Pure Boston And Maine
On a bleak morning, inbound Keolis/MBTA train 108 from Newburyport is arriving at North Station in Boston as it rumbles onto the drawbridge over the Charles River on Main 3 passing venerable Tower A with F40PH-3C 1030 shoving on the rear. It's been a long time since these venerable colors were seen here on 'home rails' and this new heritage unit is a stunning tribute to this great city's hometown road.
For now the last relics from the Boston and Maine days remain clustered here including the vintage dwarf signals, the drawbridges and the tower itself which was built during the B&M's 1926-1932 reconfiguration of the terminal and the then new Boston Engine Terminal. The two story steel frame and brick structure replaced an earlier tower located on the south side of the Charles. It was placed in service on September 27, 1931 with an original electrical board containing 211 levers! Until 2021 the drawbridge operator still worked out of it but today it serves no purpose at all.
The two bascule bridges also date from that same year when the navigable channel of the Charles River was shifted 300 feet to the north of its former route to allow the platforms at North Station to be extended. At the time of their construction two additional spans were built just to the west with a total of 8 tracks crossing the river serving 22 platform tracks vs only 10 today.
All of this is on borrowed time however, as the MBTA is embarking on a nearly one billion dollar project to replace the aging and failure prone spans and reconfigure Tower A. Ultimately these last vestiges of the Route of the Minuteman will fall to the wrecking ball and cutting torch and three new vertical lift spans are supposed to rise in their place allowing for six tracks to cross the river and the addition of two more platform tracks.
Rising above can be seen the obelisk towers and cable stays of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial suspension bridge built in 2003 as part of the infamous Big Dig project that saw Interstate 93 removed from its elevated pathway through the heart of the city and buried beneath it.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Wednesday September 24, 2025
Pure Boston And Maine
On a bleak morning, inbound Keolis/MBTA train 108 from Newburyport is arriving at North Station in Boston as it rumbles onto the drawbridge over the Charles River on Main 3 passing venerable Tower A with F40PH-3C 1030 shoving on the rear. It's been a long time since these venerable colors were seen here on 'home rails' and this new heritage unit is a stunning tribute to this great city's hometown road.
For now the last relics from the Boston and Maine days remain clustered here including the vintage dwarf signals, the drawbridges and the tower itself which was built during the B&M's 1926-1932 reconfiguration of the terminal and the then new Boston Engine Terminal. The two story steel frame and brick structure replaced an earlier tower located on the south side of the Charles. It was placed in service on September 27, 1931 with an original electrical board containing 211 levers! Until 2021 the drawbridge operator still worked out of it but today it serves no purpose at all.
The two bascule bridges also date from that same year when the navigable channel of the Charles River was shifted 300 feet to the north of its former route to allow the platforms at North Station to be extended. At the time of their construction two additional spans were built just to the west with a total of 8 tracks crossing the river serving 22 platform tracks vs only 10 today.
All of this is on borrowed time however, as the MBTA is embarking on a nearly one billion dollar project to replace the aging and failure prone spans and reconfigure Tower A. Ultimately these last vestiges of the Route of the Minuteman will fall to the wrecking ball and cutting torch and three new vertical lift spans are supposed to rise in their place allowing for six tracks to cross the river and the addition of two more platform tracks.
Rising above can be seen the obelisk towers and cable stays of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial suspension bridge built in 2003 as part of the infamous Big Dig project that saw Interstate 93 removed from its elevated pathway through the heart of the city and buried beneath it.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Wednesday September 24, 2025