The Grand Junction Railroad was an 8.55-mile (13.76 km) long railroad in the Boston, Massachusetts area, connecting the railroads heading west and north from Boston. Most of it is still used by the MBTA to transfer Commuter Rail trains between the lines terminating at North and South Stations. This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ... For other uses of Boston, see Boston (disambiguation) Boston is the capital and largest city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. ... The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) is a quasi-governmental organization formed in 1964 that controls the subway, bus, commuter rail, and ferry systems in the Boston, Massachusetts area. ... The MBTA Commuter Rail is the regional rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. ... Platforms at North Station North Station, located at Causeway and Nashua Streets, in Boston, Massachusetts is a major transportation hub. ... South Station, located at Atlantic Avenue and Summer Street, in Boston, Massachusetts is a major intermodal transportation hub. ...

History

The railroad (full name Grand Junction Railroad and Depot Company) was chartered April 24, 1847 to connect the railroads entering Boston from the north and west with its wharves in East Boston. This was a rechartering of the Chelsea Branch Railroad, incorporated April 10, 1846. A charter is a document bestowing certain rights on a town, city, university or institution; sometimes used as a loan of money. ... April 24 is the 114th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (115th in leap years). ... 1847 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... A wharf (plural wharfs, or (especially in American English) wharves, collectively wharfing or wharfage) is a fixed platform, commonly on pilings, roughly parallel to and alongside navigable water, where ships are loaded and unloaded. ... East Boston is a gritty blue-collar neighborhood that is separated from the rest of the city of Boston by Boston Harbor and bordered by Winthrop, Revere, and the Chelsea Creek. ... April 10 is the 100th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (101st in leap years). ... 1846 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

The first section to open was from East Boston to the Boston and Maine Railroad in Somerville, opened in 1849. It began at a huge waterfront yard complex on Boston Harbor, occupying the space east of the Eastern Railroad terminal and west of the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad terminal. The line headed north with two tracks (minimum) just east of the Eastern Railroad's line, crossing at-grade and splitting to the west just south of Curtis Street, with a crossover track between the two lines south of the crossing (allowing Eastern Railroad trains from their terminal to use the Grand Junction). In 1905, the Grand Junction Railroad in East Boston was rebuilt into a below-grade two-track line, and the Eastern Railroad line was truncated to just north of the split. 1898 map The Boston and Maine Railroad (AAR reporting mark BM), also known by the abbreviation B&M, was the dominant railroad of the northern New England region of the United States for a century. ... Seal of the city Somerville is a city located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, just north of Boston. ... 1849 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Chicago and Northwestern Railways Proviso Yard in Chicago, Illinois, December 1942. ... Categories: Stub | Massachusetts geography | Boston ... 2-4-4 Mason Bogie locomotive #6 as built in 1886. ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

Next the Grand Junction crossed Chelsea Creek into Chelsea. It passed north of downtown Chelsea and through outlying areas of Everett before crossing the Mystic River into Somerville and running along the east side of the Boston and Maine Railroad's main line towards Boston. It soon crossed the border into Charlestown, part of Boston. Just south of Cambridge Street, the Grand Junction junctioned with and crossed the B&M. After crossing the B&M, the extension immediately crossed the Mystic River Branch of the Boston and Lowell Railroad, just before crossing back into Somerville. In Cambridge it crossed under the old B&L mainline (with track connections) and merged with the Fitchburg Railroad. A quiet afternoon on the Mystic River, as seen from very close to Grandfathers House, Medford, Massachusetts. ... Seal of the city Somerville is a city located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, just north of Boston. ... 1898 map The Boston and Maine Railroad (AAR reporting mark BM), also known by the abbreviation B&M, was the dominant railroad of the northern New England region of the United States for a century. ... Birdseye view of Boston, Charlestown, Massachusetts and Bunker Hill between 1890 and 1910. ... The Lowell Line running from Boston, Massachusetts to Lowell, Massachusetts, originally the Boston and Lowell Railroad, is the oldest continually operated passenger train line in the western hemisphere. ... Seal of the city Somerville is a city located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, just north of Boston. ... The Fitchburg Railroad (AAR reporting mark FBRG) was a railroad across northern Massachusetts, USA, leading to and through the Hoosac Tunnel. ...

In March 1852 the line was leased to the Eastern Railroad between the B&M in Somerville and Salem Turnpike in Chelsea. The Eastern Railroad, then ending in East Boston, used the line for downtown Boston access, building a cutoff in 1854 from their main line to the Grand Junction in Chelsea, and building a new line splitting from the Grand Junction just west of the B&M and B&L Mystic River Branch crossing and running just west of the B&M into downtown. The Saugus Branch Railroad, bought by the Eastern April 30, 1852, was realigned in 1855 at its south end to feed into the Grand Junction rather than the B&M. March is the third month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1852 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1854 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... April 30 is the 120th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (121st in leap years), with 245 days remaining, as the last day in April. ... 1852 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1855 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

The rest of the line was built in 1856, connecting to the Boston and Worcester Railroad in Allston, now part of Boston. Instead of merging with the Fitchburg Railroad, it continued west along its north side for a bit (passing under the Boston and Lowell Railroad's new alignment) before turning south, crossing the Fitchburg Railroad at-grade onto its own alignment through Cambridge. A track connection was provided with the Fitchburg Railroad, connecting the East Boston-bound Grand Junction to the Fitchburg-bound Fitchburg. 1856 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... The Boston and Albany Railroad (AAR reporting mark BA) was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York, later becoming part of the New York Central Railroad system. ... Allston is a diverse neighborhood in the city of Boston, Massachusetts with a population which includes Boston natives, students from neighboring Boston University, Boston College, MIT and Harvard and various ethnic groups such as Chinese, Vietnamese, Brazilian, and Irish. ... The Lowell Line running from Boston, Massachusetts to Lowell, Massachusetts, originally the Boston and Lowell Railroad, is the oldest continually operated passenger train line in the western hemisphere. ... Harvard Square, May 2000 Cambridge is a city in the Greater Boston area in Massachusetts, United States. ...

After running through Cambridge along what was once the shore of the Charles River, and is now a rough border between MIT's main campus and the rest of Cambridge, the line crossed the river diagonally on a bridge under the Essex Street Bridge (now the Boston University Bridge) and merged with the Boston and Worcester Railroad (later the Boston and Albany Railroad). Charles River in Cambridge The Charles River is a small, relatively short Massachusetts river that separates Boston from Cambridge and Charlestown. ... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, is a research and educational institution located in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. MIT is a world leader in science and technology, as well as in many other fields, including management, economics, linguistics, political science, and philosophy. ... The Boston University Bridge, originally the Cottage Farm Bridge, is a bridge over the Charles River connecting Boston to Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... The Boston and Albany Railroad (AAR reporting mark BA) was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York, later becoming part of the New York Central Railroad system. ... The Boston and Albany Railroad ( AAR reporting mark BA) was a railroad connecting Boston, Massachusetts to Albany, New York. ...

The Boston and Albany bought the line in 1866, and it passed with the B&A into larger companies - the New York Central Railroad, Penn Central and Conrail. The section between the wyes in Everett and East Boston was taken out of service around 1972. 1866 is a common year starting on Monday. ... 1918 map The New York Central Railroad (AAR reporting mark NYC), known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the North-Eastern United States. ... The Penn Central Transportation Company, normally called Penn Central, was an American railroad company, headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and formed by the merger on February 1, 1968 of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad; the New Haven was added to the merger at the insistence of the... Conrail 6114, a GE Dash 8-40CW, leads a train westbound out of Altoona, Pennsylvania. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ...

A small footnote is the Union Railroad, which was incorporated May 10, 1848 for the same purpose, and was authorized to merge with the Grand Junction February 25, 1854. May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (131st in leap years). ... 1848 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... February 25 is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1854 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

Current status

The line is now owned by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, except for the East Boston section, which Guilford Rail System uses (since reconnected to the old Eastern Railroad East Boston line). The section of the line formerly used by the Eastern through Somerville, Everett and Chelsea is now used by the MBTA's Newburyport/Rockport Lines, and the line west of there is used by the MBTA to bring Commuter Rail trains between the two halves of its system, in lieu of a North-South Rail Link. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) is a a body politic and corporate, and a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts [1] formed in 1964 to finance and operate most bus, subway, commuter rail and ferry systems in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, USA area. ... Guilford Rail System (GRS) is a regional freight railroad covering northern New England from Calais, Maine to Albany, New York. ... The MBTA Commuter Rail is the regional rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. ... The North-South Rail Link is a plan for a passenger railroad tunnel in Boston, Massachusetts to connect South Station to North Station. ...

At the street crossings in Cambridge, no crossing gates are present, and trains have to come to a complete stop while a flagman walks out in front to ensure all is clear. Harvard Square, May 2000 Cambridge is a city in the Greater Boston area in Massachusetts, United States. ...

Plans have been made to run passenger rail on the line (which has never had passenger service, except on the Eastern Railroad section), or to convert it for bus rapid transit as part of the Urban Ring project. Silver Line in Boston Bus rapid transit (BRT) is a broad term given to a variety of different transportation systems which attempt to use buses to provide a quality service through a set of various improvements to the bus line. ...

References

• Railroad History Database
• Various Sanborn maps
• Ronald Dale Karr, The Rail Lines of Southern New England: A Handbook of Railroad History, ISBN 0942147022