Fore River Railroad locomotive at Braintree Yard, August 2018

The Fore River Transportation Corporation is the operator of the Fore River Railroad, a

class III railroad In the United States, railroad carriers are designated as Class I, II, or III, according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$5 ...

in eastern

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

owned by the

Massachusetts Water Resources Authority The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) is a public authority in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that provides wholesale drinking water and sewage services to certain municipalities and industrial users in the state, primarily in th ...

. The railroad runs from the

Fore River Shipyard Fore River Shipyard was a shipyard owned by General Dynamics Corporation located on Weymouth Fore River in Braintree and Quincy, Massachusetts. It began operations in 1883 in Braintree, and moved to its final location on Quincy Point in 1901 ...

in the Quincy Point neighborhood of Quincy, Massachusetts, to the

Greenbush Line The Greenbush Line is a branch of the MBTA Commuter Rail system which serves the South Shore region of Massachusetts. The line runs from downtown Boston, Massachusetts through the cities and towns of Quincy, Weymouth, Hingham, Cohasset, an ...

of the

MBTA Commuter Rail The MBTA Commuter Rail system serves as the commuter rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's transportation coverage of Greater Boston in the United States. Trains run over of track to 141 different stations, with 58 statio ...

system. It was constructed in 1902 to serve the Fore River Shipyard. In 2015, the railroad received a $500,000 grant from the state of Massachusetts to improve its tracks. In 1987 the MWRA acquired the railroad and shipyard. MWRA contracts the operation of the railroad to the Fore River Transportation Corporation. MWRA uses the railroad to transport fertilizer that is produced by a privately owned processing facility, NEFCO

Biosolids Biosolids are solid organic matter recovered from a sewage treatment process and used as fertilizer. In the past, it was common for farmers to use animal manure to improve their soil fertility. In the 1920s, the farming community began also to use ...

, from solid sewage waste (sludge). The sludge is transported to NEFCO from the MWRA's

Deer Island Waste Water Treatment Plant The Deer Island Waste Water Treatment Plant (also known as Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant) is located on Deer Island, one of the Boston Harbor Islands in Boston Harbor. The plant is operated by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority ( ...

via a pipeline system under Boston Harbor that also transports sewage to Deer Island. The railroad also serves a Twin Rivers Technologies plant, shipping fatty acid products from the facility.

References

External links

Massachusetts railroads Switching and terminal railroads Fore River Shipyard {{US-rail-company-stub