Lowell Junction is a railroad junction located in
Andover, Massachusetts, about one mile south of the village of
Ballardvale
Ballardvale (sometimes written archaically as ''BallardVale'' or ''Ballard Vale'') is a village located within the boundaries of the town of Andover, Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. Growing originally in the 19th century around mills ...
.
The junction was created by the
Boston and Maine Railroad
The Boston and Maine Railroad was a U.S. Class I railroad in northern New England. Originally chartered in 1835, it became part of what was the Pan Am Railways network in 1983 (most of which was purchased by CSX in 2022).
At the end of 1970, B ...
in 1874, when they ran a
branch line off their main line to connect with the city of
Lowell in order to compete with its rival the
Boston and Lowell Railroad.
The branch line was built under the name of the
Lowell and Andover Railroad
The Lowell and Andover Railroad was a branch line of the Boston and Maine Railroad and was organized in 1873, after the Boston and Lowell Railroad's monopoly on Boston to Lowell service ended in 1865. The line opened in 1874 from the B&M's mai ...
and gave the B&M a direct link between Lowell and
Boston which it did not have before because of a 30-year monopoly that the Boston & Lowell was granted when it received its charter in 1830. By 1865, the monopoly was gone and the B&M was free to build a line to Lowell.
The rail junction is still in use as of November 2016 by
Pan Am Railways as part of its Freight Main Line between
Maine and upstate
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, but the connection between the former Lowell Branch and the main line heading south to Boston is not in service, as the freight service between Lowell and Boston is run down the old Boston & Lowell main line.
Before the junction was put in, the area was very rural and part of Ballardvale Village. After the junction went in, Lowell Jct has built up with industrial parks, office buildings and small neighborhoods.
Today, Lowell Junction sees up to 10 Pan Am Railways freights daily.
New Hampshire Northcoast Corporation
The New Hampshire Northcoast Corporation is a Class III railroad owned by Boston Sand & Gravel and offering freight service in parts of New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the United States. The company owns of the former Boston and Maine Cor ...
also runs two nightly freights under Pan Am Railways symbol, DOBO/BODO
References
*
* Boston & Maine Railroad Employes Timetable 4, April 28, 1929.
External links
Boston & Maine Railroad Historical SocietyTown of Andover
History of AndoverGIS Property MapsAndover Historical Society
Andover, Massachusetts: Proceedings at the Celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town
May 20, 1896 at books.google.
{{Coord, 42, 36, 58.1, N, 71, 9, 43.5, W, display=title
Boston and Maine Railroad
Transportation in Essex County, Massachusetts
Pan Am
Pan Am Railways