Proper Polar Weather
This past holiday season the Providence and Worcester Railroad once again provided their passenger train and crew for the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council's extremely popular Polar Express trains with trains running and 3:30 and 6:30 PM Fri-Sun for a total of 42 sold out trips in 2024.
The train consist has just arrived from Worcester after deadheading south for the last time to begin the final weekend of performances. Bringing up the rear is PW 4007, a GE B40-8W blt. Apr. 1992 as Santa Fe 582, and one of three of the model on the roster acquired from BNSF by the then independent P&W in 2010. Above the train can be seen the historic depot built in 1882 by the original Providence and Worcester Railroad replacing one dating from the 1847 opening of the railroad. This view looks across aptly named Railroad Street at about MP 16.5 as measured from Providence Union Station.
The depot is contributing structure to the Woonsocket Main Street Historic District which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. From the NRHP nomination form:
Providence & Worcester Railroad Station 1882, John W. Ellis, architect: The original 1847 railroad depot burned and was replaced in 1882 with what was considered the most impressive depot on the P&W line. The new station is a rectangular, one-and-one-half-story, red brick Queen Anne building housing the main waiting room with a similarly designed baggage handling and service extension at the north end. The jerkin-head gable roofline is oriented parallel to the railroad tracks, and the building faces onto Depot Square with one end abutting Main Street.
Prominent features include a protective overhang integrated into the roof slope and supported on large, curved brackets, which runs around three sides of the main building and extension. The central entrances on both sides are located below a large cross gable with elaborate decorative brickwork and terra cotta ornamentation, stained-glass and ocular windows, and terra cotta finials. A square clock tower with a tall, pyramidal hip roof topped with a distinctive locomotive weathervane rises from the roof ridge between the gables. The narrow Main Street elevation has now-altered storefronts on the first floor and brickwork, stained-glass windows, and a large central oriel window on the upper floor. The east end of the Depot Square elevation is sheathed in modern vertical wood siding and has no openings, reflecting the fact that this was originally a party wall shared with the Edwards Block, a Second Empire building that was demolished in the 196Os. The former building site is neatly landscaped with terraces and evergreen and deciduous plants.
The P&W really was Rhode Island's own railroad. Chartered in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts in 1844 it opened for business on 43 miles between its namesake cities in 1847. Built along portions of the Blackstone Canal that was opened in 1828, the P&W replaced the waterway as the main artery of transportation in the historically significant Blackstone River Valley - the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution.
The New Haven leased the P&W for 99 years in 1892 and that lease passed to the Penn Central in 1969. The PC intended to abandon the middle of the P&W and sever it as a through route when a group of dissident independent shareholders wrested control away from the giant carrier and began independent operations again. The P&W thrived on it's own for 43 years as a publicly traded company (I held a small equity position for many years) until being sold to Genessee & Wyoming in 2016. It's hard to see the P&W I loved and grew up with turn orange, but at least the rails remain and continue to thrive.
Woonsocket, Rhode Island
Friday December 20, 2024
Proper Polar Weather
This past holiday season the Providence and Worcester Railroad once again provided their passenger train and crew for the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council's extremely popular Polar Express trains with trains running and 3:30 and 6:30 PM Fri-Sun for a total of 42 sold out trips in 2024.
The train consist has just arrived from Worcester after deadheading south for the last time to begin the final weekend of performances. Bringing up the rear is PW 4007, a GE B40-8W blt. Apr. 1992 as Santa Fe 582, and one of three of the model on the roster acquired from BNSF by the then independent P&W in 2010. Above the train can be seen the historic depot built in 1882 by the original Providence and Worcester Railroad replacing one dating from the 1847 opening of the railroad. This view looks across aptly named Railroad Street at about MP 16.5 as measured from Providence Union Station.
The depot is contributing structure to the Woonsocket Main Street Historic District which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. From the NRHP nomination form:
Providence & Worcester Railroad Station 1882, John W. Ellis, architect: The original 1847 railroad depot burned and was replaced in 1882 with what was considered the most impressive depot on the P&W line. The new station is a rectangular, one-and-one-half-story, red brick Queen Anne building housing the main waiting room with a similarly designed baggage handling and service extension at the north end. The jerkin-head gable roofline is oriented parallel to the railroad tracks, and the building faces onto Depot Square with one end abutting Main Street.
Prominent features include a protective overhang integrated into the roof slope and supported on large, curved brackets, which runs around three sides of the main building and extension. The central entrances on both sides are located below a large cross gable with elaborate decorative brickwork and terra cotta ornamentation, stained-glass and ocular windows, and terra cotta finials. A square clock tower with a tall, pyramidal hip roof topped with a distinctive locomotive weathervane rises from the roof ridge between the gables. The narrow Main Street elevation has now-altered storefronts on the first floor and brickwork, stained-glass windows, and a large central oriel window on the upper floor. The east end of the Depot Square elevation is sheathed in modern vertical wood siding and has no openings, reflecting the fact that this was originally a party wall shared with the Edwards Block, a Second Empire building that was demolished in the 196Os. The former building site is neatly landscaped with terraces and evergreen and deciduous plants.
The P&W really was Rhode Island's own railroad. Chartered in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts in 1844 it opened for business on 43 miles between its namesake cities in 1847. Built along portions of the Blackstone Canal that was opened in 1828, the P&W replaced the waterway as the main artery of transportation in the historically significant Blackstone River Valley - the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution.
The New Haven leased the P&W for 99 years in 1892 and that lease passed to the Penn Central in 1969. The PC intended to abandon the middle of the P&W and sever it as a through route when a group of dissident independent shareholders wrested control away from the giant carrier and began independent operations again. The P&W thrived on it's own for 43 years as a publicly traded company (I held a small equity position for many years) until being sold to Genessee & Wyoming in 2016. It's hard to see the P&W I loved and grew up with turn orange, but at least the rails remain and continue to thrive.
Woonsocket, Rhode Island
Friday December 20, 2024