I was at the Hub Division train show about a year ago and picked up a few old MBTA maps. Also found a "Boston & Albany Railroad" schedule for the Riverside branch c.1958, right before the T bought and converted it into light rail. I figured I'd finally post pictures of these for people to see. Let me know if you want more scans of the maps and I can try and do that.
-Scott
(left to right: 1974, 1976, 1980. Note the marketing used on the 1974 map. "The Answer")
(again)
From the 1980 system map. Neat to see the Harvard/Brattle and the dotted Braintree extension!
It's interesting that the 1980 map shows all NEC commuter rail routed through the Dorchester branch. I was under the impression that such routing was only from 1983 to 1987.
The NEC rerouting, along with the shutdown of the Needham Line, was in place from 1979 to 1987, to allow the new Southwest Corridor Orange Line alignment to be built.
The D Line was extended to Lechmere during the construction of the new station and tunnel that replaced the elevated, while the C Line was cut back from North Station during the same period after the Canal St Loop was torn up. Once the new incline was opened, the routes returned to their pre-construction endpoints.
"The destination of this train is [BEEP BEEP]" -announcement on an Ashmont train.
During the construction of the current Super Station the C Line was cut back to Gov't Center while the D Line was extended to Lechemere via the elevated. This was an interesting time because the C Line was 100% Boeing equipped and a few Type 8s were in service and were running on the D Line. This was the only time the Type 8s were seen on elevated. Shortly after this time they were banned from the D Line and never saw North Station again.
1982 and 1988 system map folders, including commuter rail maps. The 1982 map shows the Southwest Corridor diversion and the Red Line Northwest Extension under construction.
I noticed on the 1988 schedule, service to Gardner was still on the commuter rail map. Didn't Gardner service stop at the beginning of 1987 or get bustituted between Fitchburg to Gardner?