The history of rail in Dedham, Massachusetts begins with the introduction of the first rail line in 1836 and runs to the present day. Multiple railroads have serviced Dedham since then, and current service is provided by the MBTA. The station in Dedham Square built in 1881 out of Dedham Granite was demolished in 1951 and the stones were used to put an addition on the Town's library. There are two active stations today, and multiple others in close proximity.
Dedham Branch service to Dedham Square
History When Norfolk County was formed in 1793, Dedham was named as the shire town, and "an influx of lawyers, politicians, and people on county business forced the town to abandon its traditional insularity and its habitual distrust of newcomers." Turnpikes, including those linking Boston and Providence and Dedham and Hartford, were laid through town during the first few years of the 19th century. Inns and taverns sprung up along the new roads as more than 600 coaches would pass through Dedham each day on their way to Boston or Providence.
Within a few decades of the turnpikes' arrival, railroad beds were laid through Dedham. The railroad was at first "considered dangerous. It was new fangled. People didn't trust it, so they wouldn't ride it. Only a very few brave souls in those opening years" ever boarded one. This fear was short lived, however, as the first rail line came in 1836, and, by 1842, locomotives had put the stagecoach lines out of business.
The first commuter rail service in the Boston area opened in 1839 as a branch connecting Dedham station to the main Boston-Providence line at Readville. It consisted of a single coach that connected to the main line train and made stops at Stone Haven, East Dedham, and Oakdale stations. All stations on this line would eventually close on April 21, 1967.
Boston and Providence Railroad The Boston and Providence Railroad was chartered in 1831, following several years of inquiries and route surveys. The original route had it going through Dedham, but, when construction began, residents were dismayed to see it laid out through nearby Canton instead. It was soon discovered that the only two members of the board of directors who lived in New England were from Canton.
The two head engineers for the project, George Washington Whistler and William Gibbs McNeil, were living in Fisher Ames' old home at the time. Residents approached them and asked them to act as intermediaries with the railroad. Though the directors were not pleased, they did come to a compromise, in that, if Dedham could supply the land for the tracks, the railroad would lay them. A collection was taken, and, within three days, the proponents had enough money to buy the land that had not simply been donated free of charge.
Construction began very shortly thereafter. The railroad experienced minor difficulties in laying the track. There were about 250 feet of ledge behind what is today Dedham High School, and a swamp near present-day Cecil Place. When workers arrived at the swamp one morning, they discovered that all the grading work they had previously done was ruined when the wall holding back Pliny Bingham's swamp gave way overnight and submerged the railbed. The land was filled in, the track was laid, and the project was complete by the first week of December in 1834.
The opening of the line was marked by the English locomotive Whistler drawing a carload of VIPs to Dedham. When it reached a hill at Dedham's Low Plain, however, the engine could not make it up the grade. As a result, the entire car of people was forced to disembark and walk the rest of the way to Bride's Tavern.
For the first year of operation, horses dragged the cars along the tracks to Readville, at which point the cars were hitched to trains en route to Boston from Providence. The pony-drawn engines, which were attached to the tenders, were named the Dedhamand the Roxbury. In 1837, steam locomotives replaced the carriages. Dedham station burned down in 1837, destroying a great deal of rolling stock in the process, and necessitating a temporary return to horses. A second fire occurred in 1849, leaving only the walls standing, and the station was patched up with boards for temporary use until a new station could be constructed to the south.
There were two trains regularly in use on the branch, the Norfolk and the Suffolk. The branch would also occasionally be serviced by the Tiot or the King Phillip. The engines serving the Dedham Branch were made by G.S. Griggs and the Norfolk County engines by Taunton Locomotive Works. The trains were powered by burning wood that was sawed by horsepower in a building adjoining the Dedham station. The smoke was so thick and profuse that it spread throughout the vicinity. Trains would announce their impending arrival by blowing a long horn blast as they crossed over Mother Brook.
In 1881, the Boston and Providence Railroad built a station in Dedham Square out of Dedham Granite. The station served more than 60 trains a day in its heyday, but it was demolished in 1951 and the stones were used to build the main branch of the Dedham Public Library. In 1886, the railroad built a new bridge over High Street, and placed a granite plaque there to commemorate both the new bridge and the 250th anniversary of the town's incorporation. The plaque was removed sometime thereafter, and ended up in the woods near railroad tracks in Sharon. It has since been returned to Dedham.
The Dedham and West Roxbury Branches The Boston and Providence Railroad (B&P) had opened from downtown Boston to south of Readville on June 4, 1834, and to Canton on September 12 of that year, but initially had no branch lines. It did, however, provide stagecoach connections for Dedham Center, starting on July 28, 1834. Direct train service between Boston and Dedham Center began on February 5, 1835, with the opening of the first railroad branch line service from Readville to Dedham Center.
For the first several years of the Dedham Branch's existence, service to Dedham changed often between "Dedham Specials" (through trains from Boston to Dedham and vice versa, using the Boston and Providence main line and the Dedham Branch between Readville and Dedham) and horse-drawn cars cut out of mainline trains at Readville. Dedham Specials became permanent in June 1842, giving Dedham Center reliable direct train service to Boston, and making it possible, for the first time, to commute by train for those living in the areas served by the northern portion of the Boston and Providence Railroad.
This pattern of service persisted for the next eight years, until the West Roxbury Branch from Tollgate to Dedham via West Roxbury opened in June 1850. After this point, commuter service to Dedham ran via West Roxbury rather than Readville, although trains continued to run on the old Dedham Branch on non-commuter schedules. Commuter service to Dedham via Readville resumed in 1858, but was always lighter than commuter service via West Roxbury for as long as the latter service continued to operate. Some of these trains were horse-drawn shuttle cars to East Dedham rather than through Boston trains, and these were not entirely replaced with through Boston trains until 1875.
The Norfolk County / New York and New England Railroad
The Walpole Railroad was chartered on April 16, 1846, to build a railroad from Dedham to Walpole, but construction had not yet started when it was absorbed by the Norfolk County Railroad in July 1847. The Norfolk County, which had been chartered just three months prior to build from Walpole to Blackstone station, began passenger service between Dedham and Walpole in April 1849. Through Boston-Blackstone service via Dedham was instituted the next month.
In December 1853, the Norfolk County merged with two other railroads to form the Boston and New York Central Railroad (B&NYC). One of the two other railroads had been the Midland Railroad, chartered in May 1850 to build a new Boston entrance for the Norfolk County, branching off the original route at West Dedham. This new route opened at the beginning of 1855, replacing the original, but ran for only six and a half months before it was shut down by court order following a lawsuit against the B&NYC concerning the new route's grade crossings in Dorchester.
Service along the original route from Dedham to Blackstone resumed on August 6, 1855, and ran until March 1857, when the entire B&NYC route from Boston to Mechanicsville, Connecticut reopened for a year under lease to the East Thompson Railroad. After the East Thompson shut down in March 1858, service from Dedham to Blackstone (as well as to Medway via the Medway Branch) resumed, being operated by trustees for the old Norfolk County. It was the only service along any of the former B&NYC lines until February 1867, when the entire B&NYC route was reopened by the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad (BH&E; the successor to the B&NYC).
From 1867 onwards, the track from Dedham to Islington was little used by the BH&E or its successor, the New York and New England Railroad (NY&NE), and was torn up in 1883. In 1881, the NY&NE opened a new Dedham route, branching off the NY&NE mainline at Dedham Junction in southern Dedham and running north to Dedham station. This route was unable to compete with the B&P's Dedham and West Roxbury branches, and service ended in 1884. It reopened in 1888 due to technicalities in the NY&NE's charter, but closed again in 1899. The original Norfolk County Dedham route, running between Dedham and Islington, was rebuilt by the NY&NE in 1890 to provide a Boston entry for the Old Colony Railroad's Wrentham Branch (the NY&NE rebuilt the line to prevent the Old Colony from seizing its right-of-way). Wrentham Branch trains were rerouted along the NY&NE mainline from Islington to Readville in 1899; an intermittently-operating shuttle between Dedham and Islington was run until 1904, using a self-propelled steam railcar. After this point, the two ex-NY&NE Dedham lines saw only freight service.
Late 19th and early 20th centuries The Old Colony Railroad leased the B&P in April 1888, and was itself leased to the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (NYNH&H or New Haven) in March 1893, while the NY&NE (which became the New England Railroad in September 1895) was leased to the NYNH&H in July 1898 and merged into the NYNH&H in 1908. Dedham service reached an all-time peak around the turn of the 20th century, as was the case with the entire Boston-area commuter rail system. In July 1898, Dedham was served by 36 inbound passenger trains each weekday (two-thirds of which ran via West Roxbury), including six Wrentham Branch trains, and Dedham service via Readville increased in 1901 to an all-time maximum of 17 inbound trains per weekday.
The 1906 opening of the Needham Cutoff, connecting the West Roxbury Branch to the ex-NY&NE Needham Branch, was to have a detrimental effect on Dedham service. Although Needham trains using the West Roxbury Branch did not initially make any stops on the branch (sometimes with the exception of West Roxbury itself), they began to serve local stops between West Roxbury and Forest Hills in 1912, forcing reductions in West Roxbury-Dedham service. During World War I, passenger service on all U.S. railroads was cut drastically to free up rolling stock and schedule time for military use, and the NYNH&H was no exception. The original Dedham Branch was one of the hardest-hit lines, being reduced to just ten inbound weekday trains.
Ashcroft station was destroyed by arson on June 29, 1937. Previously, in 1905, arsonists had set it ablaze twice in two weeks.