MBTA Commuter Rail Old Colony Lines Poster

$30.00 – $80.00

The Old Colony Lines are all that remain of the Old Colony Railroad which served southern Massachusetts and Cape Cod. The first line ran to Plymouth in 1845 with a second branch to Fall River via Middleborough opening in a year later. Service to Fall River was part of a “boat train” where passengers would board a steamship to New York City. The Greenbush Branch opened in 1849 as a separate charter under the South Shore Railroad but this was separated from the Old Colony in 1854. By 1893 J.P Morgan’s NY, New Haven and Hartford Railroad had taken control of both railroads. In 1958, due to financial difficulty, the NYNH&H stopped all passenger service on the Old Colony Lines, stranding riders and growing south shore suburbs. The MTA, and its successor the MBTA, saw the potential of extending rapid transit service along the former railroad and designed a more suburban oriented subway line which used large park-and-ride facilities to appeal to suburban drivers. The MBTA Red Line was extended to Quincy in 1971 and Braintree in 1980. Commuter rail service to Plymouth and Middleborough was restored by 1997. The Greenbush branch, which was in worse shape than the others, took another decade to open. When the Middleborough branch was being rebuilt, plans included extending service as far as Buzzards Bay but were ultimately scrapped due to funding. Today service to Cape Cod is provided by the CapeFLYER from Memorial Day to Columbus Day as a joint operation by the MBTA and CCRTA, although no official MBTA commuter rail service has been adopted.

Printed on Satin finish 80# cover stock – 220 GSM. Made in the USA! Standard production time is 5 days. Allow more time for shipping.

SKU: N/A Categories: , Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Additional information

Weight N/A
Dimensions N/A
Size

18"x24", 24"x36", Framed 18" x 24"

Related products

  • Quick View

    Boston Historic “T” Expansion Track Map

    $375.00 – $500.00

    Boston opened the first subway in the US in 1897 and immediately began expanding it. Since then numerous plans have been drawn up, some are simple extensions while others are whole sale reimaginations of the subway. This map shows in detail each official proposal with the history of each idea.

    The map acts as a “choose your own adventure” where by each variant of every plan is drawn. The reader can pick and choose which lines they think could have been built and what the system might have looked like today if they had.

    Fine art prints are made in Williamsburg, Brooklyn NY on Semi-Gloss, 10mil Premium Luster Paper.

    For more information about the map see the original blog post here.

    Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
  • Quick View

    MBTA Orange Line T Poster

    $30.00 – $80.00

    First opened in 1901 the Orange Line was the second part of Boston’s subway system to open. The tunnel under Tremont St was converted from trolleys to heavy rail to allow the new elevated trains from Charlestown to run through to Dudley Sq. in the South End. A second elevated section known as the Atlantic Ave El ran from Castle Sq. in the South End to North Station along Atlantic Ave to serve the maritime industries along the waterfront. In 1904 the Washington St tunnel was opened specifically for use by elevated trains and the Tremont St subway was switched back for trolley use.

    The Orange Line was designed to collect commuters at elaborate transfer stations in Charlestown and Roxbury and quickly move them downtown. Suburban stations were spaced farther apart and downtown station platforms were built catty-corner from one another. This spread commuters out so that Boston’s notoriously narrow streets would not be over crowded by subway passengers.

    As the city grew so did the Orange Line being extended to Forest Hills and Everett (a further extension to Malden was halted until the 1970s). As the maritime industry faded and ridership dropped the Atlantic Ave El was demolished and sold for scrap during World War II.

    While the El served the city well it was not popular as it was loud, dark, and dirty. Plans were laid as early as 1945 to remove the El and rebuild as a subway.

    In the 1970s the city canceled ambitious plans to run highways through and around the city and monies were transferred to subway construction. The northern section was rebuilt first, removing the elevated tracks through Charlestown and moving them west along a new subway to Malden in 1975.

    The southern section was rebuilt along the route for the canceled I-95 expressway through Jamaica Plain to Forest Hills in 1987. While the new Orange Line was modern and fast the new route bypassed the existing community of Roxbury which relied heavily on mass transit. Service along the old route was replaced by the Silver Line bus in 2002.

    Printed on Satin finish 80# cover stock – 220 GSM. Made in the USA! Standard production time is 5 Days. Please add more time for shipping.

    Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
  • Quick View

    BART Antioch-Millbrae Line Poster

    $30.00 – $80.00

    The Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) was, along with the WMATA in Washington D.C., one of the great centrally planned post-war rapid transit systems aimed at addressing the rise of the highway and auto-centric suburbs after World War II in the United States. Planning began in the 1950s for a unified high speed rail system that would serve both the dense inner cities of San Francisco and Oakland and their newly expanding low-rise suburbs. Stations would be spaced closer in the central business districts and further out in the suburbs.

    Originally planned to connect Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties BART was scaled back when San Mateo dropped out in favor of commuter rail service and the Marin line was dropped due to engineering concerns about running a rail line over the Golden Gate Bridge. Construction began in 1964 and the initial segments began to come online in 1972 and the majority of the system opening by 1974.

    The Pittsburg/Bay Point–SFO/Millbrae Line, also known as the Pittsburg/Bay Point Line or the Concord Line (from the original terminus), was the second line to open in 1973 between Concord and MacArthur stations and extended to Daly City when the Transbay Tube opened in 1974.

    In 1995 the line was extended northeast to Pittsburg/Bay Point Point and in 2003 the line was extended south to SFO/Millbrae.

    The Pittsburg/Bay Point Line has the distinction of running with the longest train sets in the system; 10 car trains on weekdays and 8 or 9 car trains on evenings and weekends.

    The section of track between Concord and Walnut Creek was the site of the BART groundbreaking ceremony in 1964 presided over by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Currently a new eBART system is being built east of Pittsburg/Bay Point station using Diesel Multiple Unit trains (as opposed to electric third-rail trains) to Antioch.

    Printed on Satin finish 80# cover stock – 220 GSM. Made in the USA! Standard production time is 5 Days. Please add more time for shipping.

    Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
  • Quick View

    MBTA Red Line T Poster

    $30.00 – $80.00

    In 1912 the Red Line benefited from being the last of the original subways in Boston to open. A decade of subway building allowed the Red Line to be designed with larger trains and platforms that were easier to navigate (unlike the disconnected Orange Line platforms). Planned as an elevated subway until the citizens of Cambridge objected, the original route connected Harvard Sq. with Park St. At Harvard Sq. a parallel subway was built for trolleys to transfer commuters from the northwestern suburbs and is still in use today.

    The Red Line was quickly extended to South Boston and large transfer stations were built at Broadway and Andrew Sq. to collect trolley (and later bus) commuters coming from Dorchester.

    In 1926 and 1927 the Red Line was extended to Ashmont in Dorchester along the route of and old commuter rail road. Though the subway was proposed to be extended further to Mattapan the residents of Milton and southern Dorchester opted for a high speed trolley route instead, pre-dating the concept of light rail.

    Plans were drawn up to create a new branch of the Red Line to Braintree as early as 1945 but construction didn’t begin for another 20 years. First to Quincy in 1971 and finally to Braintree in 1980 the new branch was designed to bypass Dorchester for a quicker commute.

    At the other end the Red Line was extended northwest from Harvard Sq. to Alewife in 1985. Originally planned to run out to Lexington along the abandoned Boston and Maine Railroad the line was cut back when residents of Arlington protested.

    The Red Line runs two heavy rail routes, Alewife-Ashmont and Alewife-Braintree (which skips Savin Hill).

    A light rail section runs from Ashmont to Mattapan using refurbished PPC trolleys from the 1940s.

    Printed on Satin finish 80# cover stock – 220 GSM. Made in the USA! Standard production time is 5 Days. Please allow more time for shipping.

    Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page

MBTA Commuter Rail Old Colony Lines Poster

Add to cart