When I was a young child my family lived in Newton Centre, an historic suburb of Boston located on the old Boston & Albany Highlands Branch, a railroad that had been converted into a trolley line in 1960.
As a five year old, I’d watch MBTA’s PCC cars pass though, typically operated in multiple sets of two and three cars.
The old B&A railroad station was a relic from former times.
On Saturday, May 11, 2019, after dropping my father on the Logan Express bus for a trip to Portugal, I met some fellow photographers and we visited MBTA’s Newton Centre station on the Green Line.
This was the first stop on our photography of MBTA’s trolley car system.
It was a rare sunny day, and I made these digital photos of the trolley cars as they rolled between Boston and Riverside.
Tracking the Light Posts Daily!
Jack May & I were the only railfans on the first run in 1960 starting at Riverside. Everyone else thought the initial trip would start at Cleveland Circle. Little did I realize that 10 years later I would be living along the line with 3-year old Brian!
Interesting to see someone else’s take on a familiar scene.
The station clearly shows the two levels that resulted from lowering the track in a grade-separation project. It was one of 23 stations for the old B&A designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, successor firm to H H Richardson. They also designed South Station, Hartford Union Station and a boatload of others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepley,_Rutan_and_Coolidge