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Newton Lower Falls Branch
Newton Lower Falls station in the 1890s
Overview
StatusClosed
Locale Massachusetts
Termini
Stations3
Service
System Boston and Albany Railroad
History
OpenedJanuary 18, 1847 (January 18, 1847)
Electric service beganJanuary 20, 1904
Electric service endedApril 27, 1930
Closed1957
Technical
Line length1.2 [a] mi (1.9 km)
Track gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
ElectrificationOverhead lines (1904–1930)
Route map

Legend
to Boston via B&A
main line | Highland branch
0.00 mi
0 km
 Riverside
Charles River
Pre-1926 route
B&A main line to Albany
0.82 mi
1.32 km
 Pine Grove
1.25 mi
2.01 km
 Newton Lower Falls
M&B
This diagram:

The Newton Lower Falls Branch was a short branch of the Boston and Albany Railroad in Massachusetts, running between Riverside station in Newton and Lower Falls in Wellesley. It opened in 1847; passenger service ran until 1957 and freight service until 1972.

Route

The approximately 1.2-mile (1.9 km) line [a] originally branched off the Boston and Albany main line west of Riverside station on the Weston side of the Charles River. The single track ran south, crossing the Charles into the Lower Falls section of Newton, with Pine Grove station located at Pine Grove Avenue. [7] The line crossed the Charles River again into the Lower Falls section of Wellesley, where the Newton Lower Falls station was located just north of Washington Street. [b] Tracks continued across the street to a freight yard and engine house. [9] [10] After 1926, the line branched off the Highland branch south of Riverside and ran southwest, joining the original alignment at Pine Grove. [11] Passenger trains typically covered the length of the branch in just five minutes. [2] [3] [4]

History

Early history

1880 illustration of the Newton Lower Falls terminus

The Boston and Worcester Railroad opened through northern Newton in 1834. It was originally planned to go through Lower Falls, but opposition from residents led it to be built to the north instead. [12] [13] Around 1845, the inhabitants of Newton Lower Falls and Newton Upper Falls requested that the B&W extend a branch to the two villages. The railroad was amenable to the proposal and ordered a survey. [14] By 1846, the railroad approved plans to build a branch to Lower Falls. [15]

The Newton Lower Falls Branch opened on January 18, 1847. "Newton Special" commuter service was extended from West Newton to Lower Falls. [16]: 21  [17] In 1848, it carried 26,381 passengers, most of them traveling between Lower Falls and Boston. [18] By 1850, the branch was served by five daily round trips. It had cost $39,050 to build. [19] Pine Grove station opened by 1856. [20] Riverside station opened near the junction point with the main line around 1860. [16]: 21 

The Boston and Worcester Railroad merged into the Boston and Albany Railroad (B&A) in 1867. [21]: 342  On May 16, 1886, the B&A opened its Highland branch, which also connected to the main line near Riverside. Highland branch and main line commuter service were linked into the "Newton Circuit", while Lower Falls Branch service was reduced to Riverside–Lower Falls shuttle trains. [16]: 22  [6]: 4  By the turn of the century, the shuttle ran 20 daily round trips (seven on Sundays). [2] [22] The B&A was acquired by the New York Central Railroad (NYC) in 1900, but maintained its separate identity. [21]: 343 

Between 1881 and 1894, the B&A replaced 32 of its stations with Richardsonian Romanesque structures designed by H. H. Richardson and his successors Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge. [23]: 109  The new Newton Lower Falls station was built in 1887; later demolished, it was very similar to the still-extant Ashland station. [23]: 127  Riverside station was replaced in 1893–94. Both Riverside and Newton Lower Falls were designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge. [23]: 131  Pine Grove station was not replaced; it remained a small wooden shelter. [24]

The B&A eliminated grade crossings on its mainline in Newton in 1895–97. [16]: 22  The city then began planning to eliminate the remaining grade crossings on the Newton Lower Falls Branch, the Highland branch, and the Charles River Branch within its borders. An 1898 city plan called for Pine Grove Avenue and Concord Street to be placed on bridges above the Newton Lower Falls Branch. [25] The Highland branch crossings were eliminated in 1905–07, but those on the Newton Lower Falls Branch remained. [16]: 22  [7]

Electrification

The B&A tested a self-propelled steam railcar on the line in 1902 in an effort to recapture passengers from competing streetcar lines, but it was not found to be satisfactory. [26] [27] [28] The B&A ended Sunday service on the line around the end of that year. [29] In May 1903, residents appeared before the Massachusetts Railroad Commission to voice issues about the Lower Falls Branch. Their complaints included the lack of Sunday service, long waits at Riverside for connecting trains, the downgrading of Pine Grove station to a flag stop, and poor freight service. [30] [31]

The electric car at Riverside in the 1900s

At that time, the B&A was studying third rail electrification of the Lower Falls Branch and the Newton Circuit, though it did not plan to construct it for at least several years. [32] In June 1903, the commission ruled that the B&A was not required to operate Sunday service on the line. However, it did require the railroad to resume using a fireman on locomotives on the branch; the practice of only having an engineer was considered unsafe. The B&A also resolved the transfer delays at Riverside. [33] [28] In September 1903, the railroad announced that it would electrify the Newton Lower Falls Branch with overhead lines in the following months. [22] The electrification was intended to reduce the cost of running the shuttle trains. [16]: 22 

Testing of the electrification took place on January 19, 1904. [34] [35] The single electric railcar replaced the shuttle trains the next day, operating on the same schedule. [35] [c] The electrification resembled that of suburban streetcar lines, with a single wire strung from lineside poles. [34] Power was purchased from the Boston Suburban Electric Company – a holding firm for several streetcar lines that eventually were merged as the Middlesex and Boston Street Railway (M&B) – with electricity supplied from its Newton power station. The company's Newton–Framingham streetcar line on Washington Street, then part of the Newton Street Railway, crossed the line at Lower Falls. [34] [37] The southern track of the four-track B&A mainline was electrified for the short distance between the branch junction and Riverside station. [6]: 36 

All service on the line was provided by the single electric car, originally numbered 11 and later 01, which was built in the company's Allston shops. [34] [6]: 37  The car resembled a typical interurban car save for the pilot on each end. It was a 60 feet (18 m) long combination car with a 40-passenger coach section, a small central baggage section, and a 20-passenger smoking section. Propulsion was a pair of 125 horsepower (93 kW) electric motors. It was equipped with a dead man's switch – a "novel device" at the time. [35] [38] The car was locally known as the "Ping-Pong". [6]: 4 

In 1913, the B&A tested an Edison-Beach storage battery railcar on the branch, as the NYC was considering purchase of a fleet of the cars for lightly-used branch lines. [39] [40] However, the "Ping-Pong" remained the sole passenger car on the branch after the test. [6]: 4  Service on the line was reduced during World War I and was down to 15 daily round trips by 1926. [6]: 4  [3] In February 1926, the state legislature approved plans for the B&A and the Metropolitan District Commission to swap land near Riverside. [41] This allowed the B&A to relocate the northern half of the line to remove tracks from parkland and to avoid replacing the Charles River bridge. The relocation took place later in 1926, leaving the Lower Falls Branch connected to the Highland branch south of Riverside. [6]: 36  [42]

Closure

The M&B replaced its Newton–Framingham route with buses in late 1929. Its final streetcar service, the Auburndale–Lake Street line, was replaced with buses around April 1, 1930. [37]: 252  With power no longer readily available, the B&A switched the line back to steam operation on April 27, 1930. [43] [36] Service was reduced to 7+1⁄2 round trips at that time. [16]: 22  [44] It was further reduced to four daily round trips – two in the morning peak and two in the afternoon peak – by 1934. [45] Saturday service ended in the 1940s; by 1949, Pine Grove was only served on peak-direction trips. [46] [4]

On January 9, 1950, all passenger service on the branch was suspended due to a coal shortage during a miner's strike. [47] [48] After a petition from residents, a single round trip for commuters was restored on February 6. [49] [50] Diesel locomotives – typically hauling a single coach – replaced steam locomotives on the branch in April 1951. [6]: 4, 37  The state constructed the northern section of the Circumferential Highway ( Route 128) in 1950–1951. The highway crossed under the Newton Lower Falls Branch between Pine Grove and Riverside, with a bridge built to carry the rail line above the highway. [51] [52] [53] Route 128 was relocated slightly to the west in the early 1960s during the construction of the Massachusetts Turnpike extension to Boston. A new bridge for the Newton Lower Falls Branch was constructed over the new alignment, while the old alignment became an interchange ramp. [53] [54]

In February 1957, the B&A petitioned the state Public Utilities Commission for permission to discontinue passenger service on the Newton Lower Falls Branch. [55] The commission approved the petition that July, citing "meager patronage" and the availability of other nearby stations. [56] Passenger service on the branch ended in August 1957, though freight service continued. [16]: 24  The Highland branch was abandoned in mid-1958 for conversion into a streetcar line (now the Green Line D branch). The short section at Riverside connecting the Newton Lower Falls Branch with the mainline was kept in service. [21]: 345  The B&A was fully merged into the NYC in 1961. The NYC in turn merged into Penn Central in 1968. [21]: 343 

Freight service to the final customer on the Lower Falls Branch, a lumber yard in Wellesley, ended on May 30, 1972. [57] [d] In January 1973, Penn Central sold most of its lines in eastern Massachusetts to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. [16]: 16  [58] This included the section of the Newton Lower Falls Branch north of the Route 128 bridge. [59] In 1975, the United States Railway Association did not recommend that the branch be included in Conrail because of the lack of traffic on the line. [57] Penn Central applied by 1975 to formally abandon the line; the company removed the rails on the branch in 1976, but formal abandonment did not actually occur. [60] [61] [62] On November 1, 1982, Penn Central deeded the portion of the branch south of Route 128 to the Metropolitan District Commission. [61] [63] It included a deed restriction disallowed the right-of-way from being used as "a transportation, communication, electrical or other corridor or right of way". [64] [65]

Rail trail and litigation

A 1996 state study of the MetroWest region identified several disused rail lines, including the Newton Lower Falls Branch, as potential rail trails. [66] Planning for rehabilitation of the Charles River bridge between Newton and Wellesley for trail use began in 2003. [67] The trail proposal proved controversial in Newton Lower Falls – particularly the segment between Concord Street and Pine Grove Avenue, where the right-of-way is between residential properties. Trail supporters saw it as an opportunity to reconnect the neighborhood with the rest of Newton, which it is separated from by Route 128; opponents claimed it would further divide the neighborhood. Among the supporters was state representative Kay Khan, whose property abutted the right-of-way. [68] [65]

A 2006 lawsuit filed by abutters against the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) – the successor to the Metropolitan District Commission – alleged that the 1982 deed restriction prevented DCR from using the alignment for a trail. DCR argued that the restriction was intended to be a noncompete clause preventing railroad use of the alignment and did not preclude a trail. [65] A second suit on similar grounds was filed in 2009. [64] It was ultimately dismissed in 2015, as the 30-year deed restriction had expired in 2012. [69]

Additional lawsuits were filed in 2011 and 2014 by other abutters claiming that the rail easement had reverted back to the adjacent property owners upon abandonment of the line. [61] [63] In 2014, the Massachusetts Land Court found in the latter case that the line had never actually been abandoned under Massachusetts state law, and that whether the line had been abandoned was a federal issue. [61] The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed in 2016, and the 2011 case was also dismissed for that reason. [70] [71] In 2017, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts dismissed a further suit by the 2014 plaintiffs, finding that the federal Surface Transportation Board had sole jurisdiction over railroad abandonments. At the request of the court, the STB filed an amicus curiae brief agreeing that it had sole jurisdiction and that the line had not been abandoned. [62] [72]

Notes

  1. ^ a b The B&W listed the line as 1.251 miles (2.013 km) in 1852. [1] B&A timetables gave the Riverside–Lower Falls distance as 1.10 miles (1.77 km) in 1899, [2] 1.16 miles (1.87 km) in 1926, [3] and 1.25 miles (2.01 km) in 1949. [4] Other sources give various lengths in this range. [5] [6]: 4 
  2. ^ Prior to 1887, the station was located south of Washington Street. [8]
  3. ^ Several sources incorrectly claim that electric service began on February 1, 1900. [36] [16]: 22  [6]: 4 
  4. ^ A short portion of the former Highland branch near Riverside remained in use for an industrial customer until 1976. [21]: 345 

References

  1. ^ Report of the Directors of the Boston and Worcester Railroad. Boston and Worcester Railroad. 1852. p. 14.
  2. ^ a b c Time Table No. 40. Boston and Albany Railroad. May 28, 1899. p. 19 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  3. ^ a b c Time Table No. 107 For Employees Only. Boston and Albany Railroad. July 18, 1926. p. 44 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  4. ^ a b c Time-Table No. 159 For Employees only. Boston and Albany Railroad. September 25, 1949. p. 33 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  5. ^ Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States. Vol. 26. H.V. & H.W. Poor. 1893. p. 80.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Humphrey, Thomas J.; Clark, Norton D. (1986). Boston's Commuter Rail: Second Section. Boston Street Railway Association. ISBN  9780938315025.
  7. ^ a b "Part of Ward 4, City of Newton" (Map). Atlas of the city of Newton, Massachusetts. 1:2,400. G.W. Bromley & Co. 1917. Plate 10.
  8. ^ Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts (Map). O.H. Bailey & Co. 1880 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  9. ^ "Part of the Town of Wellesley, Mass" (Map). Atlas of the town of Wellesley, Norfolk County, Mass. 1:2,400. Geo. W. Stadly & Co. 1897. p. 1.
  10. ^ "Plate 2" (Map). Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Wellesley, Norfolk County, Massachusetts. 1:600. Sanborn Map Company. November 1919.
  11. ^ USGS 1:31680-scale Quadrangle for Natick, MA 1943 (Map). 1:31,680. U.S. Geological Survey. 1943.
  12. ^ Newton's 19th Century Architecture: Newton Upper and Lower Falls. Newton Historical Commission. 1982. p. 21.
  13. ^ Fiske, Joseph E.; Ellen W. Fiske (1917). History of the Town of Wellesley, Massachusetts. Boston, Chicago: The Pilgrim Press. p.  26. OCLC  6541911 – via Internet Archive.
  14. ^ Report of the Directors of the Boston and Worcester Railroad. Boston and Worcester Railroad. June 2, 1845. pp. 9, 10.
  15. ^ Report of the Directors of the Boston and Worcester Railroad. Boston and Worcester Railroad. June 1, 1846. pp. 8, 9.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Humphrey, Thomas J.; Clark, Norton D. (1985). Boston's Commuter Rail: The First 150 Years. Boston Street Railway Association.
  17. ^ Report of the Directors of the Boston and Worcester Railroad. Boston and Worcester Railroad. June 7, 1847. pp. 13, 14.
  18. ^ "Saxonville and Newton Lower Falls Branch Railroad". Boston Evening Transcript. January 18, 1849. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ Report of the Directors of the Boston and Worcester Railroad. Boston and Worcester Railroad. 1850. pp. 9, 13.
  20. ^ "Horrible Death on a Railroad Track". Boston Evening Transcript. November 3, 1856. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ a b c d e Karr, Ronald Dale (2017). The Rail Lines of Southern New England (2 ed.). Branch Line Press. ISBN  9780942147124.
  22. ^ a b "Electrics on the Branch". Boston Evening Transcript. September 25, 1903. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ a b c Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl (June 1988). "Architecture for the Boston & Albany Railroad: 1881-1894". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 47 (2): 109–131. doi: 10.2307/990324. JSTOR  990324.
  24. ^ "Plate 82" (Map). Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Newton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. 1:1,200. 1910.
  25. ^ "Newton Improvements". The Boston Globe. September 20, 1898. p. 12 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ "The Scrap Heap". The Railroad Gazette. Vol. 34, no. 21. May 23, 1902. p. 383.
  27. ^ "Proposed Electric Operation on the Boston & Albany". Street Railway Journal. Vol. 22, no. 18. October 31, 1903. p. 796.
  28. ^ a b "Steam Motor Cars". The Railroad Gazette. Vol. 35, no. 28. July 10, 1903. p. 517.
  29. ^ "Want Sunday Trains". The Boston Globe. January 14, 1903. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
  30. ^ "Complain Of Service". The Boston Globe. May 13, 1903. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. ^ "Sunday Trains Demanded". Boston Evening Transcript. May 12, 1903. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  32. ^ "Third-Rail Plans For Circuit". Boston Evening Transcript. May 26, 1903. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  33. ^ "Sunday Train Service". Boston Evening Transcript. June 30, 1903. p. 16 – via Newspapers.com.
  34. ^ a b c d "Trolley System Test". The Boston Globe. January 19, 1904. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  35. ^ a b c "In Public Use". The Boston Globe. January 20, 1904. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
  36. ^ a b Dana, Edward (October 1960 – July 1961). "Riverside Line Extension, 1959". Transportation Bulletin. No. 65. Connecticut Valley Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. p. 19.
  37. ^ a b Humphrey, Thomas J. (August 2020). "Origin and Development of the Fixed-Route Local Bus Transportation Network in the Cities and Towns of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority District as of December 31, 1973: Revised Edition" (PDF). NETransit.
  38. ^ "Combination Baggage, Smoking and Passenger Electric Given Trial Trips Over Newton Line". Boston Post. January 21, 1904. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  39. ^ "Storage Battery Car". The Boston Globe – via Newspapers.com.
  40. ^ "New Record Trip Made by a Storage Battery Car". Street Railway Bulletin. Vol. 12, no. 3. March 1913. p. 134.
  41. ^ Massachusetts General Court (1927). "Chapter 166: An Act Authorizing An Exchange By The Metropolitan District Commission And The Boston And Albany Railroad Of Two Parcels Of Land, One Lying In The City Of Newton And The Other Partly In Said City And In The Town Of Weston, And A Relocation Of The Newton Lower Falls Branch Of The Same Company". Acts and Resolves Passed by the General Court of Massachusetts in the Year 1926. p. 161.
  42. ^ Report of the Board of Directors to the Stockholders for the year ended December 31, 1926 (PDF). New York Central Railroad. 1927. p. 17.
  43. ^ "Many Changes In Railway Schedules". The Boston Globe. April 26, 1930. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  44. ^ Time Tables. Boston and Albany Railroad. May 7, 1931. p. 13 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  45. ^ Time Tables. Boston and Albany Railroad. September 30, 1934. p. 7 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  46. ^ Form 2. Boston and Albany Railroad. April 27, 1941. p. 21 – via Wikimedia Commons.
  47. ^ "B. & A. Forced to Cancel 38 Trains Starting Monday". The Boston Globe. January 6, 1950. pp. 1, 17 – via Newspapers.com.
  48. ^ "Boston & Albany Withdraws 38 Trains From Schedule". The Newton Graphic. January 12, 1950. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  49. ^ "Newton Commuters Seek Restoration of B. & A. Service". The Boston Globe. January 24, 1950. p. 13 – via Newspapers.com.
  50. ^ "B&A Restore Service On Falls Branch". The Newton Graphic. February 9, 1950. pp. 1, 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  51. ^ "Barletta Wins Road Job With $3,032,419 Bid". The Boston Globe. January 7, 1950. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  52. ^ Casey, Gene (June 11, 1950). "State's First Super Road Will Be Big Traffic Aid". The Boston Globe. pp. 1, 38 – via Newspapers.com.
  53. ^ a b Chapman, Ted (Winter 2018). "The Two Bridges Trail" (PDF). Newton Conservators Newsletter.
  54. ^ Plotkin, A.S. (April 29, 1963). "The Route 128 Interchange". The Boston Globe. p. 27 – via Newspapers.com.
  55. ^ "B & A Seeks Curtailment In Newton Lower Falls". The Boston Globe. February 7, 1957. p. 15 – via Newspapers.com.
  56. ^ "D.P.U. Orders Close Of 2 B.&A. Stations". The Boston Globe. July 17, 1957. p. 42 – via Newspapers.com.
  57. ^ a b "Section B: Lines Not Now Being Served or Receiving Only Intermittent Service". Final System Plan for Restructuring Railroads in the Northeast and Midwest Region Pursuant to the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973. Vol. 2. United States Railway Association. July 26, 1975. p. 497.
  58. ^ Carr, Robert B. (January 25, 1973). "MBTA gets $19.5m to buy rail lines". The Boston Globe. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  59. ^ "Certificate" (PDF). Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. January 1973.
  60. ^ "Section D: Discontinuances Under Section 304(f) of the Act". Final System Plan for Restructuring Railroads in the Northeast and Midwest Region Pursuant to the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973. Vol. 2. United States Railway Association. July 26, 1975. p. 528.
  61. ^ a b c d Elaine K. Murray and Ruth Levens v. Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, 22 LCR 469 (Massachusetts Land Court October 6, 2014).
  62. ^ a b Elaine K. Murray and Ruth Levens v. Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, 17-10608-PBS (D. Mass October 11, 2017).
  63. ^ a b Charles C. Stover, III and Katharine S. Stover v. Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, 21 LCR 640 MISC 11-449303 (Massachusetts Land Court November 12, 2013).
  64. ^ a b Joseph D. Collins v. Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, 20 LCR 164 (Massachusetts Land Court March 23, 2012).
  65. ^ a b c Hennick, Calvin (June 7, 2009). "Bike path may turn on deed". The Boston Globe. pp. W1, W5 – via Newspapers.com.
  66. ^ Buckley Lewis, Cathy (October 1996). MetroWest Bicycle–Pedestrian Study. Central Transportation Planning Staff. p. 22.
  67. ^ "Rebuilt bridge connecting Newton and Wellesley open to bicycles, pedestrians". Wicked Local Newton. May 8, 2012. Archived from the original on August 8, 2016.
  68. ^ Schworm, Peter (May 26, 2009). "Neighbors divided over proposed bike path". The Boston Globe. p. B2 – via Newspapers.com.
  69. ^ Egan, Tom (April 29, 2015). "Real property – Restriction – Expiration". Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  70. ^ Charles C. Stover, III and Katharine S. Stover v. Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, 25 LCR 487 (Massachusetts Land Court July 11, 2017). ( Judgment)
  71. ^ Elaine K. Murray and Ruth Levens v. Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, 479 Mass. 99 (Mass. August 4, 2016).
  72. ^ "Budget Request FY 2019" (PDF). Surface Transportation Board. February 2018. p. 21.

External links

Media related to Newton Lower Falls Branch at Wikimedia Commons

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