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The Southern New England Railway was a project of the Grand Trunk Railway (GT) to build a railroad from the GT-owned Central Vermont Railway at Palmer, Massachusetts south and east to the all-weather port of Providence, Rhode Island. Much grading and construction, including many large concrete supports, was carried out, but the project was not completed.
The railroad, conceived by GTR president Charles Melville Hays to break the near-monopoly of the New Haven Railroad in southern New England, was chartered in April 1910, and was to be built as a completely grade-separated air line, having low grades and long high bridges over valleys.
Hays went down with the RMS Titanic in April 1912; nevertheless, construction on the SNE commenced at full speed in May. However, all work stopped in November 1912, ostensibly due to an inability of worldwide bond markets to finance further GT expansion, although pressure from the New Haven, at the time closely allied with financier J. Pierpont Morgan, was widely suspected. Construction soon resumed in Massachusetts so that contractor John Marsch, who threatened litigation against the GT for breach of contract, could be paid for the work. However, construction in Rhode Island, for which a different contractor was responsible, did not restart. By 1916 almost all the grading and concrete work in Massachusetts was completed, although no steelwork other than on highway overpasses was ever erected. World War I was seen as only a temporary financial setback to construction, which, however, never resumed.
Several reasons have been given for the abandonment of the SNE project in addition to the war: bankruptcy of the GT due to overexpansion by subsidiary Grand Trunk Pacific; a desire by the reorganized railroad (Canadian National Railways) to concentrate on serving Canadian ports with existing lines rather than building new ones in the U.S.; the existence of an all-weather port in southern New England (New London) already served by the Central Vermont; the Federal control of American railroads between 1917 and 1920 and its disruptive aftermath; and the increasing influence of the motor truck and automobile (passenger service on the SNE had been contemplated along with freight).
Attempts were made throughout the 1920s, and into the early 1930s by politicians and businessmen, mostly from Rhode Island, to restart the work and to get the line completed as a way to break the New Haven's stranglehold on freight traffic in Rhode Island, but the Great Depression finally put an end to their efforts. Some concrete abutments were removed for highway projects starting as early as 1929, and several washouts later compromised the right-of-way, particularly during hurricanes in 1938 and in 1955.
The construction of the SNE's gently-graded "air line" had its geographical costs in high fills, long trestles, and sharp curves. Also of crucial importance to the Grand Trunk was avoiding Connecticut. The company purposely had not sought a charter to build through the home state of the rival New Haven, which Charles M. Hays assumed would mount significant opposition to the SNE in the Connecticut legislature.
In climbing out of Palmer, the SNE would have crossed over the Boston and Albany Railroad twice (in addition to the CV's diamond crossing of the B&A at Palmer, still in use today). The second crossing would have been a spectacular, tall steel trestle on a hairpin turn over the B&A and the Quaboag Valley.
In Millville, Massachusetts, the SNE would have passed over the Blackstone River on another (straighter) high-level bridge, with both the New York and New England Railroad (now abandoned) and the Providence and Worcester Railroad (still in use) below. Several full-height supports were built as well as several partial supports in the river.
The two above trestles were built for steel; however, one major trestle was made of wood and was actually built: a 1,000-foot long, 55-foot tall "beanpole" trestle over the French River and the New Haven-controlled Norwich and Worcester Railroad. For reasons of cost, the trestle was intended to be permanent. Typical of railroad construction at the time, the SNE also built many semi-permanent wooden trestles, around which fill would be dumped to create embankments.
The main route would have gone through Woonsocket, Rhode Island to downtown Providence, with a branch around the west side to the docks south of downtown. The former route, leading into Providence Union Station, was planned to pass through a tunnel under Smith Hill, on which little if any construction was undertaken before cessation of work in Rhode Island.
Some of the plans included a branch to Boston or a separate route to Boston from the Central Vermont, but they never reached the construction stage.
An official Massachusetts railroad map shows the entire right-of-way in the state as being of "abandoned" type, and of "unknown" ownership. [1] Most of the grade is overgrown, rock cuts flooded, and embankments quarried out for their gravel. Many sections have passed into private ownership and have been built over by modern developments. Many of the old concrete bridge abutments are still visible.
Two sections of the right-of-way have been improved as a public trails open to non-motorized vehicles. The longest is a five-mile section in Sturbridge that is in the Westville Lake recreation area, it can be accessed at Westville Dam, Wallace Road, and River Street. The other 2-3/4 mile long section named the Grand Trunk Trail is in the Douglas State Forest, it crosses SW Main Street, the Streeter Trail, the Midstate Trail, Wallum Lake Road and the Southern New England Trunkline Trail. [2]
The Southern New England Trunkline Trail follows not the path of the SNE, but rather the abandoned right-of-way of the New York and New England Railroad.
The Grand Trunk Railway was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, with corporate headquarters in London, United Kingdom. It cost an estimated $160 million to build. The Grand Trunk, its subsidiaries, and the Canadian Government Railways were precursors of today's Canadian National Railway.
A swing bridge is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span can then pivot horizontally as shown in the animated illustration to the right. Small swing bridges as found over canals may be pivoted only at one end, opening as would a gate, but require substantial underground structure to support the pivot.
The Providence and Worcester Railroad is a Class II railroad operating 612 miles (985 km) of tracks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, as well as New York via trackage rights. The company was founded in 1844 to build a railroad between Providence, Rhode Island, and Worcester, Massachusetts, and ran its first trains in 1847. A successful railroad, the P&W subsequently expanded with a branch to East Providence, Rhode Island, and for a time leased two small Massachusetts railroads. Originally operating on a single track, its busy mainline was double-tracked beginning in 1853, following a fatal collision that year in Valley Falls, Rhode Island.
Route 99, also known as the Woonsocket Industrial Highway, is a numbered state highway running 2.9 miles (4.7 km) in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The route is a nominally north–south limited-access freeway for its entire length. Route 99 serves Manville and the Highland Industrial Park, providing freeway access to the city of Woonsocket from Rhode Island Route 146, which bypasses the city. The southern terminus of Route 99 is at a partial interchange with Route 146 in Lincoln. The freeway has one interchange in Manville, a village in Lincoln, before terminating at an at-grade intersection with Rhode Island Route 122 in Woonsocket.
The Old Colony Railroad (OC) was a major railroad system, mainly covering southeastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island, which operated from 1845 to 1893. Old Colony trains ran from Boston to points such as Plymouth, Fall River, New Bedford, Newport, Providence, Fitchburg, Lowell and Cape Cod. For many years the Old Colony Railroad Company also operated steamboat and ferry lines, including those of the Fall River Line with express train service from Boston to its wharf in Fall River where passengers boarded luxury liners to New York City. The company also briefly operated a railroad line on Martha's Vineyard, as well as the freight-only Union Freight Railroad in Boston. The OC was named after the "Old Colony", the nickname for the Plymouth Colony.
The New York and New England Railroad (NY&NE) was a railroad connecting southern New York State with Hartford, Connecticut; Providence, Rhode Island; and Boston, Massachusetts. It operated under that name from 1873 to 1893. Prior to 1873 it was known as the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad, which had been formed from several smaller railroads that dated back to 1846. After a bankruptcy in 1893, the NY&NE was reorganized and briefly operated as the New England Railroad before being leased to the competing New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1898.
The Boston and Providence Railroad was a railroad company in the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island which connected its namesake cities. It opened in two sections in 1834 and 1835 - one of the first rail lines in the United States - with a more direct route into Providence built in 1847. Branches were built to Dedham in 1834, Stoughton in 1845, and North Attleboro in 1871. It was acquired by the Old Colony Railroad in 1888, which in turn was leased by the New Haven Railroad in 1893. The line became the New Haven's primary mainline to Boston; it was realigned in Boston in 1899 during the construction of South Station, and in Pawtucket and Central Falls in 1916 for grade crossing elimination.
The Blackstone Valley or Blackstone River Valley is a region of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It was a major factor in the American Industrial Revolution. It makes up part of the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor and National Historical Park.
The New York, Providence and Boston Railroad, normally called the Stonington Line, was a major part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad between New London, Connecticut and Providence, Rhode Island. It is now part of Amtrak's high-speed Northeast Corridor.
The Blackstone Canal was a waterway linking Worcester, Massachusetts, to Providence, Rhode Island through the Blackstone Valley via a series of locks and canals during the early 19th century.
The Southern New England Trunkline Trail (SNETT) is a rail trail in Massachusetts. The trail passes through the towns of Douglas, Uxbridge, Millville, Blackstone, Bellingham, and Franklin and is one of the longest trails in southern Massachusetts. It is designated for use by pedestrians, equestrians and non-motorized vehicles, with motorized off-road vehicles excluded.
The Moosup Valley State Park Trail is a rail trail located on the railbed of a former New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad line in the New England towns of Plainfield and Sterling in Windham County, Connecticut. The line ran from 1898 until 1968. The rail line was abandoned in the late 1960s, and was designated by the state as a multi-use trail in 1987. The trail is owned and operated by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
Franklin/Dean College is an MBTA Commuter Rail station located in Franklin, Massachusetts near Dean College. It serves the Franklin Line, for which it was the terminus from 1966 to 1988. The station has a mid-sized park and ride lot to serve town residents; Forge Park/495 station is intended to serve commuters from other nearby towns. The 1912-built station building still serves as a waiting hall and café, open during morning commute hours on weekdays. Franklin/Dean College station has a single side platform serving the line's single track; it is not accessible.
The East Bay Bike Path is a 14.5-mile (23.3 km) paved rail trail in Rhode Island. The path begins in Providence and India Point Park, crosses the Seekonk River via the George Redman Linear Park and Washington Bridge and continues southeast to Bristol along the shoreline of Narragansett Bay. The path passes through the city of East Providence, the hamlet of Riverside, and the towns of Barrington and Warren. It is part of the East Coast Greenway, a 3,000-mile system of trails connecting the Canada–US border in Maine to Key West. and provides access to Haines State Park, Brickyard Pond (Barrington), and Colt State Park. It is used annually by 1.1 million people.
The Blackstone River Greenway is a partially completed 48-mile (77 km) paved rail trail defining the course of the East Coast Greenway through the Blackstone Valley from Worcester, Massachusetts to Providence, Rhode Island.
The Blackstone Viaduct, or the New York & New England Railroad Viaduct is a historic viaduct in Blackstone, Massachusetts. The viaduct was built in 1872 by the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad and the American Bridge Company. The viaduct is 1,600 feet (490 m) long structure, consisting of masonry arches and earthen embankments in the Massachusetts portion of the village of Waterford. It runs from the Blackstone River in the east to a still-watered section of the defunct Blackstone Canal to the west. The most prominent portion of the structure is an 800-foot earthen embankment running west from the river that is 25 feet (7.6 m) high, and then a 375-foot (114 m) multiple-arch masonry bridge constructed out of granite which was sheathed in concrete in 1918. The structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
The Atglen and Susquehanna Branch is an abandoned branch line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The line ran from Lemoyne to Atglen, Pennsylvania.
The Providence, Warren and Bristol Railroad was a railroad in the state of Rhode Island that connected the city of Providence with Bristol, Rhode Island. The company was formed in 1854 by merging the Providence, Warren and Bristol Railroad Companies of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The 14.1-mile line itself was completed on July 12, 1855.
Blackstone station was a railroad station in Blackstone, Massachusetts. Opened in 1847, it was a stop for Providence–Worcester service until 1960, and Boston commuter service until 1966.
The East Providence Branch is a railroad line in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, in the United States. It connects Valley Falls, Rhode Island, to East Providence, Rhode Island, via South Attleboro, Massachusetts, and Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The branch was originally built by the Providence and Worcester Railroad in 1874, connecting its main line to a coal dock in East Providence. The final 1.41 miles (2.27 km) of the line were formally abandoned in 2006.
