Wayland & Sudbury Branch Railroad

The Central Massachusetts Railroad was chartered from the original Wayland and Sudbury Branch Railroad and Massachusetts Central Railroad and started construction in 1870. The railroad line was built in progressive stages westward from Boston, with construction halting in 1883 due to bankruptcy filing, resuming in 1886, and finally reaching Northampton in 1887 (by then under control of the Boston & Maine Railroad as its Central Massachusetts Branch).

In 1902, the B&M purchased the line outright, becoming its official owner. Over the next 5 years, the line between West Berlin and Oakdale was relocated due to the impounding of the Nashua River in order to form the Wachusett Reservoir, which ultimately submerged the original routing (which was partially used to build the Nashua River dam, being converted to 3' gauge to do so).

Eventually, traffic along the line suffered until only a single passenger train operated over it. Thus the B&M started routing traffic over adjacent lines and began abandoning the entire route in pieces between 1931 and 1979, when the final piece on the western end of the former Central Massachusetts Railroad was closed, at the time under the Springfield Terminal Railway, a subsidiary of the Guildford Rail System.

A rough timeline of construction and abandonment (not all abandonments/stations shown):

      Northampton  Amhearst  Belchertown   Palmer  Ware  Rutland  Barre  Jefferson  Oakdale  Hudson  Cambridge
1881                                                                                           |---------|
1882                                                                         |-----------------|---------|
1886                                                         |---------------|---------------------------|
1887                                                 |-------|-------------------------------------------|
1887       |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
1902       |-------------------------- Boston & Maine RR ------------------------------------------------|
1931       |----------|..abandoned..|--------------------------------------------------------------------|
1933       |----------|             |--------|.....abandoned........|------------------------------------|
1938       |----------|             |........|                      |....abandoned....|------------------|
1971       |----------|                                                               |....abandoned.....|
1979       |abandoned.|

Boston & Maine Railroad
Docket: 9529	7/14/1932	Section: 1
App. of Boston and Maine R. for certificate (a) to operate its trains over that part of the Ware River Branch of the New York Central RR. Co. (leased from the Boston & Albany RR.), extending between Palmer, in Hampden County, and Barre, in Worcester County, Massachusetts, a distance of 18 miles; and (b) to abandon operation of that part of its Central Massachusetts Branch extending between Palmer and Barre, Mass., a distance of 17 miles.
Length: 17.0 miles	1717