My brother was out metal detecting along what is now a walking trail in North Andover, Massachusetts which is about 14 miles from our house.
The line, was once the Essex Railroad. The line got its name because it existed only within Essex county in Massachusetts and ran between North Andover, MA and Peabody, MA The line was never profitable from the day it was built in the 1840s. The line was a subsidiary of the Eastern Railroad and built to compete directly with the entrenched Boston and Maine, who was a fierce competitor at the time, for the lucrative mill and textile business in Lawrence. After going bankrupt numerous times, the line eventually was including in the Boston and Maine Railroad as they gobbled up their competitors.
The line traversed mostly rural countryside between the city of Lawrence, MA, a major textile center, and Peabody, MA a textile and leather manufacturing center. The rest of the county was farms and small communities in between. The area today is still much the same, however, with more and more housing replacing the many farms that once dotted the county. The companies largest customers were at the North Andover end where they served the Davis and Furber Textile Machine manufacturing complex, and Stevens Textile Mills a short distance away. The rest of the line saw little traffic until it reached Peabody, which had numerous mills and tanneries, and the company interchanged with the B&M and Eastern RR in that area.
Since the line was never profitable, the B&M abandoned it in the mid-1920s, as it shed many unprofitable lines, from just past the Stevens Mills in North Andover all the way to Danvers where it interchanged with the Newburyport Branch and the Danvers Railroad. The short portion between Danvers and Peabody remained in operation until the mid-1980s. The infrastructure remained in place from this abandonment until WWII when everything was lifted and sold for scrap to help the war efforts.
In the mid-1960s the portion between the Stevens Mills and the Davis and Furber mills was removed after the Stevens Mills burned down. It was in the section just after the Stevens Mills location where my brother found the spikes. He also found some very old coins as well that he thinks belonged to some of crew members who switched the cars for the mills. The coins date back to the 1880s and early 1900s. Since these tracks remained in place into the 1960s, there are still some ties poking up through the dirt where the switch lead once was to serve the sidings into the mills.
The remaining portion of the line, from the North Andover/Lawrence line to the Davis and Furber manufacturing company was removed in the early-1980s after some vandals burned the trestle across a mill pond. Today, there are still remnants of tracks in this area since this end was busy even until its demise as it served some small warehouses and a chemical distributor. The Danvers to Peabody end remained in place as well until the mid-1980s, but like a lot of branches run by Guilford, this line to was lifted then as they discouraged branch line operations and focused on through operations.
With the spikes being so small, I'm going on the hunch that the rails were probably 60 lb. or 80 lb. rail since the line was probably never upgraded.
Way cool, ya think!
The line, was once the Essex Railroad. The line got its name because it existed only within Essex county in Massachusetts and ran between North Andover, MA and Peabody, MA The line was never profitable from the day it was built in the 1840s. The line was a subsidiary of the Eastern Railroad and built to compete directly with the entrenched Boston and Maine, who was a fierce competitor at the time, for the lucrative mill and textile business in Lawrence. After going bankrupt numerous times, the line eventually was including in the Boston and Maine Railroad as they gobbled up their competitors.
The line traversed mostly rural countryside between the city of Lawrence, MA, a major textile center, and Peabody, MA a textile and leather manufacturing center. The rest of the county was farms and small communities in between. The area today is still much the same, however, with more and more housing replacing the many farms that once dotted the county. The companies largest customers were at the North Andover end where they served the Davis and Furber Textile Machine manufacturing complex, and Stevens Textile Mills a short distance away. The rest of the line saw little traffic until it reached Peabody, which had numerous mills and tanneries, and the company interchanged with the B&M and Eastern RR in that area.
Since the line was never profitable, the B&M abandoned it in the mid-1920s, as it shed many unprofitable lines, from just past the Stevens Mills in North Andover all the way to Danvers where it interchanged with the Newburyport Branch and the Danvers Railroad. The short portion between Danvers and Peabody remained in operation until the mid-1980s. The infrastructure remained in place from this abandonment until WWII when everything was lifted and sold for scrap to help the war efforts.
In the mid-1960s the portion between the Stevens Mills and the Davis and Furber mills was removed after the Stevens Mills burned down. It was in the section just after the Stevens Mills location where my brother found the spikes. He also found some very old coins as well that he thinks belonged to some of crew members who switched the cars for the mills. The coins date back to the 1880s and early 1900s. Since these tracks remained in place into the 1960s, there are still some ties poking up through the dirt where the switch lead once was to serve the sidings into the mills.
The remaining portion of the line, from the North Andover/Lawrence line to the Davis and Furber manufacturing company was removed in the early-1980s after some vandals burned the trestle across a mill pond. Today, there are still remnants of tracks in this area since this end was busy even until its demise as it served some small warehouses and a chemical distributor. The Danvers to Peabody end remained in place as well until the mid-1980s, but like a lot of branches run by Guilford, this line to was lifted then as they discouraged branch line operations and focused on through operations.
With the spikes being so small, I'm going on the hunch that the rails were probably 60 lb. or 80 lb. rail since the line was probably never upgraded.
Way cool, ya think!