trolley trackage map?

[dariaphoebe]

Is there perchance any sort of trackage map for the proto-green line, (like, showing turnouts and where things are multiple track, not just routing) for circa 1960... or even anything as late as about 1975?

[dieciduej]

Yes.


Oh, you want to know where! At one time the Boston Street Railway Assoc (https://thebsra.org/bsra/) sold a Boston Track Map package. The package had 1887 Horsecar Map, 1907, 1915, & 1939 Boston Elevated Railway Route Maps, 1961 & 1973 MBTA Track Maps. I am not sure if they still carry it but you can drop them a note.

JoeD

[jonnhrr]

The blue books, which I believe you can get from the MBTA site, have rough track schematics, not to scale, for all the transit lines.

I checked the BSRA online bookstore, I don't see any of the MTA/MBTA maps listed.

[dieciduej]

Now that I give it more thought there are two books that I would recommend "Streetcar Lines of the Hub." Both are BSRA publications written by Bradley Clarke, volume 1 "The 1940s Heyday of Electric Transit in Boston" and volume 2 "Boston's MTA Through Riverside and Beyond." The first volume covers January 1940 to December 1949 and the second covers January 1950 to the start of MBTA in 1964. The maps were drawn by the late Gerry O'Regan aka Gerry6309 and show the trackage with good detail at the start of the cycle and the end of the cycle.

JoeD

[sixflagscoasters]

I hope this helps:

http://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/MBTA_Rapi ... _Track_Map

[csor2010]

WardMaps has a 1961 MTA track map scanned into their database. They also have a 1915 BERy atlas for those interested in the pre-bus/pre-central subway streetcar network.

[dariaphoebe]

I'd scanned over the WardMaps site heavily. The BSRA 1961 map looks like what I'd be after albeit early. The 1973 map if it existed would be better, but yeah, seems BSRA sold out of their inventory of those maps. Google has indexed https://www.thebsra.org/store/product/1 ... track-map/ but it's a dead link, and apparently *did* say, when they're gone they're gone.

Welp.

[jrc520]

Here you go, from my own collection, includes the 1961 map and a few others as well.
http://www.cutietta.com/RedditTrackmaps.zip

[parovoz]

Great resource! And an immediate question. On the 1936 BERY map, there is only one "trolley coach" line shown: #66 from Lechmere to Harvard square. Is that true? Only one TT line in the system? Why and how did it survive?

[The EGE]

That line was the first to be converted from trolley to "trolley coach" (trolleybus), on April 10, 1936. Five more routes were converted in 1937 and three in 1938, including #51 Harvard - Aberdeen Ave (now the 72, still a trolleybus) on April 1.

Routes converted in 1937:
97 Everett - Malden
102 Everett - Linden
104 Everett - Woodlawn
112 Malden - Chelsea
120 Malden - Chelsea

I believe the following were converted in 1938:
51 Harvard - Aberdeen Ave
96 Everett - Malden
99 Everett - Lebanon

I'm not sure which was converted in 1939.

1940-1949 conversions are listed in Streetcar Lines of the Hub. Later conversions include:

1950:
70 Central - Watertown
(one other route)

1951:
36 Arborway - Charles River Loop

1952:
34 Dedham Line - Arborway
114 Meriden - Maverick (extended to Woodlawn as trackless)
116 Revere Beach - Maverick
117 Revere Beach - Maverick
118 Revere Beach Maverick
120 Gladstone - Maverick

1953:
32 Cleary Square - Arborway
(two more)

1954:
(one route)

1955:
(one route)

1957:
Cushing Square - Harvard (73 short turn)

1958:
71 Watertown - Harvard
73 Waverley - Harvard
82 North Cambridge - Harvard

At least one route in the early 1950s was converted from diesel bus to trackless:
121 Eagle Street - Maverick

I'll go through and get a fuller accounting someday.

[BostonUrbEx]

Charles River Loop

Where was this?

[MBTA3247]

The same place the 36 currently terminates - only there were tracks instead of pavement back then.

[jaymac]

Never rode it, but did witness it when rail was still there and operation. Can't remember if there was just the loop or also storage track/s for the rush of business when Moseley's across the Charles shut down for the night back when fewer people had cars.

[dariaphoebe]

Here you go, from my own collection, includes the 1961 map and a few others as well.
http://www.cutietta.com/RedditTrackmaps.zip

Slurping, thanks!

[dariaphoebe]

Does the BSRY map package have a trackage map newer than 1961? So far, seems mythical, but I can keep looking.