Talk:Fitchburg Line

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Station and junction listing

• What is the source for the station listing? Was West Cambridge in Cambridge or Arlington? (Arlington used to be known as West Cambridge, before 1867.) -- Beland (talk) 06:15, 21 May 2008 (UTC)
• I think there is or was a junction (not currently listed) with one or more other railroads near what is now Alewife (MBTA station); see the links to the local bike paths, which used old railroad rights-of-way. There are also still intact pieces of the Watertown Branch Railroad nearby. -- Beland (talk) 02:12, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

Definitely in Cambridge. Judging from the placement between Porter Sq. and Hills Crossing, this would be the former West Cambridge station at 137 Sherman Street. Per the mileage from Belmont Center, the Hills Crossing station would have been on the Cambridge-Belmont boundary. The junction you have in mind could have been with the Lexington Branch. Hertz1888 (talk) 03:25, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

OK, I found the Watertown Branch connections on Google Maps satellite, and also added the Fitchburg Cutoff, and Lexington and West Cambridge Railroad connections. -- Beland (talk) 00:31, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

I'll be doing a few slight modifications shortly. I already updated the route template to reflect the actual order - South Asburnham is outbound from West Wachusett. I'm planning to add the 0.0 mile to North Station, and separate the Littleton box into two - the old station at mile 31.47, and the new station at 30.16 miles.

Once I've got a map done - with exact mileages from matching the curves - I'll add mileages for the two Somerville stations, West Wachusett, and Gardner. I'll also be editing the template again - there's no sense to having the former South Asburnham and Gardner stations on the side map, when none of the other former stations are. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 01:54, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Alright, map is done, and link posted. The 2.69 miles for the Park St. station listed in the Guilford link is not a typo - it agrees exactly with my map, which agrees exactly with other mileages listed. I'll clean it up soon - add mileages for the splits, add a couple of the Ashburnham splits, and add the secondary mileages for the outer stations. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 03:44, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

These are "official" mileages right? You are not just measuring off a map I hope? Grk1011/Stephen (talk) 12:26, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Duh. Duh duh duh. I'll revert that, and look in the official database. I do feel that the mileages are exactly accurate, though, and it's straight-up interpolation from the data from other sources. Can someone else determine if it's verifiable / usable / etc? I'm not entirely familiar with how that would be determined. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 21:39, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

There are two things (that I know of) that complicate measuring your own mileages: 1) Say for a station, which end of the platform do you measure from? Is that where the MBTA measures from? and 2) I've seen the track charts for some of the commuter rail lines and the mile markers aren't always placed each mile. Therefore, what you find on a map might not be accurate in terms of how the line assigns its mileages. Grk1011/Stephen (talk) 23:18, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

The FRA source, while not giving mile markers for most crossings, does give 2.70 miles for Park St. in Cambridge. From that, I can run a curve 2.70 miles back to North Station, which will give me an absolute zero point. The whole line is the Fitchburg RR mainline, and everything out to Fitchburg agrees with my map and the official mileages. I don't know what that means for verifibility, but I can nail where on the platforms the mileage is, and cross-check with crossing further out.

Where can one find these track charts? Pi.1415926535 (talk) 20:28, 26 October 2010 (UTC)