“Switching” Trains on the Grand Junction Railroad.
This coming Monday, it would appear that the Cambridge City Council will be deciding on the future of the Grand Junction "Path" adjacent to the Grand Junction Railroad in Cambridge, or, at least, they are voting on funding.
I analyzed the Grand Junction “Path” situation in my post at https://charlesriverwhitegeeseblog.blogspot.com/2022/05/positive-news-on-grand-junction-with.html, entitled “Positive News on the Grand Junction, WITH MAJOR CAVEATS.” That was my blog publication of a letter I filed for the Cambridge City Council on May 9, 2022. The official publication is at https://cambridgema.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=3656&Inline=True, May 23, 2022 City Council meeting, communication 1, pages 62 to 76,
A decidedly impressive 15 minute video entitled “What is the Readville Switcher? | Rare Trains on the Grand Junction” has come to my attention. It is posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3BhmY7MB5Q. It does not show the Charles River White Geese, “but it does a downright beautiful job of presenting the switching trains which run on the Grand Junction, including videos of the switching trains as far away as South Station. The creators name is in the record as Boston by Rail.
Here is a still from South Station, at minute 0.20 of the video. The structure overhead is the central Bus Station over the South Station tracks.
He presents shots at various points in their runs.
From minute 1.23 is a photo on the main line from Boston to Worcester. I believe that is the southern side of the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge to the left and the Carlton Street Bridge straight ahead. The extension of the Carlton Street Bridge becomes an on / off ramp from Soldiers Field Road / Storrow Drive eastbound on the Boston University campus. To the right of the camera is a very narrow sliver of Boston with Brookline less than a block away.
Here, from minute 5.45, shot from the BU Bridge, is a view of a switcher train on the other, northern side of the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge. It is viewed across I90, the Mass. Pike. The building straight ahead is Boston University (BU)’s Fine Arts Building. The tall ones are dormitories.
The green sign over the highway is visible in our standard photo of the Boston end of Grand Junction bridge over the Charles River.
Here, from minute 11.04 is a view of those same tracks taken from next to the BU class building. The parking lot is accessory to the building. To the left is the inbound side of I90 and straight ahead is another view of the northern side of the Commonwealth Avenue bridge. The building on the upper right is a BU building on the south side of Commonwealth Avenue. This building is pretty close to the position from which the second previous shot was taken.
Here, from minute 6.09 is a view of a switcher train crossing the Grand Junction bridge over the Charles River. The transition from Grand Junction to main line is done under I90 behind the camera in the previous photo. The trains go reverse directions in the process. It comes onto the main line going west bound (behind the camera) and switches to east bound, the view in the prior picture.
To the right is that portion of Soldiers Field Road / Storrow Drive to which the Carlton Street extension connects. For the record, as is normal in the Boston area, they change the name of the street. I think this block is called University Road. Confusing drivers with multiple names for the same street is part of a way too common lack of concern for highway safety in New England government.
Various Boston University buildings are visible on the far side of the boulevard which is beyond the parkland which is visible. The tall building is the Law School.
Visible at the top left is an edge of the Destroyed Nesting Area of the Charles River White Geese. Then comes the Wild Area, for which the con artists are constantly dreaming up reasons to destroy. Then, the yellow building at the water’s edge is Boston University’s boat house on the Cambridge side. Above that is the Hyatt Regency Hotel which is seen in next photo from a different angle.
Here from minute 1.10 is a view of a train on the Grand Junction in Cambridge with the Hyatt Regency above. The fairly near building visible is at the near end of a series of buildings which ends with the parking lot through which we propose a connector be built from the Grand Junction Path to the Vassar Street turn. The parking lot on the opposite side of the connector where we propose a parking platform for replacement parking is just west of the Hyatt Regency complex. Straight ahead to the right is the general location of where the City Manager’s proposed connector for the Grand Junction Path to Brookline Street.
The building straight ahead and to the left is the building around which Vassar Street turns. The building straight ahead and to the right is a former Ford Plant, then a Polaroid building, then a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) building. Last I heard it is now owned by Harvard. It is visible in a lot of photos taken from the Destroyed Nesting Area on the other side of Memorial Drive.
Here from minute 11.58 is a view identified by the creator as Fort Washington Park with a switch train straight ahead. I do not recognize the park. Straight ahead is the monster dorms built by MIT with Cambridge assistance as a method of forcing the MBTA to build a proposed subway through the Wild Area. That will not happen, as I analyzed in detail in the Grand Junction Path analysis.
This, to the right, would be the Fort Washington Crossing, MIT’s 2014 proposed exit for the Grand Junction Path which could be the site of the easement transfers voted by the Cambridge City Council for a new dorm. That new dorm could block MIT’s 2014 proposed exit for the Grand Junction Path.
Further on up, from minute 2.13, is a Switcher crossing Massachusetts Avenue on the Grand Junction. The building identified as Metropolitan Storage has not been used for Storage for years. It was purchased by MIT and used for its purposes.
And here, from minute 7.22 is a switch train crossing Main Street, the next major street north of Massachusetts Avenue. At this point, MIT has built a building above the Grand Junction.
Here, from MIT’s 2014 report to the Cambridge City Council on the Grand Junction path, is MIT’s map placing things in perspective.
The Grand Junction Path is identified and marked in red as relevant to this discussion.
City Streets are shown in blue lines. The upper end of the marked Grand Junction Path is Main Street. The line below that line is Massachusetts Avenue. It becomes the next bridge crossing the Charles River to the right (east) of the BU Bridge.
Since this is MIT’s map, the lower end of that colored line would appear to be at the Fort Washington crossing. To the left of the Grand Junction Path marking, you can see a blue line for Vassar Street running below the Grand Junction, including the Vassar Street turn to which our proposal connects. The broken brown line indicates the Grand Junction Railroad. The Grand Junction, on the Boston side, is shown traveling to the west. This map does not show the main line to the east to which the video devotes a lot of attention.
Trains which have been seen in the above photos, if they are coming through Cambridge to South Station, follow the Grand Junction railroad as shown on this map, transfer to the main line to Worcester on the Boston side and reverse direction traveling to the east and eventually wind up at South Station. This part of the route is not shown in this map.
A caveat. I am passing on this report because it really does an excellent job communicating current use of the Grand Junction. I have two years actual railroad experience and for at least five years, I have been working on the state's analysis of rebuilding to be done on I90, including its relationship to the Grand Junction Railroad. I am in no way claiming this video is perfect in all its analyses. I am simply passing it on because it does an excellent job.
