by theseaandalifesaver
What exactly is left of the ROW that extends to Lynn from Wonderland. I grew up fairly close to there and I can pretty much only follow it until Kelly's then it seems to vanish completely.
Railroad Forums
Moderators: sery2831, CRail
madcrow wrote:What are the compartive population densities of the two routes? I would think that the old BRB&L route would serve more people directly, whereas a conversion of the CR to rapid transit service (though Salem, at least) would be, more of a Park and Ride type operation.The old route (which is still clear because it's been MTA/MBTA owned ever since they built the '54 BL extension) hits a lot more people. As an intermediate stop Point of Pines would serve a very densely populated neighborhood that the CR route does not. The intermediate stop on the CR route would most likely be Riverworks (which is a part-time--at best--CR flag stop for factory employees)...and that would have very limited appeal except as a light-use commuting stop that's totally dead at night, possible park-and-ride, and something/anything to stick halfway between. Unquestionably the ridership is higher if the intermediate stop is Point of Pines on the BRB&L routing, and it would allow them to consolidate 5 traffic-clogging bus routes that traverse Lynn and Wonderland along Route 1A and through the would-be PoP stop into a more manageable number. That ROW also would be straighter and operationally easier than whatever sharp and awkward curve they'd have to do to cut from Wonderland to the CR ROW; it looks like there's some open space on Google Maps that wouldn't involve tunneling, but the more you avoid tunneling the sharper and slower those curves get. Ultimately, though, this hinges on the cost of that Saugus River crossing. The Lynn terminus ridership and bus connections outweigh any intermediate stop ridership many times over, so if they simply can't afford the bridge on the BRB&L then paralleling the CR is the only way it'll get built. And after 50+ years of this vaporware extension persisting as a priority build at this point building the damn thing at all trumps niceties like a heavy-use intermediate stop.
Adams_Umass_Boston wrote:In 1995 when I was 15, I think that was the year, I walked the row from Wonderland right up to the old bridge. The only obstructions were a few neighborhood fences. In a few places the Row was paved over for access to driveways and to parking lots. I think the big apartment complex is actually not on the row. Its just very close to it. But this was 15 years ago. Below is what the site looks like today.Whats this bridge thing over the river? It looks like a rail bridge that was broken in the middle for clearance reasons
Row Map
I think that section was always tight, hence why this was a Narrow Gage railroad. Does this sound right? The one thing I have never been too clear on was where in Point of Pines the cross over was achieved. It looks like the highway department has drastically changed the landscape over there.
One of the Areas that has been taken today is a small U-turn section on North Shore Road.
U-turn
This is where I saw old rails that must have been dug up and discarded there.
jamesinclair wrote:One of them looks like a wooden pier, but on the other side it does indeed look like the steel skeleton of an old RR bridge. Possible half of that is a remnant of the original bridge and half is a pier built on the footprint of a demolished half of the bridge.Adams_Umass_Boston wrote:In 1995 when I was 15, I think that was the year, I walked the row from Wonderland right up to the old bridge. The only obstructions were a few neighborhood fences. In a few places the Row was paved over for access to driveways and to parking lots. I think the big apartment complex is actually not on the row. Its just very close to it. But this was 15 years ago. Below is what the site looks like today.Whats this bridge thing over the river? It looks like a rail bridge that was broken in the middle for clearance reasons
Row Map
I think that section was always tight, hence why this was a Narrow Gage railroad. Does this sound right? The one thing I have never been too clear on was where in Point of Pines the cross over was achieved. It looks like the highway department has drastically changed the landscape over there.
One of the Areas that has been taken today is a small U-turn section on North Shore Road.
U-turn
This is where I saw old rails that must have been dug up and discarded there.
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v ... &encType=1
It seems to be a natural extension of the ROW