Maps of proposed but never built lines in Massachusetts

I ran into collection of documents in the State Library database from the Mass. Railroad Commission from the 19th Century. There are quite a number of maps of existing and more interestingly, proposed lines never built. I have read snippets about some of these routes before but had not previously found maps of them on the net.

The collection

Some goodies from Western Mass...


Continuation of the New Haven & Northampton Williamsburg branch to North Adams

Poughkeepsie, Hartford and Boston R.R. to Chicopee

Alternate Central Mass alignment south of the Mt Holyoke range, skipping Amherst

Continuation of the Chicopee Falls branch to Belchertown

1874 Map including the route of the never completed Lee & New Haven

I've read that a goodly part of the Lee and New Haven ROW was actually constructed, and can be located if one knows where it is.
I'm not aware that bridge abutments or culverts were built, but at least a grade was laid out.

jlaliberte-
Thanks for giving me a surplus of excuses -- make that reasons -- for not doing any yard work for a long time to come!

Definitely do the field work. I've found MANY partially-constructed railroads in New York State. It's very exciting when you can find some fill ... some blast holes ... some untouched ledge ... some blast holes ... and more fill on the other side where they continued to build at the same time they were blasting away the ledge. Or, as in Tupper Lake, a line of rushes in the water where the railbed is underwater because they raised the level of the lake but closer to the surface than the surrounding bottom.

http://russnelson.com/unfinished-railroads.html

Really interesting maps! Many decades ago I designed a model railroad (never built) that ran from Williamsburgh to Cummington where I had cousins, who had to pick up their cattle feed at "Burgy." For the first time I see someone else had planned this but in the real world!

trainsinmaine wrote:I've read that a goodly part of the Lee and New Haven ROW was actually constructed, and can be located if one knows where it is.
I'm not aware that bridge abutments or culverts were built, but at least a grade was laid out.

A few years back my wife and I explored possible routes that this line could have been built on. It was perfect exploring weather - leaves down and a hint of snow to highlight man-made gradings. With our imaginations turned on full blast, we believe we did see some of the partial grading that was said to have been built. Look for dirt roads that appear to be a bit more level and straight than regular dirt roads need to be - that's how we found what we did - there's not a great amount to see that we ever discovered however.

What was the name of the uncompleted RR that left the bridge abutments crossing over the old P&W in Blackstone Mass?
I recollect reading that the RR promoter went down with the Titanic, taking the construction dreams down with him.

Southern New England Railway. There's a damn good book about it somewhere.

The EGE wrote:Southern New England Railway. There's a damn good book about it somewhere.

The book is "Titanic Railroad" by Larry Lowenthal. He can be contacted and the book ordered at: [email protected]

I take it you mean these abutments!

Taken of the SNE bridge abutments over the Blackstone River in Blackstone & Millville.

Yup! That would be they.
I've been out to the x3-Xing a few times, but not recently. I've followed the SNE almost entirely on GE.
I also did my own field study on the thing this past year and a half or so, mostly in Mass, between Palmer and Douglas. It's amazing what you find out there in the woods!

I think I've mapped a bit of the SNER here: http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/149842926

Not quite. Looks like ROW and in the right area, but the SNE parallels the NY&NE at that location.

Here is my map of the lines radiating from Providence. I've traced most of the SNE from Palmer to Woonsocket.

Cool! Do I have your permission to put that mapping into OpenStreetMap? If the data shows up there, and you have an Android smartphone, then the Andnav program will let you go somewhere, bring up the data, and see exactly where the abandoned railroads was while you're standing on it.

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!