Boston & Maine Railroad 99-Car Freight at Waltham MA 5/30/1928

I recently treated myself to an Ebay item... an original glass negative of a freight in Waltham Massachusetts.  The caption reads "3009  B&M  May 30, 1928  99 CARS   Waltham Mass".  

I wondered why a photographer would make a special note of the "99 cars", and tried finding newspaper accounts via the Boston Public Library e-resources.  

On May 19th a special train for then president Calvin Coolidge was run on the B&M to Andover MA.  The president spoke at Phillips Academy for their 150th anniversary.  But that event was 11 days before the "99 car train" ran.

On June 5th the B&M had a celebration to open the new hump yards at Somerville, complete with a "parade of boxcars" to demonstrate the system to over 1,000 guests.  Were those 99 cars "props" en route for that event?  

Was 99 even a lot of fright cars on one train for that era?

AND did railroads close down for Memorial Day Weekend in the 1920s?  Was this train run to get freight moved before the holiday?  

Well, in 1928, Memorial Day was also called Decoration Day, and it was celebrated on May 30th, not the last Monday in May like today.  That means the train in the photo ran ON Memorial Day!  Perhaps the photographer just plain had a day off from work and went trackside?

Unless the train was mentioned in an employee magazine, we may never know just what caused the photographer to document that particular train.  

Now, what about the location of the photo?  It seems to me if the train is on the Fitchburg mainline, then  the old Central Massachusetts line is at right.  That means the train is somewhere west of Waverley in the Clematis Brook area and traveling "eastbound" toward Boston.  

There also appears to be an overhead road bridge in the background, with some semaphore signals just visible.  That could be the Linden Street bridge BUT it should be off to the right of the Fitchburg main, so that may possibly just be a signal bridge.

A period track chart would come in useful... 

The easiest info to find is the locomotive type:  2-10-2 "Santa Fe" Alco S1-a, built in 1920.

Am I delving too much into this photograph?  YOU BET!  But HEY, it keeps me off the mean streets!

Name That Photo Location: 1947 Ayer MA Boston & Maine Photo Location FOUND!

The Photo.

In December of 2017, I posted a photograph dated 2/28/47 of a B&M train somewhere in Ayer Massachusetts.  Last week, I accidentally figured out exactly what that building was, and after some online research, where it was as well!

I was doing some organizing of my digital
railroad photo files, then noticed an Ayer postcard that seemed very familiar.  It showed a NYNH&HRR boxcar on a siding.  All of a sudden, a lightbulb went off in my head.

"That looks like the building in the background of that Ayer photo I have!"

Postcard view of the Chandler Machine building

I can now say for sure my photo was taken next to the Chandler Machine Company, whose address was listed as simply "West St, Ayer MA".  They manufactured industrial sewing and stitching machines.  The business was founded in 1899 and closed in September 2002.  The building appears to have been torn down some time between 2003 and 2005, replaced by (as usual) some condos.

Knowing this, the rail siding in the photo was off of the Worcester & Nashua line, which is now a paved rail trail north of Ayer Center.

Newspaper articles in 2002 stated that Chandler's closing was due to the proliferation of cheaper machinery being sold by countries like China.  This is a story repeated over and over in America.

Name That Photo Location: Boston & Maine Wreck at Lynn MA

I have managed to figure out the location of another vintage B&M photograph in my collection, and am sharing my findings with YOU!

The image shows B&M locomotive #827 on its side, with B&M crane #3359 hooked up to a baggage car.  The area has multiple tracks and a signal, which helped confirm the location of Lynn Massachusetts, just west of the West Lynn station.   (The Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn RR also had a West Lynn station)

The only real lead I had to go by was the sign in the distance atop a commercial building.  It appeared to read "Hoag & Wald_n", which I assumed was "Walden" or "Waldon".  After much web searching, I found a reference to a shoe manufacturer in Lynn named "Hoag & Walden". 

I then started looking at old maps and aerial photos to see if I could find the building in the middle-background, as it had an easy-to-spot roof style.  I finally found the exact building, which in 1916 belonged to Fred M. Page & Company, "manufacturers of cotton and paper specialties"and was located on 29 Bennett Street.  Amazingly, this building was still standing as of 2014, though partially re-sided and in tatty condition.  There was also a building to its left that may possibly be the one in the photo with a water tower on the roof.   If so, it has been altered quite a bit.

As for the key Hoag & Walden building, it was located on Commercial Street in an area that appears to now be a playing field. 

Now that I had located the location of the photo, I needed to figure out the date it was taken.  I used an online newspaper archive to search for Lynn train accidents that made the news.  I knew that locomotive #827 had been scrapped in 1913.  I used that date, along with the style of automobiles in the photo, to narrow down my search.  I finally found a short article in the March 29, 1910 issue of The Lowell Sun newspaper which said that just before noon, the "Portland express... Train 44" derailed while traveling on the Eastern Division toward Boston.  The train consisted of "a couple of baggage cars, a Pullman, and three regular coaches, the latter being in the rear".  The passenger cars being in the rear explains the baggage car being present behind the locomotive. 

The train was not scheduled to stop at West Lynn, and left the track "a hundred yards beyond that station", followed by all but two coaches.  The article states that an open switch had caused the accident, which also confirms the photo's location, as even today there is a track that curves off the main.  This is the now abandoned Saugus Branch. 

No one died in the accident.

POSTCARD VIEW: Maine Central Depot, Waterville ME

Maine Central Depot, Waterville ME.  This station was located on College Ave.

Vintage View: Belmont MA Boston & Maine Station