In the mid- to late-1800s, competition among railroads to reach the burgeoning commercial center of Boston was fierce. One of the competitors was the Nashua, Acton and Boston Railroad, chartered in 1871. They built a railroad line between Nashua, NH and Acton, MA, at which a connection with the Framingham and Lowell Railroad was made. The NA&B declared bankruptcy in the early 1900s and was reorganized as the Nashua and Acton Railroad in 1907 and became part of the Boston and Maine Railroad.
The line was not profitable and was abandoned in 1925.