New Haven Timetables for the Taunton area, 1940's-1960's

Any of you fine N.Y.N.H. & H. fans out there have copies of timetables for freight operations in and around Taunton between the years of 1940-1968? I am not interested in owning any, just would like to do a little research......

Give me a little time and I'll enter list all Taunton freights from Arranged Freight Service Symbol Book No. 14 (Oct. 26, 1962) - the oldest one I have.

Won't find anything mentioning freight train schedules in any Time Tables, since all freights were Extra trains. A Time Table, however, will mention industries, engine restrictions, etc.

SYMBOL FREIGHTS

CF-1, Except Sunday, Framingham to Fall River

Station Time Tonnage Rating Connects From
Framingham L 12.45am DERS-3 1900 JC-1, Extra
Attleboro A 2.40am
Attleboro L 3.10am
Taunton A 3.40am
Taunton L 4.40am DERS-3 1700 NU-2, KN-1, Extra
Fall River A 5.55am

NOTE: Runs around train at Attleboro

Service Objective: Provides advertised service from Lowell, B&M, and from Framingham and B&A to Fall River, Taunton, New Bedford, and points beyond. Should not be annulled without permission.


FC-2, Except Saturday, Fall River to Framingham

Station Time Tonnage Rating Connects From
Fall River L 7.30pm DERS-3 1800
Taunton A 8.25am
Taunton L 9.10am DERS-3 1600 NK-2, Extra
Attleboro A 9.45am
Attleboro L 10.10am
Walpole A 10.35am
Walpole L 10.50am DERS-3 1800
Framingham A 11.25am

NOTE: Runs around train at Attleboro
NOTE A: Sundays only leaves Fall River 4.30pm and makes side trip Taunton to New Bedford and return protecting meat off NK-2 for New Bedford and Watuppa.


KN-1, Except Saturday, South Braintree to Brockton, Providence and Cedar Hill

Station Time Tonnage Rating Connects From
South Braintree L 10.15pm DER-2 2500 Extra
Brockton A 10.25pm
Brockton L 10.55pm
Middleboro A 11.40pm
Middleboro L 12.10am Extra
Taunton A 12.40am
Taunton L 1.10am DER-2 2200 Extra
Attleboro By 1.40am
Northrup Ave. A 2.10am
Northrup Ave. L 3.10am DER-2 2200
Kingston By 4.10am
Groton A 4.55am
Groton L 5.25am DER-2 2700 Note A, C
Branford By 6.25am
S.L. Jct. By 6.45am
Cedar Hill A 6.55am

NOTE A: Handles Cedar Hill cars from New London when MN-1 is not operating.
NOTE C: To place empty hopper cars at Pine Orchard and move them from that point to Cedar Hill.

Service Objective: Provides advertised service from Southern Old Colony Points to Providence, New London and Cedar Hill. Should not be annulled without permission.


NK-2, Except Saturday, Cedar Hill to Providence, Brockton and South Braintree

Station Time Tonnage Rating Connects From
Cedar Hill L 6.30am DER-2 2500 GB-4, OB-4, & prior trains.
S.L Jct. By 6.40am Note C, I & J
Branford By 6.55am
Old Saybrook A 7.10am
Old Saybrook L 7.40am
New London A 8.00am
New London L 8.30am DER-2 3500 Note E
Groton By 8.40am
Kingston By 9.30am
Davisville A 9.45am
Davisville L 10.15 am
Cranston By 10.35am
Northrup Ave. A 11.00am
Northrup Ave. L 11.30am DER-2 2400 Note H
Attleboro L 12.05pm
Taunton A 12.30pm FC-1, CF-2, Extras.
Taunton L 1.00pm
Middleboro A 1.20pm
Middleboro L 1.55pm
Brockton A 2.40pm
South Braintree A 3.20pm

NOTE A: Sundays only, leaves Cedar Hill 10.30am and operates 4’00” (four hours) later than shown above.
NOTE C: Cars of meat for New Bedford and Watuppa arriving Cedar Hill on Saturdays up to and including OB-2 are to be moved in Taunton block of NK-2 Saturdays.
NOTE I: Triple loads and 25 mph cars to move on NK-2,

Service Objective: Provides advertised service to Cape Points, Middleboro, Brockton, South Braintree and diverging. Should not be annulled without permission.


NU-2, Except Saturday, Cedar Hill to New Bedford

Station Time Tonnage Rating Connects From
Cedar Hill L 10.00pm DERS 4-5-6 2500 GB-8, GB-4, OB-2, HN-4 & prior
S.L. Jct. By 10.10pm
Branford By 10.25pm
Groton By 11.30pm
Kingston By 12.20am
Cranston A 12.50am
Cranston L 1.25am DERS 4-5-6 2400
Northrup Ave. By 1.45am
Attleboro By 2.30am
Taunton A 3.00am
Taunton L 3.45am DERS 4-5-6 1800 Extras
New Bedford A 4.30am

Service Objective: Provides advertised service from Cedar Hill and all western connections to Taunton, Fall River and from all points to New Bedford. Should not be annulled without permission.


UN-1, Except Sunday, New Bedford to Cedar Hill

Station Time Tonnage Rating Connects From
New Bedford L 8.00pm DERS 4-5-6 1700 Extras
Taunton A 8.45pm
Taunton L 9.45pm DERS 4-5-6 3000 Extras
Attleboro By 10.05pm
Northrup Ave. A 10.25pm
Northrup Ave. L 12.15am DERS 4-5-6 2200
Kingston By 1.20am
Groton A 2.20am
Groton L 2.50am DERS 4-5-6 2700 Note A
Old Saybrook By 3.50am
Branford By 4.10am
S.L. Jct. By 4.50am
Cedar Hill A 5.00am

NOTE A: To place empty hopper cars at Pine Orchard and move loads from that point to Cedar Hill.

Service Objective: Provides advertised service from New Bedford , Fall River and Taunton to all points. Should not be annulled without permission.


BOSTON DIVISION LOCAL SERVICE

BX-2, New Bedford-Watuppa and Return, except Sunday

Leave New Bedford 9.30am. Operates to North Dartmouth, Westport, Factory, Union Siding and Watuppa. On return, switches at Flint Village, Kerr Mill and picks up at North Dartmough as necessary. Makes two trips. Thence operates to Taunton and return doing station work enroute. Mondays only leaves New Bedford at 4.35am connecting from NU-2.

BX-3, Taunton-Fall River-Canton Jct.-Dighton and return, except Sunday

Leave Taunton 9.45am. Operates to Newport and return, Canton Jct. (Springdale) and return, Mansfield (So. Main St.) and return, Barrowsville, Attleboro and return, Dighton and return, Middleboro and return, doing station work enroute.

BX-18, Taunton-Woods Hole and return, except Sunday

Leave Taunton 7.00am. Operates to Camp Edwards and Woods Hole, Marion Pit, and return doing station work enroute. Drops cars at Buzzards Bay for stations Buzzards Bay and Lower Cape. Makes two (2) trips to Camp Edwards.

Being an ex-Sergeant myself (I have noticed your posts on the NHRHTA forum).

Although I have no doubt you have copied everything down for me - - do you have anything that mentions Weir Jct./the Dean Street Branch/Ventura Grain?

Many thanks,

Sergeant Special K

“Although I have no doubt you have copied everything down for me - - do you have anything that mentions Weir Jct./the Dean Street Branch/Ventura Grain?”

From Time Table No. 13 dated October 29, 1961, the follow entries mention Weir Junction and/or Dean Street Branch/Ventura Grain:

TIME TABLE ENTRIES:

WEIR JCT. AND DIGHTON (“Dighton Branch”)

0.00 Weir Junction
0.37 Weir Village
2.48 North Dighton
5.43 Dighton

MANSFIELD (South Main Street) AND NEW BEDFORD (“New Bedford Branch”)

0.00 Mansfield (block station)
4.43 Norton
7.97 Standish
9.31 Whittenton Jct. (block station)
10.61 Taunton
11.59 Weir Jct.
13.23 Cotley Jct. (block station)
16.89 Myricks (block station)
21.90 East Freetown
24.11 Braleys
28.20 Acushnet
29.19 Nash Road
30.83 New Bedford (block station)

GENERAL SPEED RESTRICTIONS:

Derricks D100, D101 and D102…must not be operated between…Weir Jct. and Dean Street

RESTRICTIONS FOR PARTICULAR ROUTES:
(First speed limit is for passenger trains, second is for freight trains, work trains and light engines)

LOWELL - NEW BEDFORD:

Lowell - Mansfield: 40 mph / 40 mph
Mansfield - Cotley Jct.: 45 mph / 45 mph
Cotley Jct. - New Bedford: 35 mph / 35 mph
Weir Jct. - Dighton: 20 mph / 20 mph

RULE 1710, ENGINE AND CAR RESTRICTIONS:

NEW BEDFORD AND FRAMINGHAM:

Weir Jct. - Western Auto: Engines Permitted: DERS-4, all DEY

WEIR JCT. AND DIGHTON:

Weir Village - Gas Co.: Engines Permitted: All DERS, all DEY

RULE 1713, PUBLIC CROSSINGS AT GRADE
STOP AND PROTECT PER FULES 897 AND 898

WEIR JCT. - Dean Street (Dean Street Branch).
WEIR JCT. AND DIGHTON - All public crossings.

No additional special instructions noticed for Weir Jct./Dean Street/Ventura Grain.

No mention at all of Ventura Grain.

The entire territory was Manual Block Signal Rules.

Thank you, kind sir!

Might you or another poster have any information on freight operations around Taunton from 1965 until 1982? I'm especially interested in anything relating to Weir Junction-Dighton (later Weir Junction-Weir Village) and Whittenton Junction. I'm very interested in basically any information regarding Whittenton Junction where the line goes NE from the main line... you can still follow that grade accurately for quite a ways.

I'm also curious if it's possible to track down any information regarding sidings, layover track, and industrial spurs along the route from Cranes to New Bedford, the route from New Bedford west to Watuppa, everything that was still left of the Dighton & Somerset, and Cranes to Mansfield. I'm actually a bit doubtful that this information is actually available to begin with, but after many futile attempts as searching for it, I figure I'd throw it out there and see if anyone could help with any or all of those routes. Basically what I'm looking for are the names of the businesses served, locations of said businesses, how often they were served, etc. Just junk like that, like I said, I don't expect anyone to actually know any of this stuff, just throwing it out there and hoping to get lucky.

Thanks!

Somewhere on this forum (I think) we went about listing railroad sidings for the area. Maybe it was the Bay Colony group on Yahoo...At any rate:

I can only speak from 1970-ish on:

Cotely Jct - 50 car passing siding between the junction of the New
Bedford/Middleboro mains and Hart Street. On the Middleboro main,
there were at least three sidings between Cotely and the Rt 140
crossing. One is still left. Over on the New Bedford mainline, just
south of the junction is the spur to the former Rand-Whitney plant.
It's still active, but it goes by the name of Quebcor (sp?).

Heading south there are no sidings until Padelford Road in Berkley -
better known as Myricks. This siding was built in the 1980's to serve
an Agway Mixing plant. Siding still in, but Agway is gone and the current
occupent doesn't use rail.

Myricks - Junction with the Fall River and New Bedford mainline. Used
to have a Team Track here in recent times, but inactive. Historical
note is there used to be a full wye here, plus the long forgotten line
to Middleboro came in here just north of the Rt 79 crossing.

There are no sidings between Myricks and East Freetown, although
there used to be a spur at Howland (Lakeville) a long long time ago.

East Freetown - One siding left and is very active. Millis Industries
developed a scrap auto facility here and has been shipped out crushed
cars weekly. Note: During the 80's, some fly ash used to be loaded
here. Also reefers were either loaded or unloaded at the former shed.

New Bedford Industrial Park between Braley Road and Rt 140: A very
sad situation here. Two sidings, neither one used in decades. The first
one used to get covered hoppers. The second one got chemicals and
had two spurs with an unloading rack. Vinyl Choride did come in here
during the 80's. Historical Note: The New Bedford Water Works RR
(1897-1946) interchanged with the NH at Braley Road (northeast side
of the crossing). NBWWRR was 4 miles long. Some rail went to Edaville.

New Bedford/Tarklin Hill Rd (King's Highway) or Acushnet Station
- In the 60's the team track got a variety of cars including clay for
JI Paulding, poles/high wide transformers for the electric company,
and covered hoppers for Lambert Rope. Another siding was a spur to
Lassow & Cohen's Scrap yard. Only the team track exists and has
been out of service since 90's.
-Heading south there used to be a spur into Grossman's, a spur for
Kalisz (lumber), then the big customer in NB - Chamberlain. They had
siding connecting at both ends to the mainline plus an inside spur.
The south end of the spur off the main at Nash Rd crossed another
spur on a diamond. This went into the massive GSA warehouse.
Nash Road-North leg of wye for the Watuppa Branch
Spur which served up to three known customers. Included a switchback.
Customers were Nabisco, Flory Milling, Luzo Foods. (all gone)
Deane Street (start of the elevated viaduct) - south leg of the Watuppa
Branch, Alden Corrugated Box (off the mainline - in use, just a platform
left).
Between Deane St and Sawyer/Coggeshal St was a long siding for
Standard Foods, Dawson Beer, Ryan & Scully and New Bedford Storage.
There was a crossover back to the mainline at Sawyer St. (ALL gone)
New Bedford Yard
-north end prior to crossing RT18 was a spur to National Wholesale
(long gone)
-Numerous customers in and around the yard: Revere Copper, Gilman
Liquors, Quaker Oats, Maritime Terminal, Adams Air Freight, New
Bedford Standard-Times, My Break, Gold Medal Bakery, Advance Cup,
Cornell Dubilier, National Wholesale, others.
NB Yard to end of track (long out of service)
- Massive New Bedford Storage warehouse w/inside spur (long gone).
- Swift Meats (long gone)
- Edison Gas / Electric company.
- New Bedford State Pier (No more access)

Dave

West from Deane St/Nash Road in New Bedford
-north leg of the wye (there was one siding off here, long gone)
-south leg of the wye to Mt. Pleasant St:
-Nauset Coal (long, long gone, in the weeds still!)
-Sturnyevant & Hook (disconnected)
-Nauset Warehouse (disconnected)
-Stanely Oil (long gone, disconnected)
-Continental Screw (long gone, disconnected)
Shawmut Avenue
-Agway, Home Gas, AW Martin Scrap (all disconnected ex-Agway,
which closed and moved to Berkley).
-New Bedford Incinerator (long gone, disconnected)
North Dartmouth / Faunce Corner Road
- Farm Bureau (Built 73-74, disconnected)
- Reynolds Gas (disconnected)
North Dartmouth / Hixville Road
-passing siding (active)
-Pyrofax (lpg) (long gone, disconnected)
North Dartmouth / Old and new Reed Roads
-Colonial Beverage (Built 73-74, moved to JJ Taylor site, not used by
new tenent Harvey Windows.
-JJ Taylor (bought out by Colonial) Very active
-Dartmouth Building Supply (uses JJT platform)
Westport Factory (Dartmouth/Westport line)
-long abandoned spur still here, not connected
Westport / Hemlock-Davis Rd
- Mid-City Scrap (and current end of the line - very active)
Westport / The Narrows Rt 6
- JJ Taylor (original site, long gone now Hampton Inn)
- Chace Grain
- Kerr Mill
- also short 6 car passing siding along the Narrows
Fall River / Flint Village
-spur into large mill (Best Wiping Cloth?)
-Frito Lay (moved to CT on P&W...Thanks PC)
-Watuppa Yard - various customers including Mason Furniture,
Building Supply Co., etc.

Dave

That response was both helpful and timely and I appreciate it. I am very curious about one of the two existing sidings (the one that isn't disconnected) at the New Bedford Industrial Park. The two I refer to are between Braley Road and Barnet Boulevard.

The main track approaches both sidings in a southerly fashion. They are within a few hundred feet of each other where they connect to the main track. One heads east and clearly goes through part of the park to serve businesses and is no longer connected to the main track (although I seem to remember it still being connected to the main track when I passed it in 2003). The other is maybe 500 feet to the north and heads southwest from the main track, to which it is still connected (despite being in much worse condition than the other siding). This is the one that interests me. It interests me because it's surrounded by woods and doesn't come within 1000 feet of any existing businesses in the park. I also don't see any old foundations or anything to indicate there were buildings near this siding at any point. This siding splits into two parellel tracks soonafter splitting from the main track. Some short segments of track are missing, all of the ties are still in place. I have many pictures of this siding (I have a few of the other as well).

I should point out that there is power corridor that runs close to where the sidings end, maybe 75-100 feet south of where the stoppers on the tracks are. Now, this power corridor does feel a little bit like a dirt access road, in fact, it is paved for a short while, despite there not being any buildings near it. I have pictures of this as well.

If you know want to discuss this further, you can feel free to PM me. If you are interested in seeing those pictures, let me know and I'll upload them somewhere.

Does anyone know of any of the sidings in Taunton, either on the existing line or on the old Dighton & Somerset? I have quite a few pictures of these tracks as well.

The double siding here is the former Tallyrand Chemical siding. Vinyl chloride. There might have been another chemical company there before or after Tallyrand.

The other siding only served one customer. If you drive into the Park
at the original entrance, it would be the building in front of you, slightly to the right when you come to the T intersection. I think it was called Decotone, but I can't remember anymore. At any rate, they got covered hoppers and an occasional boxcar.

The industrial park was never exploited for rail all through the NH-PC-CR days. Even with all the expansion over the last decade, nobody became
a rail customer.

Dave