Talk:Boston Subdivision

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Good start[edit]

Now, let's see if we can start beefing up and re-aligning aspects of this article. The article says the Boston Subdivision:

- Runs along a former New York Central Railroad line. Does that mean near, i.e. parallel to, former NYC track, thereby suggesting that the NYC track is gone, and that the Boston Subdivision runs on newer track which, in turn, it fails to identify? I suspect the article intends to say The line runs ... --on-- former New York Central Railroad tracks.

- I don't understand what it means by the end of a line. It states that the line's east end is at Back Bay station. Then, it says it has trackage rights to Dorchester Branch. Doesn't that make Dorchester Branch the east end? Definition of terms must be made here to eliminate confusion. Does end signify an ownership boundary? If so, then perhaps it'd be best to avoid a word that makes it sound like end of track. In addition, what are trackage rights?

- The wording (this portion owned by the MBTA) is missing a verb.

- The use of junction as a verb is a new one on me. If that is railroad parlance, the term is too erudite to use in an encyclopedia article. Two, it smacks of that modern, American, colloquial, extremely lazy propensity for coining verbs out of nouns simply for convenience, viz. parenting. It should be avoided. Indeed, what does it mean for something to junction something else?

- When it says the Boston Division junctions the Framingham Subdivision and Fitchburg Subdivision, does the Boston line continue through Framingham and beyond, and there is a junction in Framingham from where two branches or spurs called the Framingham and Fitchburg Subdivisions proceed north, or south? Or does the Boston Division come to an end in Framingham, and the track west of there is called the Framingham Subdivision? Or, is the Boston Division organized into Subdivisions, and that starting in Framingham, the Framingham Subdivision portion of the Boston Division goes westward (or eastward)?

- What in the world does the article mean by The line east of Riverside? Proceeding eastbound, the stations in that vicinity are Wellesley Farms, Auburndale, West Newton, etc. There is no Riverside station on this line.

In the 19th century, yes, there was indeed a Riverside station between Wellesley Farms and Auburndale. It is gone today. To add to the confusion, a new Riverside station stands a short way south of, and not on, the Boston Division mainline (joined by a little-used connecting track). But this Riverside station isn't used for railroad trains. It is the western terminus of the MBTA's light rail service, a completely different system. Hence, what we aren't being told, and what I think the article wants to tell us is: At what point on the Boston-Springfield mainline is the MBTA/Turnpike Authority ownership boundary? At the point where the little-used connecting spur to Riverside joins it? At the location of the defunct Riverside mainline station? Conversely, if you literally mean east of Riverside, are you saying that the CSX Boston Division incorporates the MBTA's Riverside Line as well? And that the Turnpike Authority owns that track, which proceeds through Newton and Brookline, then goes underground to form Boston's subway system? I doubt it.

- The statement that the line originally had four tracks to Riverside is only half true and needs clarification. Yes, the line originally had four tracks, but they didn't end at Riverside. Four tracks went well west of there; how far I don't know, but they certainly went thru Wellesley to the west, and may well have continued to Worcester. And yes, a two-track branch did leave the mainline to the south, at Riverside, then turned east and went all the way back into Boston again, to form the Boston & Albany's so-called Newton Circuit. But this information is all for the history section.

For a great photo of the famous Riverside junction, see the 1888 photo taken by noted local Boston-area photographer Chandler Seaver, Jr.:

books.google.com/books?id=JaiCS3DDbu8C&pg=PA35

(Caveat lector: The author's caption on that photo is wrong. Across the river, the track that goes straight in the distance, towards the upper left, is the spur to Newton Lower Falls. The track that curves to the right is the B&A's mainline. This photo is very confusing because in fact the mainline didn't really make as sharp a turn as it seems to do in the photo. This photo looks southwest. Beyond the photo, the Lower Falls spur curved to the left. The mainline changed direction and curved left too, so that both it and the spur were parallel. Moreover, they curved left (south) so far that the mainline entered Wellesley just east of southward. (This, for a line that runs from Boston due west to Worcester.) The Lower Falls spur kept up its counterclockwise curve a little longer, and entered Wellesley approx. southeasterly. Finally, in the photo, the author's ID of the sharp curve in the foreground being the Newton Circuit is correct.)

- It's great to state that two of the four tracks of the mainline were torn up to make way for the Mass. Turnpike, but we have to state what year that happened. I don't know what year it was myself, but it must've been in the early 1960s, right?

- In getting into the topic of the ripping up of the tracks to make way for the turnpike, we are getting into material that should likely be moved down into the History section.

- And it's great that the History stub has been started. Hopefully more will be added.

--Jim Luedke Jimlue (talk) 20:45, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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New York Central[edit]

along a former New York Central Railroad line Two things about this:

  1. It's not along the former line, it is the former line, surely?
  2. If this is the former B&A main line, then we should lead with that. NYC/Penn Central/Conrail control/ownership is interesting, but secondary.

--Mackensen (talk) 02:08, 29 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

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