors alike. Coastal Massachusetts sea trade flourished well into the 19th century.
Sea trade profits allowed Boston to proclaim itself `Hub of the Universe'. However, inland mills and other industrial developments of the early 19th Century heralded the canal building era. The Blackstone canal linked Worcester to Providence, RI.; the Chesapeake Canal headed inland from Baltimore, MD; and finally in 1825 the majestic Erie Canal connected Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Utica with Albany, and-via the Hudson River - New York City. The 1820's found Boston justifiably concerned about losing its commercial superiority.
In 1825 the Massachusetts Great and General Court (legislature) commissioned civil engineer Loammi Baldwin - who bred the Baldwin apple - to survey a canal route `to the west' - then presumed to be the Hudson River. His 1826 report favored a route through the northern half of Massachusetts - via Fitchburg, Greenfield, and North Adams. The only major problem was the 5 - mile wide, half-mile high Hoosac Mountain east of North Adams. Otherwise the route was easy. The shaken legislators paid Baldwin and tabled (killed) the report. However, Representative Abner Phelps suggested a rail-road in the canal's place.
Phelps was impressed by the gravity Granite Rail-Road, which on October 7, 1826 had started hauling large granite blocks from the Quincy quarry down to the waterfront for barging to Charlestown to build the Bunker Hill Monument. It is considered the first incorporated railroad in America.
By 1830 canal rage was supplanted by railroad fever, of which New England was destined to catch a severe case. During 1830 and 1831, the General Court issued corporate charters for the Boston & Providence, Boston and Worcester, and Boston & Lowell railroads. Like spokes from a wheel hub, the B&P went southwest; the B&W west, and the B&L northwest from Boston. The B&M's (Massachusetts) corporate predecessor, the Andover & Wilmington, was chartered in 1833. By now, if they could have built on the waters of the harbor, a line would be abuilding east toward Spain!
Boston immediately became the Hub of New England railroading. Late 1835 found the B&P, B&W, and B&L roads in operation, and no shortage of promoters for additional ones, or extensions. After all, it was an economic death sentence if the tracks bypassed your town. The next major Boston road, the Eastern RR, headed northeast from (East) Boston to Salem in 1838.
Accidents arrived too. On June 19, 1836 New England's first head-on collision, or `cornfield meet', occurred on the Boston and Providence, in Roxbury, MA. Fortunately, there were no fatalities. Those arrived the following June 16, with a derailment on the B&W in Worcester. Two people lost their lives. Not until 1847 did B&M predecessor Vermont & Massachusetts - the line west of Fitchburg to Greenfield - have a deadly accident in Athol. The Eastern joined the list the following year with a head-on collision in Salem.
The Hartford & New Haven RR opened in 1839, and merged with the Hartford & Springfield in 1847 - creating the basis of the New Haven system. In 1841 the Western RR opened across the Berkshire Hills to connect the Boston & Worcester to Albany, while the Concord RR connected the Boston & Lowell up the Merrimack River valley to central/northern New Hampshire. The second major east-west railroad, the Fitchburg, was chartered in 1842, and began building west along Baldwin's 1826 survey.
On March 5, 1845 the Fitchburg opened, and later that year on November 10th, the Old Colony line from Boston to Fall River did likewise. In 1847 `Boat Train' service commenced between Boston and Fall River's Long Island Sound steamships. It continued in the grand manner for ninety years.
A fabulous mile-a-minute dash occurred in 1848 on the B&M's new line from Boston to Lawrence, the first recorded railroad publicity stunt in New England.
Another decade found dozens of short roads operating end-to-end which ultimately would meld into the New Haven, Boston and Albany, and Boston and Maine systems. The B&M and Eastern roads intensified their feud for coastal New Hampshire and downeast Maine dominance. The same occurred between the B&M and B&L for New Hampshire and the mill cities of Lowell and Lawrence. The Fitchburg and the Vermont & Massachusetts railroads gave joint service to northern Massachusetts as far west as Greenfield. Beyond there, the Troy & Greenfield and its Hoosac Tunnel were just a blip on the political and financial horizon.
With a brief respite during the heights of the Civil War (1861-65), New England's railroad fever burned on. In 1867 the Boston & Worcester and Western railroads became the Boston & Albany RR - some 25 years after their tracks first met! The late 1860's found trackage of the Boston, Hartford, & Erie arriving in Boston via Dedham. 1875 also found the Hoosac Tunnel finally opened through 4.75 miles of Berkshire granite, and a second east-west line stretched from Boston to the Hudson River valley.
In 1884 the Fitchburg took control of the Hoosac Tunnel Route, while the Boston & Maine's lease of arch-rival Boston & Lowell in 1887 left New Hampshire dominated by the B&M. The following year the Boston & Providence was leased by the Old Colony.
The post-Civil War years found Wall Street stock manipulators Daniel Drew, Jim Fisk, and Jay Gould forcing railroad consolidations for financial gain. In the process they instigated both the 1868 `Erie Wars' and the Panic (Depression) of 1873.
By the mid-1880's through the Gilded Age, J.P. Morgan and his Wall Street brokerage firm was arguably the most powerful financial institution in the United States. Morgan believed that monopoly and `spheres of influence' were the logical tools to stabilize the railroad industry and its markets. Since the 1880's the House of Morgan had been buying up railroad securities and was capable of imposing its will - at least upon occasion - on the likes of the Vanderbilt (NYC system) and Harriman (UP/SP system) families.
At first, Morgan simply bought blocks of stock or bonds to acquire control of various New England railroads and trolley lines. By 1893 Morgan's power was such that he dictated to the B&M that its sphere of influence was north of the B&A; and the New Haven's, south. In essence the B&A Railroad became a 180-mile stub-end branch line to Boston, with no major opportunity for expansion. That same year the Old Colony (and its sub-leased Boston & Providence) went into the New Haven's fold. Within two years the original Boston, Hartford, and Erie trackage - by now part of the New York & New England - likewise became New Haven property. The New Haven neared its zenith.
The 19th Century ended with the new South Station opening serving the B&A, New Haven, & Old Colony. It immediately replaced Boston's North Station as the busiest passenger terminal in America.
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