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The Wildcat Branch is a single track railroad
branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industri ...
which connects the
MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...
Lowell Line The Lowell Line is a railroad line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, running north from Boston to Lowell, Massachusetts. Originally built as the New Hampshire Main Line of the Boston & Lowell Railroad and later operated as part of the Boston & M ...
in
Wilmington, Massachusetts Wilmington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Its population was 23,349 at the 2020 United States census. History Wilmington was first settled in 1665 and was officially incorporated in 1730, from parts of Woburn, Readi ...
to the MBTA
Haverhill Line The Haverhill Line (formerly named the Haverhill/Reading Line) is a branch of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, running north from downtown Boston, Massachusetts through the cities and towns of Malden, Melrose, Wakefield, Reading, Wilmington, An ...
at Wilmington Junction. The total length of the branch line from the connection with the Lowell Line to the merge with the Haverhill Line is . It was operated from 1836 to 1848, then rebuilt in 1874, and has been used since. The branch's name is in reference to Wilmington's high school mascot, the Wildcats. The entire length of the current branch line is within the town of Wilmington.


History


Original line

The
Boston and Lowell Railroad The Boston and Lowell Railroad was a railroad that operated in Massachusetts in the United States. It was one of the first railroads in North America and the first major one in the state. The line later operated as part of the Boston and Maine R ...
was chartered on June 5, 1830, and opened between its namesake cities on June 24, 1835. On March 15, 1833, while the B&L was under construction, the Andover and Wilmington Railroad was incorporated to build a branch line from Wilmington to
Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia * Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Ando ...
. The A&W opened on August 8, 1836; it became the Andover & Haverhill Railroad which was quickly merged into the nascent
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 ...
. By 1843 the B&M ran from Wilmington to
Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...
; however, it was still dependent on the B&L to reach Boston. The B&M opened a new route (the Western Route) from Wilmington Junction (three miles north of Wilmington) to Boston via
Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...
in July 1845, thus negating the need for the original line between Wilmington and Wilmington Junction. The B&L operated the line for three years; its abandonment in 1848 was the first railroad abandonment in New England.


Rebuilt line

In 1874, the B&L rebuilt the line; some sections are on the original grade, while others are slightly west. Rather than connecting to the B&M mainline, this Wilmington Branch paralleled the Western Route to a new Wilmington Junction station at the junction with the Salem and Lowell Branch. This gave the B&L a route to Lowell via the S&L and the Lowell and Lawrence Railroad. The B&L was merged into the B&M at the end of the 19th century. Passenger service on the S&L was abandoned west of Wilmington Junction in 1924 and east of it in 1932, but the branch was used to run some service to Haverhill and beyond as it avoided slow grade crossings in Malden and Wakefield. It still connects to the Western Route at Wilmington Junction and runs parallel to it for half a mile.


Cutbacks

On June 14, 1959, the B&M introduced a series of service cutbacks, including the abandonment of the north half of the Woburn Loop. The Western Route was abandoned from
Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...
to Wilmington Junction; all service to Haverhill and beyond was rerouted via the Wilmington Branch. North Wilmington on the Western Route was replaced with Salem Street station, the first station ever built on the Wilmington Branch. When the newly formed
MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...
began funding B&M commuter service in January 1965, state subsidies were provided only for service to Reading on the Western Route and Wilmington on the Lowell Line; local governments were required to fund out-of-district service. Salem Street was closed on June 30, 1967, as the B&M cut all service on the line except for a single round trip to Haverhill. That single trip was cut in June 1976.


Modern service

The MBTA bought the B&M commuter rail assets, including the Wildcat Branch, on December 27, 1976. The Reading line was re-extended to Haverhill as the Haverhill/Reading Line on December 17, 1979. Most trains on the line use the Western Route via Reading; however, the line south of Reading is single-tracked in many locations due to the 1970s construction of the
Haymarket North Extension The Haymarket North Extension is a section of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's rapid transit Orange Line which currently constitutes the northern section of the line. It runs from North Station through an underground crossing of th ...
of the
MBTA Orange Line The Orange Line is a rapid transit line operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) as part of the MBTA subway system. The line runs south on the surface from Oak Grove station in Malden, Massachusetts through Malden and Me ...
subway and has numerous grade crossings, so some express trips run via the Wildcat and the lower Lowell Line.
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
'' Downeaster'' service to Maine began on December 14, 2001; all ''Downeaster'' service uses the Wildcat except during service disruptions such as construction. The line also carries some freight service by
Pan Am Railways Pan Am Railways, Inc. (PAR) is a subsidiary of CSX Corporation that operates Class II regional railroads covering northern New England from Mattawamkeag, Maine, to Rotterdam Junction, New York. Pan Am Railways is primarily made up of former Clas ...
, primarily the train "DOBO" (
Dover, New Hampshire Dover is a city in Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 32,741 at the 2020 census, making it the largest city in the New Hampshire Seacoast region and the fifth largest municipality in the state. It is the county se ...
, to
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
), which mainly hauls sand and gravel from the New Hampshire Northcoast railroad to the Boston Sand and Gravel facility in Somerville.


References


External links

{{commons category MBTA Commuter Rail Wilmington, Massachusetts