During our foray back from Cape Cod in April 2021, Kris & I paused for about an hour at Shirley, Massachusetts, located on the old Fitchburg Line west of Ayer.
I first made photos here on a chase back about 1985.
Working with my Canon EOS-3 with 100-400mm image stabilization zoom, I exposed these Ektachrome slides of an MBTA shuttle train.
Fitchburg Line, Shirley, Massachusetts, 26 April 2021.Working with my Canon EOS-3 with 100-400mm image stabilization zoom, I exposed these Ektachrome slides of an MBTA shuttle train Ektachrome slide of an MBTA shuttle train at Shirley, Massachusetts.Ektachrome slide of an MBTA shuttle train at Shirley, Massachusetts.
Keolis, which is the designated operator of MBTA Commuter Rail was undertaking Positive Train Control installation in the Boston-area and shuttle trains were working back and forth on the west-end of the Fitchburg run.
In conjunction with line works on the west end of MBTA’s Franklin Branch, weekend trains were terminating at Walpole, Massachusetts with bus connections to Norfolk, Franklin and Forge Park.
The old passenger station is still in use at this location.
Here, the Franklin Branch crosses the former New Haven Railroad Old Colony line that runs between Mansfield and Framingham, Massachusetts on a traditional diamond.
More than 30 years ago I visited Walpole on several occasions to photograph trains passing the steam era semaphores that still protected the diamond.
These photos were made in November 2020 using my Nikon Z6 mirrorless digital camera.
