Where were you on April 30, 1987?

Ok everyone, if nobody was aware, today was the 17th anniversary of the last trip of the Washington Street EL. I personally miss it, and I'm sure the rest of you all miss it too. However, I found this interesting link to the OL above Washington Street.

http://main.wgbh.org/ton/programs/5071_clip.html

And another one.

http://www.romaband.com/trains/ol/ol.html

Enjoy and have fun!

well, i can tell you where i was, 2 months and 2 days from being born, however i sure wish i hadnt missed the washington street el, i would have liked to at least ride it once.

Lets see, I would have been 3 at the time....and living in NY...so I can only dream. And after seeing The French Connection I really wish I had ridden it!

I was 9 at the time. I used to take the old el all the time into downtown, especially between the time that the Arborway line was closed, which I also remember riding, and I remember boarding the 32 bus in Arborway Yard before it moved to the new Forest Hills.

Boy, I thought for sure I would get some flack when I read this question..... I thought for sure I would be one of the youngest to reply.

I was in grammar school then....11 years old.

I really loved the el compared to the new orange line, no view on the new one, and too many large groups of kids congregating in the stations.

CSX Conductor wrote:Boy, I thought for sure I would get some flack when I read this question..... I thought for sure I would be one of the youngest to reply.

I was in grammar school then....11 years old.

I really loved the el compared to the new orange line, no view on the new one, and too many large groups of kids congregating in the stations.

Wow, CSX Conductour, guess what? I was 11 too. We're now 28! At the time though I was in Germantown MD (outside Washington DC). I came here 46 days after the EL closed.

I was riding the line back and forth for much of the night. It was crowded!

You'll probably see me doing the same thing on the Green Line el on June 18.

I was 15 and living in downeast Maine at the time, but I had family down here and visited often. My first foray on the Orange Line took place about seven months later - just a little too late!

Gotta love the way the cars tilted to the side as they manuevered the sharp curves at Dudley, especially at the south end.


The views were awesome along the whole line. Plus we used to be able to watch out the front window of the old 1100's and also the 12's and 13's before they install the ATO boxes.

I'm 54, and I rode the Charlestown and Washington St. "el" many times in the late 1950's and 60's. My favorite part was looking out the door window at the very front of the swiftly moving train. I loved the "el", and I think its loss is a major one. The routing of its replacement line, both in Charlestown and Roxbury, was poorly placed away from the population centers it was supposed to serve.

I've said this before on this forum, so I hope I don't sound like a broken record, but there could be new opportunities for constructing a few new, modern elevated lines in the MBTA area. A few that immediately come to mind are:

- The portion of the proposed Urban Ring along the Grand Junction railroad in Cambridge could be elevated above the railroad.
- The Silver line along Washington Street could be an elevated Green line route, beginning at the abandoned Tremont tunnel and ending at Dudley Sq.
- The Green Line along Commonwealth Ave between the Kenmore portal and the Junction with Brighton Ave. could be elevated.

The new "els" could be built of two parallel trapezoidal box beams mounted on single concrete columns, which would be a pleasing and sleek structure, adding excitement and vitality to the urban scene, while providing fast and economical transit.

While I think that EL's could still be useful, I think building a new one on Washington St wouldn't go over too well. That and with the Green Line routes all they really need is some timed traffic signals.

As for the Southwest Corridor, I was told that it did serve more people, but it does bypass a dense section of the city.

Can't build an el over the Grand Junction line in Cambridge anymore - MIT has a new building going up that bridges the tracks. They purposely left room for a double tracked surface line of some sort there, but no extra headroom above.

> Where were you on April 30, 1987?

Well, folks, I guess I was in the worst possible position at that time. In my sophomore college year, I knew for sure that immediately after the end of the semester I would be drafted, unless I break a hand or so. Which I did not.

Knowing that I would go to the army, I was nevertheless riding subway, trolleybuses, streetcars, etc. - in a country that does not exist anymore. And I had no idea about the Washington street El. You never know what would happen to you in 17 years...

About the grand junction area. Did anyone see the reports related to the urban ring? The urban ring is supposed to go through this section of Cambridge. People fear, that since its starting as BRT, they will build the busways obviously which are paved to accomodate vehicular traffic. The big fear is that with a little expansion, did anyone care to notice the route this follows? In other words, people fear that this is going end up becoming not a rail line, but Interstate 695, 30 years late.

Elevating a light rail Urban Ring line over the Grand Junction railroad could still be done, even with the MIT building. The line could ramp down to surface level at the MIT building, then up again, and also ramp down at other locations where the Grand Junction ROW is wide enough to accomodate the two tracks of light rail, while still leaving room for the railroad. The line would really only have to be elevated at street crossings. The elevated line route could either go through East Cambridge on the Grand Junction, elevated over the Cambridge St. crossing, or instead leave the Grand Junction RR at Binney Steet, following it to Land Blvd., then above Land Blvd. up to Lechmere Sta.

Such a route would also allow one or more of the Green lines (B, C, or D) to use this Urban Ring route through Cambridge, and then enter downtown via the Lechmere viaduct and Science Park. This would relieve congestion in the mainline tunnel of the Green line in the Back Bay and downtown.

I would also propose for the Urban Ring a light rail bridge over the Charles River, parallel to and on the east side of the BU bridge. There is enough horizontal clearance between the BU bridge and the nearest BU building to allow an elevated light rail line there. The light rail bridge would basically be at the same elevation as the BU bridge, so the visual impact would be minimal. The elevated line could then pass over the Comm Ave/BU bridge intersection and parallel the Mass Pike for a little ways towards the Fenway area. It would be a lot cheaper than tunneling under the Charles River.

Bus-only lanes for the Urban Ring are a terrible idea. Light rail, located on elevated sections in congested areas and where ROW is available, would provide rapid transit unavailable from a bus system, plus give flexibility in routing the Green line.