The Central Massachusetts Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts. The eastern terminus of the line was at North Cambridge Junction where it split off from the Middlesex Central Branch of the Boston and Lowell Railroad in North Cambridge and through which it had access to North Station in Boston. From there, the route ran 98.77 miles west through the modern-day towns of Belmont, Waltham, Weston, Wayland, Sudbury, Hudson, Bolton, Berlin, Clinton, West Boylston, Holden, Rutland, Oakham, Barre, New Braintree, Hardwick, Ware, Palmer, Belchertown, Amherst, and Hadley to its western terminal junction at N. O. Tower in Northampton with the Connecticut River Railroad.
History
Inception (1868–1883) In the late 1860s citizens in the towns of Sudbury, Wayland, and Weston petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts to build a railroad through their towns. On February 21, 1868, the state chartered the Wayland and Sudbury Branch Railroad to run 6.75 miles from Mill Village in Sudbury through Wayland to a connection with the Fitchburg Railroad at Stony Brook in Weston. Later that year another group of citizens submitted a petition requesting that the new railroad extend further west to Northampton. On May 10, 1869, the General Court chartered the Massachusetts Central Railroad and united it with the Wayland and Sudbury Branch.
The Massachusetts Central Railroad was organized on September 2, 1869, with James M. Stone of Charlestown elected as its first president. Construction began the following fall despite difficulty in raising capital. The company hired contractor Norman Munson to build the railroad in April 1871. By the summer of 1872 it was reported that work was being done at 30 places from Weston to Northampton. But the Panic of 1873 forced Munson into bankruptcy and halted construction. The railroad stagnated until June 5, 1878, when new president Silas Seymour called a stockholders meeting. The stockholders elected a new Board of Directors which appointed George S. Boutwell president in 1879 and rehired Munson to resume construction.
That same year, the Massachusetts General Court amended the railroad's charter to allow for several new expansions. The most significant was an extension east through Waltham and Belmont, which eliminated the connection with the Fitchburg at Stony Brook. From to Hill Crossing, the line ran alongside the Fitchburg. Original plans called for the route to briefly parallel the Lexington Branch cutoff through North Cambridge and terminate at the Boston and Lowell Railroad (B&L) mainline at Willow Bridge. However, this was later changed to join the cutoff at North Cambridge Junction, west of North Avenue (now Massachusetts Avenue). Other amendments included a branch from Amherst to a connection with the Troy and Greenfield Railroad in West Deerfield and approval to connect with and build over the route of the never-constructed Holyoke and Belchertown Railroad through Granby and South Hadley.
With its new connection in the east the stockholders approved a 25-year lease of the Massachusetts Central to the B&L on March 21, 1880, pending its completion within two years. The first rails were finally laid in October that same year at the junction with the Framingham and Lowell Railroad in South Sudbury. The route from Cambridge to Hudson was complete by August 20, 1881, and inspected by state and company officials on September 21. Satisfied with the work the officials set the railroad's grand opening for October 1, 1881. The company appointed Munson as general manager and purchased five locomotives. The first schedule included four passenger round trips from Boston to Hudson, four passenger round trips from Boston to Waltham, and a daily freight from Boston to Hudson and back.
Meanwhile, westward construction continued, and the first through train from Jefferson left on December 19, 1881. The inaugural run was marred by a tragedy, striking and killing a 13 year old deaf boy who did not hear the train's approach. Track work west of Jefferson was suspended. In 1883 the selling agents for the company's bonds, Boston-based Charles A. Sweet and Co., declared bankruptcy. The railroad ceased operations and construction on May 16 and remained in limbo for the next 29 months.
Resurrection and operation under the Boston & Maine (1883–1902)
To restore service to the line the Central Massachusetts Railroad was formed out of the failed Massachusetts Central Railroad Company on November 10, 1883. The directors contracted with the B&L to operate trains over the Central Massachusetts route in the fall of 1885 with service resuming from Boston to Hudson on September 28 and to Jefferson on December 14. The new schedule included seven daily round trips from Boston to Jefferson and another ten to Waltham.
The B&L formally leased the Central Massachusetts on December 7, 1886, resuming work on the route to Northampton but abandoning any plans for branches to Holyoke or West Deerfield. Though considerable grading work had already been done along the original planned route in Hardwick, Greenwich, and Enfield the railroad's leadership decided to redirect the route through an easier terrain in the Ware River Valley, taking the line into Palmer and reconnecting with the original route in Belchertown. This turned out to be a fortuitous decision given that much of the disused portion of the line was flooded in the 1930s to construct the Quabbin Reservoir. Tracks were installed through Muschopauge in Rutland by November.
The Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) leased the B&L on April 1, 1887, renaming the Central Massachusetts line as the Central Massachusetts Branch. The tracks reached Ware on June 27, 1887 and before the end of that year construction finished with the completion of the bridge over the Connecticut River. The first train to traverse the entire route, led by locomotive No. 238, Hudson, left Boston at 8:30 A. M. on December 12 and arrived in Northampton at 12:30 P. M. Revenue service commenced on December 19 with three daily passenger round trips between Boston and Northampton, two between Boston and Hudson, three between Boston and Wayland, and two between Ware and Northampton.
Although the Central Massachusetts Railroad never grew beyond Northampton as its early backers had hoped it nonetheless became an integral link for the B&M to points west and south. This was primarily due to the fact that no rail bridges spanned the North River in New York City, separating New England from major metropolitan areas such as Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D. C. In 1889 construction of the Poughkeepsie Bridge over the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie, New York completed the Poughkeepsie Bridge Route, the first all-rail route between New England and points south of New York City. Trains such as the Philadelphia and Washington Express and the Harrisburg Express traveled over the several railroads that composed the route, including the Central Massachusetts Branch of the B&M.
With the B&M suddenly such an important link into New England Archibald Angus McLeod, president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad (P&R), sought to use the line as part of his bid to control the coal mining traffic between eastern Pennsylvania and New England independent of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (NYNH&H). In 1892 McLeod took controlling interest of the B&M and of the New York and New England Railroad to fulfill his plan, electing himself president of the B&M on October 26. Early in 1893 the P&R went bankrupt and McLeod lost stock control of the B&M, resigning as president on May 23. With relatively stable local control restored the B&M was able to lease one of its major competitors, the Fitchburg Railroad, in 1900. Two years later, on February 20, 1902, the B&M outright purchased the Central Massachusetts Railroad and dissolved its corporate entity.
With the Central Massachusetts Branch now a part of its system the B&M set about improving the connections between the line and the rest of its network. The first change was in Oakdale where on March 30, 1902, the railroad shut down the accident-prone yard where the Central Massachusetts Branch crossed at grade over the Worcester, Nashua, and Portland Division (WN&P) main line. The next improvement was at Jefferson where the B&M rehabilitated a connecting track that split off of the Central Massachusetts Branch at Holden Junction and connected with the Worcester and Hillsboro Branch at Carr Junction to allow passenger service into Princeton, Hubbardston, Gardner, and Winchendon. Finally the B&M built a connection in Gleasondale from Gleason Junction on the Central Massachusetts Branch to C. M. Junction on the Marlborough Branch to enable passenger service into Marlborough. While traffic into Marlborough flourished, traffic along the connection in Jefferson languished, and in 1909 the B&M took up that track.
Wachusett Reservoir Relocation (1902–1907)
On June 5, 1895, the General Court of Massachusetts authorized the damming of the south branch of the Nashua River for the construction of the Wachusett Reservoir, flooding roughly of land in the towns of Clinton, Boylston, and West Boylston. The Central Massachusetts Branch needed to be rerouted as the new reservoir would cover of track as well as the stations at South Clinton, Boylston, and West Boylston. Two proposals for the new route emerged. The first proposal called for a connection to the defunct Lancaster Railroad in Hudson that would route traffic through Bolton to a connection with the WN&P Division main line in South Lancaster and leave Berlin at the end of a four-mile branch. The second proposal would build a new route through Clinton and connect with the WN&P Division main line there. On April 3, 1902, the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board reached an agreement with the B&M to reroute the Central Massachusetts Branch according to the latter plan.
The new portion of the Central Massachusetts Branch started just west of West Berlin Junction in Berlin where the Central Massachusetts Branch connected with the Fitchburg Line of the NYNH&H. From there it ran northwest into Clinton through a -long tunnel. The western portal of the tunnel opened onto a 917-foot viaduct near the site of the Wachusett Dam that passed over Route 70 and the Nashua River before connecting with the WN&P Division main line at Clinton Junction. Traffic over the Central Massachusetts Branch followed the WN&P Division main line through Sterling into Oakdale where a redesigned junction routed it back onto the original Central Massachusetts Branch. Just before Clinton Junction an additional connection branched off at Reservoir Switch leading to East Switch on the WN&P Division to allow traffic to approach the Central Massachusetts Branch from the north or continue from the Central Massachusetts Branch north along the WN&P Division main line. The first train passed over the new route on June 2, 1903, while the old track was officially removed from through service on June 15 but remained in place and used during the remainder of the reservoir construction, some of it being re-gauged to 3' to allow construction trains to utilize it. Under this arrangement the WN&P main line between Oakdale and Sterling Junction became exceptionally busy as it accommodated B&M traffic from the WN&P Division and the Central Massachusetts Branch as well as NYNH&H traffic heading between Worcester and Fitchburg along the tracks of the original Fitchburg and Worcester Railroad.
Operation under Charles Mellen (1907–1913)