Billerica Industrial Track

The Billerica Industrial Track is a freight track in North Billerica, the surviving northern end of the old Billerica and Bedford Branch. It leaves the Lowell Line just south of the Mt. Pleasant Street bridge at the North Billerica station and runs south for a little over a mile along the west side of the main line, crossing Rogers Street and High Street, to Salem Road, where it connects with the yard tracks of Iron Horse Park, the former Boston and Maine shops. The state's rail map, compiled from Central Transportation Planning Staff data, names it the Billerica Industrial Track, owned by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and worked by Pan Am Railways, whose system CSX took over on June 1, 2022.

The track follows the oldest railroad roadbed in town after the main line itself. The two-foot Billerica and Bedford Narrow-Gauge Railroad came down this way from North Billerica in 1877, and in 1885 the Boston and Lowell relaid it to standard gauge as the start of the branch to Billerica Centre and Bedford, with a station at Bennett Hall on Boston Road (see Bennett Hall Station). The Boston and Maine's car and locomotive shops off High Street, opened in 1913, lie just east of the line, and their yard was connected to it near Salem Road. Passenger trains ended at the close of 1931, the line south of Billerica Centre was abandoned in 1962, and the section from the Billerica station north to Bennett Hall about 1980, leaving only this end, used to reach the industries at the shops.

Until 1992 the branch had its own track beside the main line past the North Billerica Railroad Depot, carried over Mt. Pleasant Street on the three-track bridge the Boston and Maine built in 1929, and its switch was about a mile north of the depot. A survey of that time described it as the "lightly used former Bedford Branch rails, which were only passable to Salem Road," serving as a second way into the Pond Street rail yard. When the bridge was replaced in 1992, the third track was removed to widen the station platform, the switch was moved to about 450 feet south of the new bridge with about 1,000 feet of new track, and the spur to the lumber company beside the station was taken out. An occasional freight still runs from the depot down to the Salem Road crossing and onto the park's spur, rejoining the main line toward Boston. South of Salem Road the rails continue across Floyd Street almost to Boston Road at Bennett Hall, but that stretch is listed as out of service.

Operators

• Billerica Industrial Track (1877-present)
• Billerica Industrial Track (1885-present)

References

1. MassGIS Data: Trains (rail lines layer), the source of the line name "BILLERICA IND TRK" (CTPS), MBTA ownership, Pan Am as freight operator, and the type codes (1 active, 6 out of service) for the segments north and south of Salem Road
2. Wikipedia, Iron Horse Park: Boston and Maine repair shops off High Street built 1913; a small freight runs from the depot to the Salem Road crossing, switches onto the park's spur and exits onto the main line toward Boston
3. Wikipedia, Billerica and Bedford Railroad: 1877 narrow gauge, standard-gauge reuse in 1885, passengers ended 1931, Bedford to Billerica abandoned 1962, Billerica to Bennett Hall about 1980
4. Bedford Depot Park, "Bedford's Railroad History": the Bedford and Billerica Branch opened May 1, 1885 from the main line at North Billerica; ICC approval of abandonment from Billerica Center to Bedford, Feb. 1, 1962
5. Wikipedia, Pan Am Railways: headquartered in Iron Horse Park; operated by CSX as a subsidiary from June 1, 2022