vanshnookenraggen (is that a single name?) has got a great photographed and mapped walking tour of the Grand Junction Railroad right of way. I’ve been to his (?) site on a couple of occasions to check out his Future MBTA maps, but only discovered the walking tours recently.

The Grand Junction basically connects North Station to South Station by cutting through Somerville and Cambridge, MA. I actually lived down the street from where it crosses Cambridge Street just outside of Lechmere Square.

The tracks are rickety though used pretty much every night. Travelling slowly, the creeping locomotive would unleash its horn at regular intervals. Listening from my third storey apartment, it was easy to mark the progress as the soundings grew louder and clearer then softer and muffled. On a winter night, transmitting through the crisp air and the thin walls of my flat, the clarion lost only a little of its potency.

I’ve perused most of the site at this point. If you’re into old rail right of ways, urban exploration, or the MBTA I’m sure you’ll spend some quality time there too.

The other night I spent about an hour looking at a couple of web sites for folks interested in old railroads and local history. If you’ve ever lived near a railroad track in Massachusetts, you’ll want to go check out Mystery Depots in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and Railroad Stations in Massachusetts.

Mystery Depots’ mission is to determine the identity and stories of stations that appear in photos. Railroad Station in Massachusetts provides a comprehensive listing of all of the depots which were in the state. They both have photos, history, and something of a community built around them. Unfortunately, no maps!

I came upon these sites while looking for information about Clematis Brook Station, a stop which used to exist between Waverly Square in Belmont, MA and Waltham Center in Waltham, MA. I first became aware of this station’s existence while browsing Yahoo! Maps a few years ago. It’s very close to where I grew up, but I’d never heard of it. It turns out that it is one of two stops that used to exist between Waverly and Waltham Center. Every few months I think I should try and find it, but haven’t yet.

I’ve had a life long fascination with trains. It peaked when I was 8 or 9: my burning desire was to have a permanent HO train setup. I drew plans, researched railroads and all things train related for about a year. Alas, there was no room in a single floor rental for such a rig, and by the time my folks bought a house, I was on to spaceships.

Still, any time I come near a track I’m disappointed if I don’t catch a glimpse of a train. I often wonder what it would have been like to have taken the trip from home to college–Boston, MA to Troy, NY–on the Boston & Maine instead of the Mass Pike. I’m always on the lookout of old rail right of ways.

For example, when Google Maps first came out, the first thing I did was to see if I could trace the abandoned rail right-of-ways of the Central Mass Railroad. You can.

Anyway, once the the Boston area is no longer encased in ice, I’ll take a walk down the tracks and see if I can find some remnants of Clematis Brook Station. This time I’m more highly motivated.