Billerica and Bedford Railroad

The Billerica and Bedford Railroad was a two-foot gauge railroad built in 1876 and 1877 from Bedford north through South Billerica and Billerica Centre to the Boston and Lowell Railroad at North Billerica, a distance of 8.63 miles. The Scientific American Supplement called it "the first two-feet gauge railroad built in this country." It ran for only a few months, from the late summer of 1877 into the spring of 1878, before it failed for want of money and its equipment was sold to the Sandy River Railroad in Maine.

The road was meant to bring a railroad to Billerica Centre, which the Boston and Lowell had left miles from a station when it was built along the north edge of the town in 1835. In 1875 George E. Mansfield came to Billerica with plans and proposals for a two-foot line from Bedford to North Billerica, pointing to the Festiniog Railway in Wales, fourteen miles long, as proof that so narrow a track would work. Hazen called him "of Boston"; the Scientific American Supplement of 1878 called him "of Bedford, Mass." "Discussion resulted in a charter," Hazen wrote, and the company was organized on May 10, 1876, with Capt. Charles A. Ranlett of South Billerica as president. The town of Billerica subscribed and paid $12,000, or 120 shares. Mansfield became general manager, and Hiram W. Blaisdell located the line as chief engineer.

Subscriptions and surveys took some months. Ground was broken "with much enthusiasm" in South Billerica on September 6, 1876, before a crowd that Bedford accounts put at about 500, and construction began in earnest after a ceremony at Bedford on May 12, 1877. The road had two Forney-type tank locomotives, the Ariel and the Puck, built in Boston by Hinkley in 1877, with two passenger cars, two excursion cars and a few freight cars. No station houses were built; trains stopped at marked places along the line, with turntables at Billerica and North Billerica and a wye and engine house at Bedford. At the north end the line met the Boston and Lowell at North Billerica, the station of the North Billerica Railroad Depot.

The first trains ran on August 31, 1877, and the state Board of Railroad Commissioners counted the road, 8.630 miles of two-foot gauge, among the lines built in the year ending September 30, 1877. Regular service followed in late November. An account of the road first published in 1879 gives the opening for service as November 28, 1877, while Bedford accounts say a full timetable of seven trains each way a day began on Thanksgiving Day, November 29. The commissioners officially inspected the line on December 17, 1877. Its novelty drew visitors, and on March 16, 1878 the Scientific American Supplement described its route, track, engines and cars.

The failure was financial. The road had been estimated at $50,000; Hazen noted that in the Scientific American article its projector put its finished cost at over $60,000, and Bedford accounts give about $71,000. Part of the subscription, Hazen wrote, "proved unsound or fraudulent," so the road "began operations under a heavy burden of debt," hardly earning its running expenses, and the directors could not finish its connections and equipment. By early 1878 it was in the hands of receivers and in bankruptcy. Captain Ranlett, whose last year Hazen said "was particularly devoted to the enterprise," died on April 17, 1878. The assignees sold the personal property at the Bedford engine house on June 6, 1878, for $9,000. Billerica was urged to give further aid and declined, and a plan of early 1879 for a new company to buy back the equipment and reopen the line failed when it could not win the required two-thirds vote in the Bedford town meeting. The commissioners' report for the year ending September 30, 1878 dropped the Billerica and Bedford from its list of corporations "on account of bankruptcy."

The locomotives and cars went to the new Sandy River Railroad, built in 1879 north from Farmington, Maine, where the Ariel and the Puck became its No. 1 and No. 2, and Mansfield went with them. Hazen, writing in 1883, observed that "time is rapidly obliterating the roadway through the town" and that children might one day doubt "that their fathers did once have such a railroad and regular trains running from Billerica to Bedford; and that merry school-children went shouting on excursions over the route." He wrote of it "with emotions in which amusement, chagrin, and regret are mingled." On May 1, 1885 the Boston and Lowell opened its standard-gauge Billerica and Bedford Branch, 8.1 miles from Bedford to the main line at North Billerica, laid on most of the old narrow-gauge roadbed.

People

• Charles A. Ranlett: President of the Billerica and Bedford Railroad from its organization May 10, 1876 until his death April 17, 1878
• Henry A. Hazen: Billerica historian (History of Billerica, 1883) who witnessed the road and wrote its history

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 276: Mansfield's 1875 proposal, Festiniog precedent, company organized May 10, 1876 under Capt. Ranlett, ground broken Sept. 6, opened autumn 1877, Ariel and Puck, costs
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 277: debt, bankruptcy, assignees, sale of personal property June 6, 1878 for $9000, town's $12,000 paid, equipment to the Sandy River Railroad
3. Hazen, Genealogical Register, p. 116: Capt. Charles A. Ranlett, president; his last year "particularly devoted to the enterprise of building the Narrow Gauge Railroad"
4. The Billerica & Bedford Railroad (1879 account first published by the Railroad Gazette, reprinted 1950): 8.63 miles, Mansfield as general manager, Blaisdell engineer, opened Nov. 28, 1877, inspected Dec. 17, 1877, sold June 6, 1878
5. Scientific American Supplement, No. 115, March 16, 1878, pp. 1826-1827: "The Billerica and Bedford, Mass., Two-Feet Gauge Railway"; "the first two-feet gauge railroad built in this country"; planned by Geo. E. Mansfield
6. Mass. Board of Railroad Commissioners, Ninth Annual Report (Jan. 1878), pp. 1-2: Billerica & Bedford, North Billerica to Bedford, gauge 2 feet, 8.630 miles, new in year ending Sept. 30, 1877
7. Mass. Board of Railroad Commissioners, Tenth Annual Report (Jan. 1879): the Billerica & Bedford dropped from the returns on account of bankruptcy; its 8.63 miles ceased to be operated
8. Bedford Depot Park, "Billerica & Bedford Railroad": groundbreaking Sept. 6, 1876 (about 500), Bedford ceremony May 12, 1877, first trains Aug. 31, 1877, Thanksgiving timetable, $71,000 cost, June 6 auction, 1879 revival vote
9. Bedford Depot Park, "Bedford's Railroad History": regular narrow-gauge service from Nov. 29, 1877; Boston and Lowell opened the 8.1-mile standard-gauge Bedford and Billerica Branch on May 1, 1885 on most of the old right of way
10. The Bedford Citizen (2020), "Bedford Explained": Billerica's 120 shares, stops without depots, turntables at Billerica and North Billerica, early 1878 bankruptcy, the failed Bedford vote of 1879
11. Wikipedia, Sandy River Railroad: built 1879 with rolling stock of the abandoned Billerica and Bedford; No. 1 and No. 2 formerly the Ariel and the Puck