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Imagining Orleans

Kris and I are on our annual visit to Cape Cod.

Every morning, we’ve stopped for breakfast and coffee at the Hot Chocolate Sparrow in Orleans, Massachusetts. This is located near the site of the former Old Colony Railroad Station (a component of the New Haven System).

The railroad has been gone for more than half a century. Today little remains of the Old Colony at Orleans except the right of way, a mural, and a few signs.

The Cape Cod Rail Trail represents an adaptive re-use of the track bed.

I try to imagine the sound of a 4-4-0 approaching the town with a short passenger train in tow.

It’s just not there for me. The ghosts of the Old Colony are ephemeral. I need some stronger coffee.

Rail trail looking west toward Buzzards Bay.
Rail trail looking railroad east toward Provincetown. This is more or less on the site of the old station.
This mural decorates a wall near the Hot Chocolate Sparrow. I’ve featured it previously on Tracking the Light.
An old USGS topographical map that dates from before the age of the automobile.

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