As a 78 year old man that was born and raised in Lowell with a grandfather that was a conductor on the B&M and a dad that worked at HE Fletcher's quarry, I still have a picture of me as a child standing on the back of the 410 buried in the weeds on the property of the quarry, sometime in the fifty's.
I have just come across your channel this past weekend.. I have no idea why it was never suggested to me prior to now seeing how long and the content of which I've viewed and subscribed to.. in any case I have found it now and I absolutely love the content. What an awesome informative channel you have. Keep it coming it is a history lesson worth sharing..thank you for doing so.
Great video! I immediately think of the B&A’s Highland Branch (now the Green Line’s D branch) as another location where railroad tracks were converted to trolley tracks.
The high speed trolley line from Ashmont to Mattapan is another. At one time the railroad ran beyond Mattapan to join the "Second District" on the way to Readville.
I live in and love NH but I will always miss my hometown of Lowell. If it wasn't so expensive to buy something there I would even consider moving back.
Currently going to Lowell High School, and I walk over these train tracks daily. I never knew until this video that actually trains with freight used to run right up into downtown Lowell.
Another great video and thanks for the hystory on the 410 and the combine car. I think it would be very cool if you did similar videos about the other surviving boston and maine railroad steam locomotives. As well as the early Diesel locomotives that still survive!! Hope you consider this and happy Thanksgiving!!
Being from the Lowell myself this video was an absolute treat. I learned a lot from this video. I never knew the trolley line was actually an industrial spur. I knew it was used in the 1900’s but I didn’t know that it was use till that late. it also reminds me of an abandoned passenger car that’s probably Ex B&M that’s not too far from there up in Tyngsborough. The diagrams reminded me of them as they look relatively the same.
A little known fact is that in model RR's long S curve wooden bridges are popular but in real life they were rare, but in Lowell the B&M has one that curved behind the warehouses over a canal, but it was only about the length of a football field
1:30 "The Middlesex Canal was an early solution to the freight and transportation problems" Well, the image at 1:33 certainly isn't that canal. That's either a water supply or a channelized creek but, with a weir like that in it, it's not going to be transporting any freight.
We agree! Occasionally, we are unable to locate photos which match up 100% with narration, and instead must use images of the surrounding area or atmosphere, as in this case.
