Framingham And Lowell Railroad
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The Framingham and Lowell Railroad was a railroad in
Middlesex County, Massachusetts Middlesex County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,632,002, making it the most populous county in both Massachusetts and New England and the 22nd most populou ...
. It was incorporated in 1870 to provide a rail connection between the growing railroad hub of
Framingham Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The city proper covers with a popula ...
and the important mill city of Lowell, passing through the towns of
Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario ** Sudbury (federal electoral district) ** Sudbury (provincial electoral district) ** Sudbury Airport ** Sudbury Basin, a meteorite impact cra ...
,
Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other words Arts and media * ''Concord'' (video game), a defunct 2024 first-person sh ...
, Acton,
Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...
, Westford and
Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...
. 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 The Agricultural Branch Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts. It was incorporated by the Massachusetts General Court, Legislature of Massachusetts on April 26, 1847, to provide a rail connection between Framingham, Massachusetts, Framingham ...
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 The Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg and New Bedford Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts. It was formed on June 1, 1876, when the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Railroad merged with the New Bedford Railroad. The Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Rail ...
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 The Old Colony Railroad (OC) was a major railroad system, mainly covering southeastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island, which operated from 1845 to 1893. Old Colony trains ran from Boston to points such as Plymouth, Fall River, ...
, who had previously acquired the Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg and New Bedford Railroad in 1883. The Old Colony Railroad constructed a second track between Concord Junction and Acton Junction in 1891. In 1893, the Old Colony Railroad was leased to the
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated principally in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to 1968. Founded by the merger of ...
. From 1871, passenger service regularly consisted of three round trips a day over the entire route, one morning, one midday and one evening. In 1917 the midday round trip was dropped for additional wartime freight needs; it was never restored. In 1932 service was cut in half, leaving a southbound trip and a northbound trip between Framingham and Lowell. All regular passenger service ended in 1933, 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 The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Railroad classes, class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals, the Pennsylvania Railroad, ...
. On December 31, 1968, all of its properties were purchased by Penn Central. Penn Central, however, soon went bankrupt, and on April 1, 1976, it was taken over by
Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busine ...
. However, ownership of the former Framingham and Lowell Railroad line was not passed to Conrail, save for a small portion from South Sudbury to Framingham Center, which was named the South Sudbury Industrial Track in 1982; ownership of the line from South Sudbury to Lowell passed to the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, who contracted with Conrail to provide service. During the 1980s the tracks stretching from South Sudbury to Concord Junction were abandoned, and service was contracted to the
Bay Colony Railroad The Bay Colony Railroad was a shortline railroad (STB Class III) operating in Massachusetts. Formerly operating along most of the south coast region (including all lines on Cape Cod), Bay Colony's final operations ceased in late 2023, when the ...
to supply the North Acton-based lumber yards from West Concord. The present owner, CSX Transportation, took over part of the Conrail system in 1999, including one of the only remaining active portions of the Framingham and Lowell Railroad which was the South Sudbury Industrial Track (South Sudbury to Framingham Center, a 4.8 mile segment of the Lowell Secondary between the Central Mass right of way in Sudbury and the active Fitchburg Secondary in Framingham. 1.4 miles of the South Sudbury Industrial Track are in the town of Sudbury and 3.4 miles are in the town of Framingham). Service on the line ended on April 13, 2000, when the last CSX train on the South Sudbury Industrial Track derailed off a West spur which led to a lumber yard in Sudbury; this spur is located immediately South of the junction with the East West Central Mass Branch right of way (the Boston & Maine Railroad was issued a permanent discontinuance of the Central Mass Branch Rail Line in 1980). In June 2001, CSX applied to the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) for approval to abandon the line. In October 2001 the STB approved the abandonment, although the town of Sudbury filed notice with the STB to request that abandonment be postponed in order to allow negotiations with CSX for acquisition of the line as a rail trail. In August 2004, CSX had removed the rails and ties, leaving bridges in place in the event a path were built. By late 2005, all of the grade crossings had been removed by the
Massachusetts Highway Department The Massachusetts Highway Department (abbreviated MassHighway) was the highway department in the U.S. state of Massachusetts from 1991 until the formation of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) in 2009. The responsibilities ...
. In December 2020, the town of Sudbury reached a railbanking agreement with CSX. In December 2023, the town of Framingham reached a replacement railbanking agreement with the Georgetown and High Line Railway Company, which had previously reached a railbanking agreement with CSX. Today, the line has become the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail from Lowell to South Sudbury, and the trail conversion of the South Sudbury Industrial Track is in design.


Station and junction listing


References

{{Reflist


External links

*Video of a fan trip on a portion of the line in Concord and Acton can be seen ere: http://www.vimeo.com/4662274
Interactive map of the Framingham and Lowell Railroad.
Defunct Massachusetts railroads Old Colony Railroad lines