Charlemont is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,185 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Conway is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,761 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.
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 is now the Pan Am Railways network in 1983.
Western Massachusetts, known colloquially as “Western Mass,” is a region in Massachusetts, one of the six U.S. states that make up the New England region of the United States. Western Massachusetts has diverse topography; 22 colleges and universities, with approximately 100,000 students; and such institutions as Tanglewood, the Springfield Armory, and Jacob's Pillow.
The Hoosac Tunnel is a 4.75-mile (7.64 km) active railroad tunnel in western Massachusetts that passes through the Hoosac Range, an extension of Vermont's Green Mountains. It runs in a straight line from its east portal, along the Deerfield River in the town of Florida, to its west portal in the city of North Adams.
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 Railroad's Southern Division.
Shunpiking is the act of deliberately avoiding roads that require payment of a fee or toll to travel on them, usually by traveling on alternative "free" roads which bypass the toll road. The term comes from the word shun, meaning "to avoid", and pike, a term referring to turnpikes, which is another name for toll roads. People who often avoid toll roads sometimes call themselves shunpikers. Historically, certain paths around tollbooths came to be so well known they were called "shun-pikes".
Deerfield River is a river that runs for 76 miles (122 km) from southern Vermont through northwestern Massachusetts to the Connecticut River. The Deerfield was historically influential in the settlement of western Franklin County, Massachusetts, and its namesake town. The Deerfield River is the Connecticut River's second longest tributary in Massachusetts, 2.1 miles (3.4 km) shorter than the Metropolitan Springfield's Westfield River.
The Troy and Greenfield Railroad, chartered in 1848, ran from Greenfield, Massachusetts, United States, to the Vermont state line. It was leased to the Troy and Boston Railroad in 1856, then consolidated into Fitchburg Railroad 1887 which in turn was acquired by Boston and Maine Railroad by lease in 1900.
The Fitchburg Railroad is a former railroad company, which built a railroad line across northern Massachusetts, United States, leading to and through the Hoosac Tunnel. The Fitchburg was leased to the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1900. The main line from Boston to Fitchburg is now operated as the MBTA Fitchburg Line; Pan Am Railways runs freight service on some other portions.
The Central Massachusetts Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts. The eastern terminus of the line was at North Cambridge Junction where it split off from the Middlesex Central Branch of the Boston and Lowell Railroad in North Cambridge and through which it had access to North Station in Boston. From there, the route ran 98.77 miles west through the modern-day towns of Belmont, Waltham, Weston, Wayland, Sudbury, Hudson, Bolton, Berlin, Clinton, West Boylston, Holden, Rutland, Oakham, Barre, New Braintree, Hardwick, Ware, Palmer, Belchertown, Amherst, and Hadley to its western terminal junction at N. O. Tower in Northampton with the Connecticut River Railroad.
The Norwottuck Branch Rail Trail, formerly the Norwottuck Rail Trail, is an 11-mile (18 km) combination bicycle/pedestrian paved rail trail running from Northampton, Massachusetts, through Hadley and Amherst, to Belchertown, Massachusetts. It opened in 1992, and is now part of the longer Mass Central Rail Trail.
The rail crossing of the Connecticut River at this location originates from the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad. The V&MRR was chartered in 1844 and completed an extension between Millers Falls, Massachusetts and Brattleboro, Vermont by 1850. Alvah Crocker, a paper and railroad magnate and U.S. Representative, was the first president of the V&MRR. Initially, the V&MRR was operated by Crocker's Fitchburg Railroad.
Williamstown Rail Yard and Station Historic District is a historic district at the junction of Cole Avenue and N. Hoosac Road in Williamstown, Massachusetts.The rail yard was an important junction point for the railroads of the area in the late 19th century, serving as the western terminus for trains passing through the Hoosac Tunnel to points east. The yard's facilities included a locomotive repair shop and a railroad roundhouse, although the latter has not survived. The district was listed the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
The Connecticut River Railroad was a railroad located along the Connecticut River in western Massachusetts, formed in 1845 from the merger of two unfinished railroads. Its main line from Springfield to East Northfield, Massachusetts, opened in stages between 1845 and 1849. It built several branches and over the years acquired additional lines in Vermont. The railroad was acquired by the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1893.
The John W. Olver Transit Center, also called the JWO Transit Center, is an intermodal transit hub for Franklin County, Massachusetts. Located in Greenfield, it currently serves Franklin Regional Transit Authority (FRTA) local bus routes plus intercity bus service. Amtrak's Greenfield station is also located here, with one daily Vermonter round trip and two daily Valley Flyer round trips, which are extensions of Amtrak-run Hartford Line trains.
Union Station is a historic building in Northampton, Massachusetts, that served as a train station from 1897 until 1987. Built at the close of the nineteenth century, the structure incorporates many features of the Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style. The buff brick masses of the station are trimmed with red Longmeadow brownstone and hooded by red tile roofs. Steep dormers protrude from the roofline. The interior once featured Italian marble floors, oak woodwork, and a large fireplace.
Western Gateway Heritage State Park is a history-focused Massachusetts state park in the city of North Adams managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation. Exhibits at the park, which is located in a former railyard, tell the story of the creation of the Hoosac Tunnel. The freight yard was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 as the Freight Yard Historic District.
Holyoke station is an Amtrak intercity train station near the corner of Main and Dwight streets in Holyoke, Massachusetts, United States. The station opened on August 27, 2015, eight months after Amtrak's Vermonter service was re-routed to the Connecticut River Line through the Pioneer Valley.
The Connecticut River Line is a railroad line owned by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), that serves the "Knowledge Corridor" between Springfield and East Northfield, Massachusetts.
