IMAGE GALLERY: Trains Thru Westborough

Editor's note: This blog was originally featured on Jan. 30, but it is being refeatured to share new photos of the MBTA Gold Star memorial train that rolled through Westborough on June 18.

Westborough is host to trains that provide commuter service to Boston and Worcester, and a non-stopping Amtrak train, the Boston section of Lake Shore Limited that carries passengers to Chicago. If the state is to be believed, a recent deal with the CSX railroad will see many more daily trains. Though if the state is to be believed, we will see fewer trains when it snows (whaaaaat...isn't that when people need trains?) and maybe no trains late at night or on weekends due to the need to cut costs (bummer for theatre goers and folks who work in Boston or Westborough).

The system is pretty useless to anyone who wants to stay in Boston overnight (as I discovered when the parking gods fined me for leaving eight bucks rather than four in one of those awful slots; it wasn't the money, but a one day at a time rule which, I was told, is strictly enforced because employees steal anything over four bucks) or, heaven forbid, take an Acela to New York or Downeaster to Portland.

I must say I haven't checked out the new cell phone system one can use with proper apps, but whether I would give credit card info to these guys...

The Westborough station is a rusting hulk of an ediface that looks straight out of Stalinist Russia. A visit there this week, for a ride to Boston and to take a few pics, shows there are no timetables posted (or at least none that I could see), and the electronic message board tells passengers to check a station on their radios to get up to date train information. I'm just wondering how many steaming patrons carry a radio these days.... And if you think those signs provide reliable information....

OK, before the pics, a bit more editorializing. I photograph and ride trains in many parts of the world and have yet to come across a system as antiquated and customer unfriendly as this one. The last two trains I rode into Boston (maybe a  year apart) had filthy windows one literally could not look out (I have a pic taken this week here). One of them was on the wrong track, abandoning passengers. Stations are devoid of amenities.

Just think of how great it would be if there were small jitney buses, like in most parts of the US and the world, to take arriving passengers into town, or to nearby workplaces. If one arrives in Westborough how does one get a cab?

Go into the cave of Back Bay station and try to hear an announcement. It's better to bang one's head against the wall and hear bells ringing.

This is a collection of passenger train photos taken of trains in town over the past ten years or so. In different seasons, at different places. All were taken with digital cameras (I use Olympus and Panasonic systems of various kinds and am happy to answer any questions on the photos and digital photography and trains). I will add more and provide some of more historical interest as I dig through my archives.

So keep an eye out. Certainly, feel free to comment on your own experiences, or anything I've had to say. Fill in bits and pieces of history.

You can check out many hundreds of my photos taken over the past 40 or 50 years (I started photographing trains when in high school) at two websites:

http://www.trainweb.org/crocon/amtrak.html

http://www.trainweb.org/theattic/

If you want to contact me directly drop me a note at ron.goodenow@gmail.com.

Whatever you do, let our politicians, the good folks who run the MBTA and the subcontracters who run the trains that we want good, clean, modern and customer friendly 21st century service.