Eastern Railroad Discussion > Boston

Taking a family trip to Boston in a couple weeks and I am hoping to get in a little railfanning. Can anyone recommend a couple locations to photograph MBTA and Amtrak or anything else that might be worth photographing? Thanks in advance.

Mike

Are you going to have access to an automobile? Are you going to have blocks of free time to chase trains, or just an hour or two here or there? Because these two things will affect the recommendations you get, particularly for freight. Boston is very much a dead end when it comes to freight traffic.

Ayer, MA or Worcester, MA would be a couple of good choices.....but like patch said....depends on time. Both of those locations are an hour out of Boston.

I will have a car and was hoping to photograph a morning or afternoon rush hour.

On which? Passenger or freight?

Freight, Worcester is the best bet.
Passenger, I would say Readville station is the best for MBTA/Amtrak traffic...

CR


mraia Wrote:
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> I will have a car and was hoping to photograph a
> morning or afternoon rush hour.

mraia Wrote:
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> I will have a car and was hoping to photograph a
> morning or afternoon rush hour.

For that, I'd suggest going to Readville or Route 128 stations in the afternoon. Readville will get you more trains, but the Amtraks will be going through at speed. Route 128 is easy to find, right off Boston's main beltway, and most (if not all) the Amtrak trains stop. If you're lucky, a CSX local might show up; Readville Yard is not too far from the station but I don't recall what can be seen of it from public property there.

Readville would be a very good choice...And you can view the freight yard from the Dorchester branch station or go down Sprague st and take a left on MacDonald St.... Down the end of that street you can see the CSX yard office.....

Steve



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/11 09:03 by bluesboyst.

Try Canton Junction where the Stoughton Branch joins the Northeast Corridor. Its a little further than Rt 128 and right off I-95. Attractive station. For dinner, Pizzaria Regina in the old Alliston Depot in Brighton is good for just train watching. Get a seat trackside. If you get there around 5 pm, you'll be able to see rush hour commuter rail traffic and a switcher working the west end of Beacon Park Yard. The nearby overpass is great for taking pictures of westbounds in the afternoon.

Tom Coughlin
Stow, MA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/11 17:26 by tomcough.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,2466128

Where are you staying. That makes a difference. Rush hour for commuter trains means rush hour for traffic too. If you take I-95 (locals and traffic refer to it at 128) south of the Mass Pike (I-90) it could take you 45 minutes from that location to get to 128 station in rush hour.

If you don't want to go too far and want to drive take the Mass pike west to exit 13 (Natick/Framingham), after you go through the tolls bear right and about at the 4th light bear left on to rt 126. You will have local traffic for about 2 miles but will cross a set of tracks where you turn right. There are some parking lots around the train station area. If you get there between 11 am and noon you will get some Amtrak, MBTA and some freight action and see some yard switching done by some old GP40-2's and may catch a couple of intermodal trains eastbound as well as a light engine move. The only problem at the station is that you will not see q437 leave. You might hear him talk on radio and get permission to head west of the signal at CP23. If you hear that get in your car head west on rt 135 to Ashland, (the next town). At the second set of lights in Ashland (at the Dairy Queen on your left), turn right to get trackside. You might be able to get a place to park at the old train station which is now a doctor's office and watch him come through.

Now if you want you can take a train out to Worcester. Depending on what time it is, you can catch a train at Framingham or Ashland (to get to Ashland station leave the old station cross the tracks and take the left at the light after the town hall. The station is about a mile up on the left hand side before the road takes a hard right and crosses a small concrete bridge.

At Worcester you have a chance to catch CSX, P&W and some Pan Am action as well as MBTA. But it is all hit or miss with Thursday and Friday's being the better days. Or you can get on at South Station or Back Bay in Boston and take the train to Worcester west.

One other recommendation is from South Station in Boston take the MBTA to Canton and get off. CHeck the Acelea schedule before you go. The Acela goes through Canton at its highest speed along the whole Northeast Corridor, between 135 and 150 mph.

I hope that helps.
AJ

ajy6b Wrote:
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> At Worcester you have a chance to catch CSX, P&W
> and some Pan Am action as well as MBTA. But it is
> all hit or miss with Thursday and Friday's being
> the better days. Or you can get on at South
> Station or Back Bay in Boston and take the train
> to Worcester west.

What and when does Pan Am/Guilford run into Worcester proper? If they come down even as far as Barbers that would be a news flash to me. I feel fortunate to have once caught AY-3 running down to Norton Abrasives 20 years ago, and it would be tough for anyone who had ridden the commuter train into Worcester to get up there in a timely manner.

toledopatch Wrote:
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> ajy6b Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > At Worcester you have a chance to catch CSX,
> P&W
> > and some Pan Am action as well as MBTA. But it
> is
> > all hit or miss with Thursday and Friday's
> being
> > the better days. Or you can get on at South
> > Station or Back Bay in Boston and take the
> train
> > to Worcester west.
>
> What and when does Pan Am/Guilford run into
> Worcester proper? If they come down even as far as
> Barbers that would be a news flash to me. I feel
> fortunate to have once caught AY-3 running down to
> Norton Abrasives 20 years ago, and it would be
> tough for anyone who had ridden the commuter train
> into Worcester to get up there in a timely manner.


I admit it has been a few years, but on rare occassions I have seen Guilford (Pan Am) units run down to Worcester dropping off for CSX coming down from Ayer. It is very rare, but I have seen them come down to Barbers. You are right it would be tough to get up there from the station. Blame it on a flashback to the Conrail days when Guilford had to burn off borrowed horsepower, so you would see them on that line, bringing NESE and LASE down.

Anyway, Worcester would be a good area to watch trains with the CSX and P&W action, plus MBTA.

aj

Does Boston get any kind of freight action at all, or completely devoid of it?

SantaFeRuss

SantaFeRuss Wrote:
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> Does Boston get any kind of freight action at all,
> or completely devoid of it?

There is no through freight in Boston whatsoever. The biggest game in town is CSX, which operates the former Conrail trackage with yards at Beacon Park (ex-B&A) and Readville (ex-NH). They've been under pressure for years to move out of Beacon Park (Allston, Mass.) so that the valuable real estate there can be redeveloped, though I suppose that has calmed down during the economic depression of the last three years. But in any case, it's not exactly high-volume railroading. I don't know exactly how many freight trains CSX runs in and out of there, but toward the end of Conrail it was three trailer trains in each direction plus a manifest each way and a few locals, including the produce job to East Boston/Chelsea. The eastbound TOFCs came in during the morning/midday and the westbounds left evening or overnight. Readville got a road freight (or big transfer from Framingham) every day and originated several locals to various points, as did Middleboro for the surviving New Bedford/Fall River/Bay Colony traffic. Guilford/PAR runs a nighttime sand train to Boston Sand & Gravel, just over the river from North Station, but that doesn't run daily any more, and they have very few other surviving accounts in metro Boston -- no major terminals or road freights at all. And that's it, unless you want to go hunting for the Bay Colony in southeast Massachusetts or the Providence & Worcester to the west.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/11 16:02 by toledopatch.

Hi, Concerning a trip to Boston I wouldn't overlook the area around Assembly Sq Somerville. the Draw 7 Park by the Mystic River is bordered by the Haverhill and Rockport MBTA Commuter lines with great photo and train watching along with the Orange Line. the Rockport line crosses Mystic River at this point and also has freight to the Produce Center and scrap yards in Chelsea and Everett, ( late afternoon , early evening seems to be best time to catch freight action) across the river is Wellington Station with Orange Line Yards including an enclosed walkway over the Orange Line storage yards as well as Commuter Rail and Orange Line tracks
hope this helps a bit Ed