Maps of proposed but never built lines in Massachusetts

Edge: No, I thought it might be the bikeway too, but wrong side of the river. There are maps that do show most of where it would have gone down into Providence in the TITANIC RR book. Since less of the RI portion of the project was completed, it gets much less distinct after Woonsocket.

The EGE wrote:You're free to go ahead if you wish. I'm missing Woonsocket-Providence (is it now the Blackstone River Bikeway?) and a short section near Southbridge - plus there's two possible alignments near Brimfield, but I'm hoping to manage to fill those in soon. But OSM is editable, so go for it!

Thanks! Now that I started copying off you, I see that it's labelled as an Old Railroad Grade on the USGS topo maps. They put some serious fills in there! 30' tall at Morse Pond, 50' tall over Rocky Brook, and another 50' near High Street in Worcester County. And it just goes on and on and on! I thought New York had some crazy unfinished railroads, but this one, well, I bow to your superior insanity.

A couple of things. At the very west end near Palmer (where it was to connect to the CV?) just south of the power substation is what looks like an abutment in the stream. Was that a SNE abutment?

I don't think it crossed the Mass Pike near the CSX Boston Sub. The Mass Pike is about 40' higher than the railbed there, plus if you stare at the aerials, you can see a subtle line in the trees south of the Mass Pike. It looks like it took off on a high trestle just west of the Boston Road, went over it, over the Quaboag, over CSX, over West Brimfield Palmer Road, and back onto the hillside just south of Penny Brook. A bit south of that it also crossed Dunhampton-Palmer Road on a trestle.

The two alignments near Brimfield are confusing as piss! On the western end, the northern alignment seems to just stop, not connecting to the west. On the eastern end, the southern alignment seems to just stop, not connecting to the east! My speculation is that the lower straighter alignment through the wetland wouldn't "hold". The Southern New York Railway had a similar problem. They kept dumping fill into a wetland, and it kept disappearing. Finally they tipped a few old boxcars off the sides of the tracks and they were able to keep their railbed up out of the wetland. They, too, had to use a more crooked alignment along the edge of the wetland until they could get it fixed up.

There's also that straight island on the west end of East Brimfield Lake (on the Bing aerials ... but it's visible on Google as well). Is that another section of the alternate routing? Or is that just an old routing of Holland-East Brimfield Road? Are those two abutments off the southwest end of it?

As far as Southbridge goes, I would presume that they went just to the northeast of the NYNH&H. There's room for another ROW there. They must have crossed the river somewhere, because they SURE weren't on the north side going around that crook in the river. I can see something like piers in the river about where they would have had to cross to the south side. They look kinda close together, so I'm not sure. Find Dark Horse Tavern and go due Northeast until you hit the river, and they're right there.

On the north side of Webster, I think I can see a dotted line on the topo map on the north side of the quarry rather than south side as you've drawn it. That would make it straight, more on the level, and not going through Mt. Zion Cemetery.

Here's the entire length of it, or such parts as we know about:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/relation/2021550

The SNE crossed the B&A right were I-90 crosses the B&A. One of the abutments still exists next to the eastbound lane. The railroad would have made a U-turn and followed the Quaboag south before turning east again towards Brimfield. There was also a trolley line running from Worcester to Palmer that had some private sections of ROW which is what you may be seeing in the aerial imagery.

B&M 1227 wrote:The SNE crossed the B&A right were I-90 crosses the B&A. One of the abutments still exists next to the eastbound lane. The railroad would have made a U-turn and followed the Quaboag south before turning east again towards Brimfield. There was also a trolley line running from Worcester to Palmer that had some private sections of ROW which is what you may be seeing in the aerial imagery.

Hrm. Have you looked at the Topographic map? 1500' south of there the railbed is at 500' elevation. The only way to land at 500' "next to the eastbound lane" is at the first turn in Millbrook. Even if you do that, you would have to go right back onto a trestle again to cross the Bladgett Mill Brook.

I'm suggesting that it crossed the B&A not "right where I-90 crosses" but about 1000' south of there. Right about where Penny Brook or Haley Road meet the B&A. The west side of the trestle would have been at 480' elevation and the east side at 490'; practically flat.

Are the on the same page (trestle) now?

RussNelson wrote:

B&M 1227 wrote:The SNE crossed the B&A right were I-90 crosses the B&A. One of the abutments still exists next to the eastbound lane. The railroad would have made a U-turn and followed the Quaboag south before turning east again towards Brimfield. There was also a trolley line running from Worcester to Palmer that had some private sections of ROW which is what you may be seeing in the aerial imagery.

Hrm. Have you looked at the Topographic map? 1500' south of there the railbed is at 500' elevation. The only way to land at 500' "next to the eastbound lane" is at the first turn in Millbrook. Even if you do that, you would have to go right back onto a trestle again to cross the Bladgett Mill Brook.

I'm suggesting that it crossed the B&A not "right where I-90 crosses" but about 1000' south of there. Right about where Penny Brook or Haley Road meet the B&A. The west side of the trestle would have been at 480' elevation and the east side at 490'; practically flat.

Are the on the same page (trestle) now?

The crossing was next to where I-90 crosses Rt. 67 and the Quaboag River as well as the CSX tracks. The bridge abutment is still in on the west end. Much of the eastern end of the crossing disappeared during construction of the Mass Pike and the 1955 flood. The cover illustration of "Titanic Railroad" shows a train crossing the never built trestle.

As long as we agree that the railbed stayed on the south side of the Mass Pike, I'm happy.

RussNelson wrote:As long as we agree that the railbed stayed on the south side of the Mass Pike, I'm happy.

Ifyou have a copy of "One Town & Seven Railroads" take a look at the map on page 14. It shows how close the proposed trestle was to the current Mass Pike. You'll be happy by a matter of a few feet.

Great work on this, Russ.
When my wife and I were tracing the track of the June 2011 tornado, we noticed the storm had removed some of the tree and brush that had grown in over the right of way over the years. He had explored the S N E on our own and with a Mass Bay RRE trip a few years back. The tornado ran parallel or over the S N E for a good part of the distance between Brimfield and west of Southbridge.

dcm74 wrote:

RussNelson wrote:As long as we agree that the railbed stayed on the south side of the Mass Pike, I'm happy.

Ifyou have a copy of "One Town & Seven Railroads" take a look at the map on page 14. It shows how close the proposed trestle was to the current Mass Pike. You'll be happy by a matter of a few feet.

I agree. It was extremely close.