The Lost Trains of Marlborough

The Lost Trains of Marlborough. Marlborough, Massachusetts. , There may be little evidence of it today, but train service was once a major part of Marlborough community life. , A downtown station with a connection to Boston via Framingham was opened in June of 1855. Known as the Marlborough Branch, it ran south, parallel to Maple Street, down to what was known as Marlborough Junction at the intersection of the Agricultural Branch Railroad, which connected Framingham to Northborough. , There were seven passenger trains to Boston every weekday and three on weekends. The fare was seventy-two cents. Three scratch tickets were good for 162 rides at seventeen cents per trip. Typical travel time to Boston was about an hour and a half. , During the 1930s, demand for passenger service decreased. Passenger service ended in 1937 and the Marlborough Branch depot, here at the corner of Florence and Main Streets, was demolished in 1939. However, freight service continued until 1966. Shoes and apples were the usual exports, while lumber, building supplies, coal, and leather were the primary imports. The rails and bridges were removed in 1968, leaving no sign of the once-flourishing railroad. , A northern line, from Lincoln Street in Marlborough, north to Fitchberg, also opened in 1855. There was no connection between the northern rail and the southern rails because there was significant rock ledge separating them. Passenger service on the northern line was terminated in 1939 and that train bed was later converted into the Assabet River Rail Trail, with the first portion opening in 2004. , [Captions] , . Left: Typical 1900s locomotive pulling the passenger cars at Marlborough's Main Street Station. , . Right: [unreadable in photograph]