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Reviewer: Mike Christie (talk · contribs) 14:57, 26 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]


I'll review this. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 14:57, 26 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Images are appropriately tagged and sources are reliable. I'll review the article text later today. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 15:04, 26 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I started by trying to understand the geography and I have questions; these aren't necessarily going to need changes to the article, but I need to understand what I'm reading before I can critique the article.

  • Looking at the infobox diagram, the Fitchburg Cutoff connects two railroads, so at the ends of this diagram we're looking at stations on the two railroads it's joining. If I understand correctly, that's Hill Crossing on Brighton Street in Belmont, on the Fitchburg Division and Central Mass Branch of the Fitchburg Railroad; and at the other end it's Somerville Junction, which as far as I can tell from the Magoun Square article was also called Taylor's Ledge/Somerville/Somerville Centre at different times, and was owned by B&L (now the Lowell Line). Is that correct?
  • There seem to be many different names used for the same thing. I understand that names change over time and we have to reflect that but it's enormously confusing. Here's a list with what I think the meaning is, in the order the names show up in the article.
    • Lexington Branch. Links to Lexington and West Cambridge Railroad. This includes Hill Crossing station and was owned by the B&L by 1870.
    • Central Massachusetts Railroad. A separate railroad? I see they built a section of the cutoff in 1881, west of Clifton St (which is just east of Alewife station, so that seems odd -- why would they build a section that didn't terminate in a station?)
    • Boston & Lowell Railroad. A railroad company but also refers to the set of lines that include Somerville Junction at the east end of the Fitchburg Cutoff.
    • Alewife Station. Now a Red Line station, a bit south of where the railway station was, except that I figured out later (see below) this station has nothing to do with the cutoff and there was never a railway station here; it's just mentioned as a location.
    • Brighton Street. Site of the Hill Crossing station; we don't give the exact location of that station or a link but as far as I can tell it was where the west end of the Fitchburg Bike Path now is.
    • Massachusetts Avenue. I found it on the map but there's no mention of a station there, which is OK since this is just where the path terminates. Further down I figured out that the Davis Square/Elm Street station was here.
    • Fitchburg Railroad main line. Presumably related in some way to the entities mentioned above, but I've no idea how. Seems to be the one that includes Hill Crossing.
    • B&L main line. Mentioned in the lead, so this is easier; this is the railroad that includes the east end of the line.
    • Fitchburg Line. Another name for the Fitchburg Railroad, I assume.
    • Davis Square (West Somerville). A place in West Somerville; looks like this isn't a station name, just a description of the route the line is taking; no problem.
    • Somerville Highlands. Same thing, describes the route.
    • Somerville Junction. A station on the Lowell Line at the east end of the cutoff; easy to understand.
    • Lexington and Arlington Raiload (Lexington Branch). Now I'm not sure what this refers to; it's a "newly acquired branch" that had to be connected to the B&L's mainline so it's not the B&L line through Somerville Junction, and it's not the Cutoff, because that's built after the acquisition.
    • Lake Street. No idea where this is but presumably it's on the Lexington Branch since that's what we're connecting to Somerville Junction. Google tells me it's south of Somerville Junction, which I don't understand because the Fitchburg cutoff runs from Somerville Junction west, not south.
    • List of stations on this new cutoff: North Cambridge, West Somerville, Willow Avenue, Somerville Highlands. So it appears that Alewife station is not on the line, which is confusing because when we mentioned it earlier I assumed it was a station on the cutoff. But no, it's just mentioned as a location past which the path runs, so OK.
    • North Avenue. Seems to be an old name for Massachusetts Avenue. So the North Cambridge station was on Massachusetts Avenue?
    • Elm Street. This runs into Davis Square, so that was the station at Davis Square?
    • Willow Avenue. I see the Somerville Community Path crosses a Willow Avenue so that must be where that station was.
    • Somerville Highlands (at Cedar Street). Same again; Cedar St crosses the path.
    • Then we mention the "section west of Clifton Street" again; why is Clifton Street the end of the line with no station there?
    • Central Massachusetts Railroad. Now we find out that this is parallel to the Fitchburg Railroad west of Brighton, which helps explain why they care about the cut off.
    • "no stations between Hills Crossing and North Cambridge". Confirms that Alewife is not on the line.
    • College Avenue/Holland Street. At Davis Square, which I know about, but it's confusing because the station there (if I have it right) is actually Elm Street.
    • "the Lexington Branch cutoff". Presumably refers to the line before Central Mass connected it to Hill Crossing? But then it wasn't a cutoff, just a branch, right?

The above (which I would guess contains errors) took me a good hour, with the help of Google Maps and reading other Wikipedia articles, to figure out. There has to be a better way to present this information. I think part of the problem is probably that you know this material so well it's hard for you to see what's not obvious. If you don't add a clear map that explains all this, the article has to spend more time making this clear to the reader. Personally I think it would be almost impossible without a map, and a good map would make it very easy, but it's up to you. I'm going to delay reviewing the body of the article in full until we've had a chance to discuss this, since it could change the body of the article. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 18:26, 26 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Mike Christie: You're definitely right - a map is a good idea. I'm going to make two - one of the rail lines as they were, and one of rail lines/trails/etc as they are now. I'll let you know when I've added them to the article. Thanks, Pi.1415926535 (talk) 00:41, 29 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Mike Christie: I've added the maps to the article, plus a section describing the route. Hopefully that clarifies things! Pi.1415926535 (talk) 23:45, 30 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
That looks great, and the route section is easy to follow with the help of the map. More questions below, now I can understand it a bit. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 00:39, 31 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Some questions about the "Passenger service" section:

  • Willow Bridge station is not on the map, but looking at that article I think it was the station named North Somerville on the map -- if so can we draw that connection explicitly?
    • Correct. Because the name change from Willow Bridge to North Somerville isn't really relevant to this article, I didn't include it. I'm not opposed to doing so, but I can't find a good way to do it.
  • You mention Jackson St; Google finds a Jackson St between Mass Ave and Alewife station; is that the right one? If so, how can the cutoff built in 1870 run from Lake St to Somerville Junction if the part west of Jackson St wasn't built till 1881? I think the only way this makes sense is if we're talking about the red line on the map that runs from North Cambridge to the west edge of the map. I think this could be clearer in the captions, and descriptions, if so. One way (totally optional) would be to make an animated gif showing the sequence of construction. If you wanted to get really fancy you could show station changes (and name changes) too, but really just the lines would be nice.
    • Yes, that is the correct Jackson Street. I've added a sentence that should clarify, and legends for the map. Unfortunately, an animated GIF would likely not be readable at thumbnail size, and animated SVG files don't work in thumbnails.

Reading through the rest of the article I have no other issues. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 00:39, 31 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Mike Christie: See my comments above. Thanks, Pi.1415926535 (talk) 01:38, 31 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Passing. Re Willow Bridge: you could make it "further north at Willow Bridge Station (renamed 'North Somerville' in <date>)"; I think it's relevant to this article because the map has one name and the text the other name. But I won't hold up GA for that. Thanks for the addition legend in the caption; that's very helpful. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 01:46, 31 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

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