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(rshsdepot) A minor ode to the Green line El (Newton Highlands station)

The Boston Elevated Railway Company: http://www.wmscnet.com/boselev1g.jpg

Here is a Lechmere bound Green train on the MBTA, on the Lechmere El at
North Station (or is it North Station Station?) This is all now gone, but in
this photo is a long abandoned platform for the shuttle to the Atlantic
Avenue El (which is the one passing South Station in the old photos.:
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~carterfd/3677,-3662-arrive-at-NS.jpg
< This is what remains of a platform built to serve shuttle trains running
along the Atlantic Avenue El to/from North Station.  It dates from when the
Lechmere El opened in 1912, with trolleys providing "temporary" service.
Originally the builders planned to have regular El trains running to
Lechmere, but construction stopped before the connecting tracks between it
and the Main Line El were completed.  The shuttle service probably ended in
October 1938 when all service on the Atlantic Avenue El was discontinued.
Most of the Atlantic Avenue El was torn down in 1942 (except for a short
section used to store extra trains on days when there were events at the
Boston Garden), with the scrap metal being Boston's big contribution to the
war effort. >

The Highland Branch/Green Line, from steam to LRV. Riverside to Lechmere
(Highland Branch).  Replaced by motor coaches?
Here is Newton Highlands Station on the MBTA. And both cars seem to be going
in the same direction?  2003 photos:
http://www.cvrma.org/pictures/MISC/BostonElevatedRy5734onFTatNewtonHighlands
5-17-87EO1.jpg
http://www.cvrma.org/pictures/MISC/BostonElevatedRy5734onFTatNewtonHighlands
5-17-87EO.jpg
http://www.sessions-station.com/Trolley%20Cars%201/medium_BostonElevatedRy57
34onFTatNewtonHighlands5-17-87EO1.jpg

Newton Highlands is on the "D" Green Line to Riverside. I presume this still
runs or is it another that has been ended or replaced?
   This  one says 1976, also Newton Highlands but it looks like a different
station.:
http://www.sessions-station.com/Trolley%20Cars%202/medium_MBTA3072onFTatNewt
onHighlands10-30-76GHL.jpg
   Maybe it is misfiled.

  < A station was first built at the location of the present Newton
Highlands MBTA stop when the Charles River Railroad was extended through
Newton in 1852. This single track railroad was used to carry fill and gravel
from Needham to the Back Bay during the late 1800s. The railbed was upgraded
in the 1870s. By the end of the century, the Boston and Albany railroad
provided regular passenger service using steam locomotives on a route that
ran from Boston’s South Station, along the current Green Line to Riverside,
then around the loop in Auburndale, connecting to the present
Worcester-Framingham commuter line, and then back to South Station. Called
the Circuit Railway, this line led to the rapid development of the village
of Newton Highlands. Freight service along the Circuit Branch ceased in
1958, in preparation for the opening of electrified trolley service in 1959
(the present-day Riverside Green Line).>  Here is a turn of the (20th)
century depot at Newton Highlands (B&A at time):
http://medg.lcs.mit.edu/people/psz/nhnac/NH-picts/1depotnewtonhighmass.jpg
Look at the locomotive. Was it a small one or was this station roof seems
massive. This must be a neat auto parts store.!   < The Newton Highlands
Railroad Depot is now an MBTA stop, with the building housing an automobile
parts store.>
Newton Highland Auto Parts is at 18 Station Avenue:
http://www.google.com/local?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=G&as_qdr=all&q=aut
to+parts&near=Newton+Highlands,+MA+02161&radius=0.0&latlng=42318511,-7120934
66,42322236,-71206298&oi=locald

It is a long link, there is a map to the depot.

Here is a Boston and Albany (New York Central) passenger train on the
Highland Branch in 1948:
http://medg.lcs.mit.edu/people/psz/nhnac/NH-picts/newton%20highlands%201948.
jpg  What type locomotive?
Here is a 1911 streetcar on Lincoln Street, in Newton Highlands.
a.us/election/NewtonHighlands/Image12.jpg

In Great Britain the takeover of a declining branch rail line for light rail
is seen as a landmark moment.
<Looking back for what seems a long period of time, four decades to be
exact, brings home to us just how backward our thinking has been on
transport matters, particularly when rail based. Whereas many "faltering"
branch lines in Britain fell victim to "Beeching's Axe", an enterprising
U.S. city had already set a pattern for rail success that went unnoticed
here. Boston (Mass) adopted what was then a very novel idea, that of joining
together a commuter rail line with its adjacent down-town tram line and
operating the whole as a fast light rail service. Any lingering doubts about
risking infrastructure funding were soon dashed by a very positive public
response.

"Today, Boston's Riverside Line is a busy high speed suburban light rail
line and yet, until 1958, it was a declining commuter railroad branch of the
New York Central. At an affordable cost, the transit authority was able to
achieve a quantum leap in service frequency and ridership." (1).

"When it reopened, the Riverside Line carried as many riders during one
single hour of the peak as the old Highland Branch had carried during a
typical day" (2)>   This from a long report from the Light rail Transit
Association: http://www.lrta.org/facts78.html

I think the Riverside Line will be back connected adain but underground at
North Station.

Eliot MBTA Station in Newton Highlands, PCC heading "inland":
http://www.ci.newton.ma.us/election/NewtonHighlands/Image16.gif
Eliot MBTA Station is in Newton Highlands but it doesn't look like that
other station in that one picture. Sometimes I find misplaced pictures in
these collections that have been put on line and othertimes they are
horribly misidentified. Just try telling them, you have to go through hoop
after hoop, all these forms and even passwords...just for trying to correct
all the glaring mistakes...most seem connected to when they put them on line
but sometimes it seems to go far back. Anyway I am not sure they do
anything. Mostly they write back and tell me all the ways I should go
elsewhere......

Streetcar and LRV  on the Lechmere Viaduct., the E train, (Heath Street to
Lechmere (Huntington Street))
http://www.cvrma.org/pictures/MISC/BostonElevatedRy5734onFTatLechmereViaduct
5-17-87EO.jpg
Green line on Lechmere Viaduct (is this also now gone?):
http://www.lightrail.com/photos/boston/Boston23.jpg
Lechmere is (was?) the last stop, it is in Cambridge, It climbs (climbed?)
up an incline to the Viaduct which dates to 1912. It loops (looped?) around
in Lechmere: http://images.nycsubway.org//i14000/img_14026.jpg
ttp://images.nycsubway.org//i23000/img_23432.jpg
ttp://images.nycsubway.org//i31000/img_31803.jpg
This is all replaced by a bus now isn't it? So much for local color.  The
Lechmere El is no more.
The Lechmere Viaduct crosses the old dam between Cambridge and Boston:
http://www.massbayrre.org/P_BH0228.htm
Heading inbound approaching the viaduct:
http://members.tripod.com/~riid/boston/ks2.jpg  Notice the new design.
At North Station stop:
http://members.tripod.com/~riid/boston/ks5.jpg
This one must be gone. Was the removal of the Lechmere El hurried up due to
the Convention?
The last leg west from Brigham Circle to Heath runs in the street, the only
left in Boston...at least as of the web site I saw, does this line still run
in the street?


Then there is the Molasses Disaster:  21 people were killed on Commercial
Street in the North End when a tank of molasses ruptured and exploded. An
eight foot wave of the syrupy brown liquid moved down Commercial Street at a
speed of 35mph. 1/15/1919
Here's what it did to a part of the Boston Elevated on Commercial Street:
http://www.bpl.org/store/IMGS/medium/tm_02339.jpg
ttp://www.bpl.org/store/IMGS/medium/tm_02343.jpg

Boston Elevated Railway #3210 coming to Boston on the New Haven Railroad:
http://64.242.254.49/images/trolley/trol_berypcc1.jpeg

A good overview with a smattering of history can be seen here:
http://www.lightrailnow.org/facts/fa_bos001.htm

Lechmere is only closing for a  year maybe. Read about it here:
http://www.townonline.com/somerville/news/local_regional/sj_newsjlechmerems0
3042004.htm
I saw where in 60s they closed one line temporarily and it never reopened.
Something like this also happened in Philadelphia.

Charlestown Bridge 1908:
http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/~rauch/charlestown/postcards/charlestown_bridge_1
908.jpg

A trolley on the Chelsea Bridge from Charlestown:
http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/~rauch/charlestown/postcards/chelsea_bridge_1910.
jpg

Here is a six wheel BER bus #1204 c. 1925-1931):
http://64.242.254.49/images/bus_bery1204sm.jpeg  Built be Versare

Everett Shops: http://www.pccmph.com/images\mbta52.jpg
On the old interurban line: http://www.pccmph.com/images\mbta87.jpg (OK,
this has nothing to do with any El....)

OK, I have run out of rail related things having any elation to the
Democratic Convention in the Fleet Center (which I have included no pictures
of



I was in Bayonne the other day. Drove over the Bayonne Bridge. Now there is
a time tunnel to the past. So underused that it has no center divider. It is
almost as it opened. As I drove it was like I was in one of those old
postcards with the sparse traffic. I want to take that streetcar. Hudson
County, Camden, Kenosha, Omaha. And even all the dinky monorails and people
movers. Are these any more of a lark than the interurban Air Line or a heavy
rail El in Sioux City. All the overcapacity in the San Francisco Bay area.
It is actually feels healthy even if the risk now is mostly the governments
and not investors and entrepreneurs. (except the Omaha guy. He must be rich,
was he planning to sell shares? How many passengers would it have to carry
to make a profit on the $6.6 million dollar investment? )





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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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