In the Forest Hills Station, street-level. outbound (south) departire platform, Johm Stern at left.
Mattapan Station, again,
As I first poxsted, indeed at Forest Hills. Richard Allman informs us that the photos are south of the station, with Hyde Park Avenue the tracks on the left.
South of Revere, north of Oriernt Hei8ghts, thisc trestle carried Bay State Electric Revere Beach - Orient Heights streetcars, then Eastern Massachusetts streetcars extended without stops over Boston Elevated tracks to the East Boston (now Blue Line) Rapid Transit Maverick terminal. In 1936 the Boston Elevated took over, trolley buses on a nearby road in 1952, and they are gone. The narrow-gauge Boston Revere Beach and Lynn had a parallel bridge just east of this, and for some 40 years the Blue Line has a hadf replacement bridge there:
A bit of an improvement of the previous photo, and another Type 5 in the same general area in Revere. The first photo's streetcar has Revere Beach, Express (to) Ocean Heights, thec second Revere Beach via Ocean Hights.
Votes of emailers appear Forest Hills, but hope to get a definitive answer. Mean-while, south of Revere:
Possibly Eggleston, not Forest Hills. Still a qustion.
Two are at Forest Hilla, and one at The Arborway Yard:
Wicki is not always 100% reliable. My best guess is that the eight or ten trailer coaches, with their origanal two BRB&L MCB drop-equalizer-type trucks did go to Oahu; and the the larger fleet of motor cars, with one truck of the two originals repolaced with a two-motor Brill E-77-type leaf-spring truck (and seating capacity reduced by the interior engineer's cabs at each end) were those that were burned and metal salvaged. All were wood, open-platform cars.
MidlandMike In one of the Boston threads we talked about the Boston, Revere Beach, and Lynn narrow gauge trolleys. I just read that some of that passenger equipment wound up on the Oahu Railway in Hawaii during WWII.
In one of the Boston threads we talked about the Boston, Revere Beach, and Lynn narrow gauge trolleys. I just read that some of that passenger equipment wound up on the Oahu Railway in Hawaii during WWII.
I probably need to qualify my earlier post. In the Classic Trains special edition (2019) Trains Go to War in the chapter on the Oahu Ry "... the trucks under some passenger coaches carry the cast iron BRB&L of the old Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn..." I assumed the coaches were from BRB&L, but Wiki says the Boston coaches were burned and the metal salvaged, so maybe it's just the trucks that went to Hawaii.
The 2-4-4T Boston type seems to have been an outgrowth of the 0-4-4T Forney type. For the BRB&L they were built by Alco Manchester and also Mason Machine Works in the form of Mason Bogies. A number of 0-4-4T and 2-4-4T locos were also built for the Maine 2 foot narrow gauge lines.
That railroad wound up being a significant factor in my hobby.
From my web site:
Many years ago, I owned a graphics company in Glendale, California, called Boston Type (I'm from Boston and we provided typesetting services). Since I already had a URL (web address) and a hardly-used web site (which was not train-related) I thought it would be a fast track to get this project rolling. It turned into the perfect inclement weather/pandemic pastime.
It occurred to me to search for the phrase "Boston Type" to see if, by any chance, it had any train-related connection. To my great surprise, Whyte notation (a classification method for steam locomotives) does include a "Boston Type" with a 2-4-4 wheel configuration originally used in England.
Not only that, but it turns out that several 2-4-4s ran (by coincidence more than any other reason I can think of) on a short Boston-area narrow gauge railroad in the early 1900s. And as another bonus to me, the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad eventually became part of Boston's rapid transit system (the Blue Line) that I rode as a kid.
Wow! How cool is that?
www.bostontype.com
Correct. Way back when, an early issue of Trains had an article on this. Perhaps Classic Trains should resurrect it!
The only single track line, with an unusual operating arrangement during rush hours, as told in Bradley Clark's Boston's MTA book.
Thanks for posting all these great Boston trolley pics in your threads.
I grew up in Mattapan during the 50s and 60s, and since my family didn't have a car, I spent quite a bit of time on the trolleys and subways - it was obviously where and why I became a railfan. (Several PCC cars share my layouts with other locomotives.)
Check out my web site for more info.
Pauley
In 1949, lower level, street level, of Forest Hills Station, south terminal of the elevated line above. A Type 5 just out of the Arborway loop, is enterning enroute to Cleary Square. John Stern is to my left:
!950 weekday viewe of City Point Carhouse. Type 5s for lines City Point to South Station, to Dudlry, and rush hours Dudley - Massachusetts Station. Type 4s left for City Point - Morth Station vuia Subway. All-Electric PCCs based here, but all were in-service to North Station asnd to Dudley.
Three lines serving Mattapan in the classic era, all using Type 3s, except that the line from Arborway did use PCCs wben available off-peak hours.
When the Riverside Line, Green Line D, was PCC operated. These photos are obviously on Sunday, since weekday operation always involved 2- and 3-car PCC trains.
Posted by error and duplicated on the Boston PCC thread. Will delete if requested. Apologies.
Corrections made to the previous post. Thank you.
In October. 1950, East Boston's Meridian Avenue Drawbridge was taken out of service for repair. Two streetcar lines that used the bridge, Maverick - Revere Beach via Broadway and Revere Street, and Maverick - Revere Beach via Broadway and Beach Street were rerouted via Central Avenue and its drawbridge, and the short-turn Maverick - Chelsie's Balingham Square discontinued. A substitute service between Maverick and a temporary crossover at the Meridian Avenu Bridge approach ran until all streetcar sercvice ended when theEast Boston Tunnel Line, now the Blue Line, got its first extension to Orient Heights in January, 1952. 5880 is at the bridge approach
daveklepperThe Blue Line Rapid Transit uses the old Boston Revere Beach & Lynn RoW. The former Eastern Mass RoW (Boston El 1936-on, then MTA) and the BRB&L RoW were parallel, but separate.
What appear to be the old trolley tracks in the pavement are visible west of the Suffolk Downs (Blue Line) station.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Suffolk+Downs+Station,+Boston,+MA+02128/@42.3900035,-70.9983515,134m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e36e262211ba47:0x52021ecc07842858!8m2!3d42.3898195!4d-70.9978275?hl=en
In winter, 1952-1953, although not related to my MIT Load-Control thesis, I used my B&M engine pass to ride the Manchester to Portsmouth doodlebug,
MBTA cut service back to Ipswich on the "Eastern" around 1965. The track remained but was out of service to Newburyport. MBTA restored the line to Newburyport a couple of decades ago. The ROW is intact to Portsmouth but is missing some key elements like the drawbridge in Newburyport, so only a couple of miles on the Portsmouth end are active. Portsmouth is serviced now on a remnant of the Manchester & Portsmouth branch from Rockingham Jct. on the Western main line. Nearly moribund a decade ago, traffic has picked up significantly, mostly lumber and propane. The rail-highway bridge across the Piscataqua was replaced several years ago, including a track on the lift span that can be lowered to rairoad level for the passage of rail equipment to the Shipyard in Kittery Maine.
Lynn and Revere are both stops on commuter trains to and from Newberryport and Goucester. Before sometime around 1960, this Boston & Maine line continued to Berwick, NH, where it joined the still existing main line through Haverhill, and some trains to Portland, ME, were routed that way. When I did my load-control research for my MIT SB Thesis, 1952-53, the line was abandoned or out-of-service north of Portsmouth, NH. Today, passenger service is provided only as far north as Newberryport (and the branch to Gloucester), and I don't know if Portsmouth still has freight service.
There hass been some discussion as to whether extension of the Blue rapid transit line should stay entirely on the old BR$B RoW or swing to the west and share n the B&M RoW. The concessis seems that a direct, across-the-platform transfer between the two modes would be a good idea, but where the connectilon between the two RoWs should be located was not decided, last I heard.
I followed the Blue Line on Google Earth. I see they located the Orient Heights Yard where the BRB&L Winthrop Loop branched off the mainline, apparently reusing the former wye. I also read up on the Blue Line in Wiki, and found out that the line uses both 3rd rail and overhead wire. I see the plan is also to eventually continue on to Lynn.
The Blue Line Rapid Transit uses the old Boston Revere Beach & Lynn RoW. The former Eastern Mass RoW (Boston El 1936-on, then MTA) and the BRB&L RoW were parallel, but separate. When the Blue opened just to Orient Heights, all streetcar service out of Maverick station was converted to trackless trolley or bus, including the direct line to Revere using much private RoW north of Orient Heights. The Blue line eventually rerached Revere on the ex-BRB&L RoW..
Do you know of any of those standard gage trolley lines were built on the ROW of the old NG trolley?
It closed before WWII. I started photographing Boston streetcars and trains in 1949.
Did you get to Revere Beach while the narrow gage traction was still running?
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