I’ve been making photos at the Junction at East Northfield since the 1980s.
The other day, on the third visit in two weeks to this iconic New England location (where New England Central’s line connects with Pan Am Railway’s Conn River route), I had a reckoning.
It occurred to me that railroad timetable ‘East Northfield’ is actually north and west of the town of Northfield, Massachusetts.
How is this possible?
Some Highway maps show railroad ‘East Northfield’ in West Northfield.
This timetable location has been called ‘East Northfield’ since the steam era, and the present NECR sign reflects this historic geographic incongruity.
No doubt at some point in the future, the geography will be retro-actively re-written to accommodate this oversight on the part of historic railroad timetable writers. What will they make of my captions!
Hello Ethan, glad you enjoyed the show!
All the best,
Brian
My family and I lived briefly in Northfield (with the old CV running through the back hayfield!) for about 1 1/2 years until this past January when we moved to Whately. In all that time, only the local rail enthusiasts spoke of East Northfield as East Northfield . Anyone else in town referred to it as West Northfield and were thoroughly perplexed by anyone calling anything else.
Enjoyed the slideshow and talk in Monson the other evening!
Best regards,
Ethan Haslett