Introduction to the Boston & Worcester Railroad...The Downtown Train 1834-1899

When the Boston & Worcester Railroad, chartered in 1831, built the railroad through Westborough and offered full service in July 1835, it was a pioneer of railroad development in Massachusetts. Although the new rail line had many supporters, it also had many detractors.

The first train to arrive in downtown Westborough in 1834 was called an iron horse, a noisy, smoke and embers belching wood powered steam locomotive pulling the first passenger coaches that were nothing more than recycled stagecoaches were adapted to run on the rails. Several years later, coal replaced wood as the fuel of choice. Wood was becoming scarce and expensive in comparison to coal which was plentiful and less expensive. At first the downtown train was merely a curiosity factor, but soon the train became a very popular mode of mass transportation and a boon to the business and industrial growth of Westborough.

Almost overnight, downtown Westborough was transformed from a quiet residential community with fine large homes in a bucolic setting and large dairy farms on the edge of the center of downtown. The town became a bustling manufacturing community employing hundreds of people where new business and industry, hotels, and bars flourished. Westborough’s dairy farmers immediately took advantage of the new faster transport and enjoyed a robust period of prosperity shipping their fresh milk into the Boston market. 

However, the introduction of the downtown train also ushered in the demise of the Worcester Turnpike of 1810 (known today as Route 9). The train replaced the stagecoach as a more reliable and faster means of transport of people and the mail from Boston to Worcester. Soon after, the train became the primary freight hauler, replacing the long haul teamsters that traveled the turnpike. By 1841 the turnpike for the most part was abandoned west of Framingham and the Forbush and Wesson taverns had closed. The stagecoach era and freight hauling on the turnpike came to an end in Westborough. For a 25-year period the turnpike was the fastest and easiest way to deliver travelers and freight from Boston to Worcester, but overnight it became nothing more than a rural country farmer’s road.

In the beginning, equipment, rails, maintenance supplies and the engines were imported from England where railway systems had been in operation for years. It would be a few years later that America would be supplying the growing railroad industry throughout the young country. Some of the early engines that were part of the initial rolling stock of the Boston & Worcester line were the Meteor, Yankee, Fury and Jupiter.

During the early years, the railroad network expanded west to include three additional systems that linked Boston to Albany, NY. In 1870 the mergers were completed and the new line became known as the Boston & Albany Railroad (New York Central). Today the line is used by CSX for freight, Amtrak and the MBTA Commuter Rail Framingham/Worcester Line for passenger service.

But years later, as rail business increased, the number of trips also increased the noise level, safety became an increasing issue and the train became a nuisance. The engines were very loud, shaking buildings and rattling windows. Late night trains often dropped off drifters, panhandlers and kicked off drunks when stopping at the station, causing the Night Watch police officer to focus his attention to the train’s arrival schedule.

As the downtown area continued to grow, the train service also increased while the public safety issues at the numerous grade crossings became a greater danger to pedestrian traffic as well as hindering the increased horse and carriage and localized freight haulers.

In the still night air, the approaching eastbound train was heard a half mile out. The whistle blew loudly before each of the level grade crossings as the engine made its way along Milk Street before entering the downtown area. As the big engines steamed into the downtown, the loud screeching of steel wheels on steel rails brought the big engines to a slow, ear-piercing stop. The eastbound engine would then sit idling at the station while the train blocked all of the East Main Street through traffic. This was the time when passengers boarded, freight was transferred and the engine bellowed smoke and ash from its stack.

The early schedule was two passenger and as many freight trains as needed on a seven-day a week operation. The summer schedule was increased to three trips per day. As the demand increased, the trips increased into the nighttime hours. However, it was especially bothersome on Sundays when church services and meetings were totally disrupted by the clamor of the train. Although services were rescheduled to accommodate the train schedule, the train seldom ran on its own schedule and seemed to always disturb the peace and tranquility of Sunday services. The noise and increased train traffic became an unbearable issue so much that in 1837 the First Congregational Society (Unitarians) sold their church property next to the rails and moved out. The property was purchased by Luther Chamberlain and converted into a rooming house with retail stores on the ground floor. The old wooden building was named the Arcade. Source Paula Skog  

The Bridge

 Then in the mid 1890s the railroad decided to eliminate, wherever possible, the level grade crossings from Worcester to Boston. Westborough would finally get some relief from the over-bearing downtown train. But the relocation wouldn’t be an easy fix and there was a great deal of hostility over who was going to pay. Since 1834 the rails ran along Milk Street and parallel to Summer Street and into the downtown unobstructed by any geographic barrier. However, the new line would traverse through an area that was fraught with construction problems.

Accomodating the proposed relocation of the new rail line would require an increased gradual grade of up to 25 feet in both directions from East Main Street for over a half mile in order to create a bridge 14 feet above East Main Street. Between Milk Street and East Main Street the new rail bed required filling wetlands, and Summer Street would be divided. After spanning Water Street with a narrow pedestrian walkway under the bridge, the line continued on by excavating a large pass through solid rock 40-feet high, 50-feet wide and 200-feet long. This excavation divided Holmes Street which required a new bridge to link both sides. The grade then continued to rise, and Willow Street was relocated. Then the new bridge crossed above East Main Street supported on each side by large supports of pink granite from the Milford Quarry.

After spanning East Main Street the established grade continued east until it joined the existing road bed built in 1834 then through Cedar Swamp easterly into Southville and on to Boston.

A new passenger station opened the same year, but the building was vacated and boarded up when the passenger business was discontinued in the 1960s. Contrary to the belief of some, the Westborough station was not designed by Henry Hobson Richardson who died in 1886 although he is credited with designing nine stations, the most notable is the Framingham station. His successors were Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge. They were responsible for the Westborough station and an additional 22 buildings that followed the Richardson architectural design elements. The Norcross Brothers of Worcester remained as the master contractors while F.L. Olmsted Jr. “railroad gardening” continued as the landscape designer.

The newly constructed East Main Street Bridge was opened in 1899 and served the railroad without the need of major improvement until 1940 and the outbreak of the World War II. To accommodate the increased train traffic that supplied the war effort, the bridge that remains in use today replaced the existing wood frame bridge. For the next 30 years cars, buses and trucks passed under this bridge and adequately served the needs of the railroad with few complaints from the town.

However, in the early 1970s the size requirements for trailer trucks were established by the Federal Transportation Administration, and the bridge began a fatal attraction to truckers ignoring the bridge height limitations to reach their destination on the other side. While the states maintained a 13.6 to 14.6 foot height requirement on trailer trucks, Federal Transportation officials increased the trailer length and also allowed tandems. 

However, it isn’t necessarily the bridge's 12.6 posted height dimensions (in all actuality the bridge height is 13.6) that is why the shorter in length 13.4 Harvey trucks (pictured) and others pass under without a concern. It’s the longer trailer units in excess of 40 feet that don’t make it.

Today the elongated trailers that are 13.6 feet high are the victims of the bridges steel beam construction of the 1940s. The sheet metal aluminum skinned trailers that hit the “Gotcha Bridge” are merely stripped of their tops like peeling a banana or crushed. These trailer units are no match for the 70-year old solid steel I-beam construction that spans the road today. No way was this 53 foot trailer going to pass safely under the “Gotcha Bridge”.

The major down side of the 12 to 15 police calls per year to the bridge is obviously the inconvenience of a traffic nightmare that could last for several hours or just a delay for several minutes not to mention the delayed response time of the fire department. In a few cases the police, when adequately staffed can handle a very short-term traffic back-up, but when traffic is heavy, there are removal issues and there are other police calls, that’s when the reserves must be called in to free up the on-duty officers. Fortunately these accidents do not cause personal injury, and the trucks are rarely damaged. However, the trailers are often times damaged beyond repair and there is a significant cost for the removal when the mega tow trucks need to respond and transferring the cargo to another trailer is necessary.

The questions that have been aired over the years are: Why doesn’t the railroad fix this problem? Quite honestly, the railroad is not required to do anything. The problem is not its responsibility to solve. What benefit does the railroad get from spending millions raising this bridge? None. But here are a few proposals made over the years.

LOWER EAST MAIN STREET

The most often made comment is why not lower the road? East Main Street was built on wetlands long before there were environmental building constraints. Because it was built atop the swamp much of the road was built on logs placed across called a corduroy road. The DPW contends that the water level of the Cedar Swamp is just below the road surface which prohibits the road level to be lowered.

WATER STREET PROPOSAL

When it was constructed in 1899, the Water Street Bridge was merely a pass under bridge for pedestrians and horse drawn wagons. It was never built to accommodate motor vehicles. Later some small compact cars could pass under but that was like threading a needle. In the 1970s vehicle access to the pass-under was stopped when the town installed barriers to stop this action. Later, this pass-under became the focus of attention when a proposal was made to create a Water Street bypass connecting East Main to Milk Street. However, that proposal was dropped due to the impact on the neighborhoods, the environmental issues and the railroads refusal to support the proposal. It wasn’t a viable proposal to begin with.

CEDAR SWAMP FLY-OVER

I have heard: Why not build a pass-over Cedar Swamp? Simply, the cost and the insurmountable environmental issues involved. Can you imagine a bridge over Cedar Swamp from Connector Road to South Street? Well, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority presented a very similar design for the Mass Turnpike back in 1952. Thankfully, that failed. Imagine the impact such a proposal would have on Westborough’s environment.

TRAFFIC CAMS AND MORE

In March of 2000, I proposed to the Board of Selectmen the installation of traffic cameras on East Main from the Rotary past the bridge to Lyman Street. The cameras would be connected to the local cable access TV. This would allow motorist as well as public safety officials to tune in to live traffic updates of the road to alert public safety as well as motorists of potential issues. That recommendation was voted down even though WCATV was willing to subsidize the proposal. One selectman’s concern was that the public perceived that Big Brother would be watching them.  

Here is another novel approach. To reduce the number of trailer trucks passing through the Rotary and East Main Street have the governor or the Legislature take a proactive stance to traffic safety and require the Mass Turnpike Authority to open the Hopkinton Road service access to the Turnpike for commercial vehicles.

Another suggestion: A row of chains stretched over the road to hang low and drag across a trailers roof to warn the driver his trailer is too high. That idea is in fact a train warning device and wouldn’t look particularly pleasing spanning East Main Street. It should also be taken into consideration that there remains a residential component to the area that would be affected by chains dragging on an aluminum trailer.

Another recommendation was to legislate truck height restrictions for East Main Street. Although not a bad idea, it would be very expensive to enforce and would likely be prohibited by the Massachusetts Highway Commission and Department of Public Utilities.

The most recent proposal has been to install lasers beams across the road to warn truckers that their trailers are a height violation. Then the lights would flash and buzzers would blast. This laser proposal IF implemented may help to reduce the number of strikes or become little more than very costly technology that the town must maintain and may only help as much as the red crushed cartoon trailers printed in French on the utility poles.

Other than raising the bridge, which appears highly unlikely, there doesn’t seem to be a cost effective means of dealing with trailer strikes. If there was an affordable fix, it no doubt would have been implemented years ago.

Conclusion: There are pros and cons to any of the recommendations that have been proposed over the years. However, there will always remain a certain number of truckers who ignore the warnings and make the decision that the 12.6 does not mean them and they become just another statistic for the bridge's no lose record.