Boston visited by Jack May

[daveklepper]

 

Breaking COVID's Cabin Fever Boston Part 1

 

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Jack May	)

 

This is the first of an 11-part series about my rail activities from March to May, 2021, which are illustrated with digitally-scanned slides.  At that time I thought by now we'd be back to normal activities, but the Delta variant intervened--and who know what will happen in the future.  As a result travel plans change, but at the moment I still feel reasonably comfortable going outdoors with just social distancing and visiting indoor venues, such as supermarkets and aboard trains, wearing a mask.  Thus I'm continuing to accomplish a certain amount of railfanning activities, and if and when recommended, will get a Moderna booster shot.  The same applies to my wife, except for railfanning.

Feel free to distribute these reports to whomever you think might be interested.  I hope you're interested.  And I always appreciate receiving comments and corrections.

Jack

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Having received my second vaccination in March and seeing the number of coronavirus-caused deaths decrease significantly, both Clare and I began to feel it was time to gradually get back to normal pursuits, like seeing friends and relatives who were likewise inoculated and making forays to struggling restaurants.  For me that also meant getting out of the house with my camera.  I began with some photography in local areas (to be shown in segment 03), but when I saw some good weather forecasts for the Boston area during the second week of March, I decided to embark on a day trip.

I drove some 250 miles to the Malden Center station and had no trouble parking in the unmanned self-service lot a little after 10 in the morning.  Fortuitously, I ended up riding and photographing the new Chinese rapid transit cars on the MBTA Orange Line about a week before they were taken out of service due to a derailment.  It appeared that two trains of these cars were operating on the line.  From a riding viewpoint they didn't feel much different than the Hawker-Siddeley fleet that has been plying the rails of that line since about 1980.  Headways were good, every 5 to 6 minutes, but ridership was sparse.  According to my observations, all passengers, both on platforms and on trains, wore masks.

The photos run from north to south starting at Malden Center.

A three-quarter view of a train of one of the new Chinese designed Orange line trains at the Malden Center station.  These cars were built by CRRC in Springfield, Mass.  The Orange line was extended alongside former Boston and Maine trackage to Oak Grove in 1975 with Malden becoming a transfer station between commuter and rapid transit trains.  The low level platform (from which the photo was taken) serves MBTA commuter trains to Reading and Haverhill.




Above and below:  Contrasting photos of a train of Hawker Siddeley cars (upper) and CRRC cars (lower) entering the Malden Center station from the north after having left the Oak Grove terminal.  These photos were taken from the station's island platform.







Above and below:  The Orange Line's Wellington station has a large park-and-ride lot that is accessed from Revere Beach Parkway, which crosses over the tracks.  This pair of photos also contrasts the old (upper) and new (lower) trains.  The station is actually located in the City of Medford.  The near track carries MBTA commuter trains.



The Assembly station was built in 2014 to serve Assembly Square, a major retail and residential project located on the site of a former Ford assembly plant.  As part of the development of high-rise structures, multi-level parking garages were constructed--some alongside the Orange line tracks.  The site is in Somerville, across the Mystic River from Medford.  The next four photos were taken from different levels of one of the garages.

Above and below:  Two views of the Orange (and commuter) line right-of-way just south of the viaduct that takes the line across the Mystic River.







Above and below:  Another pair of contrasting views of Hawker Siddeley (upper) and CRRC (lower) trains at the same location--this time from two different levels from one of the Assembly Square garages.  Note the four tracks shown in these views.  The three on the nearside are electrified with third rail for the Orange line, while the fourth is used by MBTA commuter trains to Reading and Haverhill.  Both photos feature outbound rapid transit trains.  The electrified track to the right of the trains was built for express service (inbound in the morning rush and outbound in the afternoon) to be used when it was thought that the rapid transit line would be extended to Reading via Melrose and Wakefield and possibly replace the ex-B&M suburban rail service.  This track runs between Wellington and Community College stations (a total of 4 stops) and has become useful as a test track, having been employed extensively by CRRC trains before they were placed into service.  The Mystic River, which curves to the west just beyond the reach of the photos, only to terminate in Mystic Lake in Winchester, is shown on the east side of the right-of-way.  The Malden River feeds into the Mystic at right.







Above and below:  Two photos of Hawker Siddeley trains from Sherman Street (which is easily accessible from the Orange Line's Sullivan Square station) looking toward Assembly station.  Dominating the view is the Assembly Row Somerville branch of the prestigious Massachusetts General Brigham Hospital behind its parking garage.  The third "express" track is clearly visible on the far side of the fence that separates the rapid transit right-of-way from the former Boston & Maine's, whose double-track Rockport/Newburyport lines branch off to the right at that point.

 

A third photo from Sherman Street, showing one of the MBTA's push-pull trains on the Reading/Haverhill line.


A thank you to Tony Fitzherbert for directing me from the Sullivan Square station to Sherman Street for views of the joint Orange Line-commuter train right-of-way.

After I grabbed lunch in Assembly Row, the street-like shopping mall adjacent to MBTA's Assembly station, I rode the T back to Malden Center and then drove to Cleveland Circle to see the new Green line equipment, which is the subject of the upcoming 02-Boston Part 2 segment of this report.

 

 

 

[daveklepper]

 

Day trip to Boston Part 2.

Using the website newtrain.today I found out that several new CAF-built LRVs were running on the Green Line, specifically on the B-Commonwealth Avenue service to Boston College and the C-Beacon Street line to Cleveland Circle.  I saw that if I hurried I could intercept them near the ends of their respective lines, and so I did.  Fortunately,a quick, direct route was available:  Pleasant Street, I-93, Storrow Drive, Market Street and Chestnut Hill Avenue.  I had no problemfinding a parking space along either Beacon Street or Commonwealth Avenue during this mid-afternoon period.  And I was able to get quite a few photos of the new CAF Type 9s (24 units) along with the more common Breda Type 8s (originally 95) and the Kinkisharyo Type 7s (originally 120).

Here are scans of the best slides I took of Boston's streetcars on this day. 

Above and below:  My attempt at "equipment" shots of Boston's newCAF-built Type 9 cars.  The three-quarter and head-on views weretaken at Cleveland Circle, the outer terminal of the Green Line's Route C-Beacon Street.

Beauty and the Beast?  An MBTA CAF-built Type 9 pulls out of the Cleveland Circle terminal of the C-Beacon Street line en route to North Station in Boston, leaving the incoming  Breda-built Type 8 alongside.  Actually, I wouldn't really call the new CAF units beauties, as I feel that the Type 9s are far from the best looking LRVs around, but the Type 8s might well win the prize for being the ugliest.

 
Above and Type 9 on the inbound track at ClevelandCircle next to their predecessors, a Type 8 (upper photo) and a Type 7 (lower photo).

 Above and below:  I don't want to leave the impression that most streetcar service on this sunny afternoon was provided by the new CAF Type 9s, running singly.  The norm was two-car trains of a low-floor Type 8 coupled to a high-floor Type 7.  This is done so there is at least one car on each train that is handicapped accessible.   The upper view features one of the Kinkisharyo 7s at the rear of an inbound B-Commonwealth Avenue train just after it left the Lake Street (Boston College) terminal of the line.  The lower photo highlights a Breda 8 at the front of a two-car Beacon Street train passing Chestnut Street just short of the Cleveland Circle terminal of the C-Beacon Street line.

 

Above and below:  Two last photos of the new Green Line CAF Type 9s.  Both are running as single units, but they are capable of mating with one of their sisters in order to operate in two-car low-floor lashups.  The Type 9s do not MU with the others, but in the long run that should not have an effect on their flexibility, as it said that eventually, once Type 10s are built (they are being designed), the CAF Type 9s will be moved to the Mattapan-Ashmont line.  Yes, the days of the PCC car in Boston are numbered, butright now the integer is at least in the thousands.  The upper photo shows an inbound car passing Englewood Avenue on the C-Beacon Street line, while the lower view shows an inbound unit about to cross South Street on the B-Commonwealth Avenue line.  Note that the destination sign was not changed to show Park Street.

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I believe the Kinkisharyo Type 7s are the most aesthetically pleasant of the Green line's current fleet.  If you include all of Boston's post-PCC cars, I'd have to rate the Boeings as the best looking.  Alas, far from being successful in terms of operations, they (and their San Francisco counterparts) can only be seen at a few trolley museums nowadays.  But, more importantly, we can still ride Beantown's PCCs.

Ashmont - Mattapan,   Central Avenue, Milton (2017):

[daveklepper]

Apologies.  I spent a good half-day editing, and now find that the second installment has returned almost to the state of dissaray that it was when I started.  How this happened puzzles me greatly, but I will attempt another editing job tomorrow.

[daveklepper]

The confusion has been overcome, with the right captions for the right photos and in the order Jack intended.

The next two installments of this saga concern Philadelphia-area, and Northern New Jersey, and a new thread seems proper for them.

"Shortly will appear"

[daveklepper]

Of interest to those interested in Boston public transit:

 

The Boston Elevated Railway Promotes its Services in 1926

 

http://www.masshist.org › beehiveblog › 2014/07 › use-th...