Framingham and Lowell Railroad

The Framingham and Lowell Railroad was a railroad in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. It was incorporated in 1870 to provide a rail connection between the growing railroad hub of Framingham and the important mill city of Lowell, passing through the towns of Sudbury, Concord, Acton, Carlisle, Westford and Chelmsford. The 26.1 mile line opened on October 1, 1871.

On April 1, 1872 the line was leased to the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Railroad for twenty years. On June 1, 1876, the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Railroad merged with the New Bedford Railroad, forming the Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg and New Bedford Railroad and subsequently extending the lease of the Framingham and Lowell Railroad to 998 years from October 1, 1879. On September 10, 1881, the Framingham and Lowell Railroad was deeded on execution sale to the Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg and New Bedford Railroad, and one month later, on October 5, 1881, it was renamed as the Lowell and Framingham Railroad Company.

On February 27, 1886, the line was consolidated with the Old Colony Railroad, who had previously acquired the Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg and New Bedford Railroad in 1883.[1] In 1893, the Old Colony Railroad was leased to the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.[2] Regular passenger traffic on the line ceased in the mid-1930s, although the New Haven Railroad ran northbound ski trains along it through the 1950s.

By the 1960s, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, like many railroads, was struggling to stay solvent in the face of increased competition from alternate modes of transportation, and so in 1961 it petitioned to be included in the newly-formed Penn Central Transportation Company. On December 31, 1968 all of its properties were purchased by Penn Central.[3] Penn Central, however, soon went bankrupt, and on April 1, 1976 it was taken over by Conrail. However, ownership of the former Framingham and Lowell Railroad line was not passed to Conrail, save for a small portion in Framingham; instead, ownership of the line passed to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, who contracted with Conrail to provide service.[4] During the 1980s the tracks stretching from Framingham to Concord Junction were abandoned, and service was contracted to the Bay Colony Railroad to supply the North Acton-based lumber yards from West Concord. Service on the line stopped altogether in the early 1990s. By late 2005, all of the grade crossings had been removed by the Massachusetts Highway Department. Today, the line is in various stages of being converted into the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners, Feb 15, 1911, page 427
  2. ↑ Massachusetts. Joint Commission on the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company, ed. (1911). Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners, the Tax Commissioner and the Bank Commissioner, sitting as a commission, relative to the assets and liabilities of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company, Feb. 15, 1911. Boston, Mass.: Wright & Potter Printing Co. p. 326. LCCN 12033447. OCLC 20532802. Retrieved 2013-01-28.
  3. ↑ Drury, George H. (1994). The Historical Guide to North American Railroads: Histories, Figures, and Features of more than 160 Railroads Abandoned or Merged since 1930. Waukesha, Wisconsin: Kalmbach Publishing. pp. 222–229, 248. ISBN 0-89024-072-8
  4. ↑ "A Brief History of Conrail". Consolidated Rail Corporation. 2003.
  5. ↑ brucefreemanrailtrail.org

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