Mansfield Yard
The MBTA's office car special is at about MP 0.2 as they near the south end of the Framingham Secondary and are about to enter Amtrak's Northeast Corridor mainline at Mansfield Interlocking. They are passing the little used CSXT yard on this section of the line that is normally freight only excepting the occasional football or concert train from Providence to Gillette Stadium.
The train consists of new theater car number 535 (former 1515) named 'Mayflower'. The train also includes the other two office cars number 529 'Constitution' and number 525 'Minuteman' along with 534 (former 1503), one of two specially wrapped revenue geometry cars (only along to meet timetable minimum axle requirements). All four cars are rebuilt 500-series MBBs, among the few survivors of a fleet of 67 cars (33 blind and 34 cab control) built new in Germany in 1987-88. Leading the train are heritage units 1129 and 1030, the former a GP40MC dressed in the 'cranberry' scheme and the latter an F40PH-3C dressed in Boston and Maine Minuteman livery.
The train operated from South Station down the Dorchester Branch to Readville, then via the Franklin Line to Walpole, then down the Framingham Secondary to Mansfield, then Amtrak's Northeast Corridor to Davisville to the Seaview Transportation Company where it was turned on their wye before returning straight back via the direct NEC route. On board were MBTA and Keolis officials inspecting recent track and signal projects and looking at the new platform at Foxboro station recently installed to support the flood of passengers for next years World Cup matches to be held at Gillette Stadium.
As for the railroad, built as the Mansfield and Framingham Railroad in 1870, the 21 mile route between its two namesake points came under the aegis the Old Colony Railroad in 1879 and then the New Haven in 1893 when that system absorbed the OCRR. 40 years later passenger service ended, but for the past 86 years the line has been an important freight route. Passing from the NH to PC, CR and then ultimately CSXT, the line was sold by the latter in June 2015 to MassDOT for $23 million. In 2019 passenger service returned to the four miles of the line south from Walpole to a new Foxboro station adjacent to Gillette Stadium and the Patriot Place complex, and that portion was transferred to the MBTA and is maintained and dispatched by Keolism. The balance of the line is dispatched and maintained under contract by Mass Coastal but still served by CSXT which owns the perpetual freight rights and still runs four freight trains a day on this line five days a week.
Mansfield, Massachusetts
Friday November 14, 2025
Mansfield Yard
The MBTA's office car special is at about MP 0.2 as they near the south end of the Framingham Secondary and are about to enter Amtrak's Northeast Corridor mainline at Mansfield Interlocking. They are passing the little used CSXT yard on this section of the line that is normally freight only excepting the occasional football or concert train from Providence to Gillette Stadium.
The train consists of new theater car number 535 (former 1515) named 'Mayflower'. The train also includes the other two office cars number 529 'Constitution' and number 525 'Minuteman' along with 534 (former 1503), one of two specially wrapped revenue geometry cars (only along to meet timetable minimum axle requirements). All four cars are rebuilt 500-series MBBs, among the few survivors of a fleet of 67 cars (33 blind and 34 cab control) built new in Germany in 1987-88. Leading the train are heritage units 1129 and 1030, the former a GP40MC dressed in the 'cranberry' scheme and the latter an F40PH-3C dressed in Boston and Maine Minuteman livery.
The train operated from South Station down the Dorchester Branch to Readville, then via the Franklin Line to Walpole, then down the Framingham Secondary to Mansfield, then Amtrak's Northeast Corridor to Davisville to the Seaview Transportation Company where it was turned on their wye before returning straight back via the direct NEC route. On board were MBTA and Keolis officials inspecting recent track and signal projects and looking at the new platform at Foxboro station recently installed to support the flood of passengers for next years World Cup matches to be held at Gillette Stadium.
As for the railroad, built as the Mansfield and Framingham Railroad in 1870, the 21 mile route between its two namesake points came under the aegis the Old Colony Railroad in 1879 and then the New Haven in 1893 when that system absorbed the OCRR. 40 years later passenger service ended, but for the past 86 years the line has been an important freight route. Passing from the NH to PC, CR and then ultimately CSXT, the line was sold by the latter in June 2015 to MassDOT for $23 million. In 2019 passenger service returned to the four miles of the line south from Walpole to a new Foxboro station adjacent to Gillette Stadium and the Patriot Place complex, and that portion was transferred to the MBTA and is maintained and dispatched by Keolism. The balance of the line is dispatched and maintained under contract by Mass Coastal but still served by CSXT which owns the perpetual freight rights and still runs four freight trains a day on this line five days a week.
Mansfield, Massachusetts
Friday November 14, 2025