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Rail Movements of Perishables into Boston

Bill Welch
 

I have accumulated a nice file of photos of the Produce Mkt. area in Boston, the Faneuil Hall/Quincy Street/Clinton Street area.

I am curious if someone on this list can tell me how deliveries by rail of Perishables would have made it to this area? I am assuming wagons and then trucks. What was the distance? In the aerials I see no obvious railroad connection nearby. My assumption is the NYNH&H would have handled the FGE/WFE/BRE traffic. Did this railroad go in to Boston?

Bill Welch
ROGER HINMAN <rhinman11@...>
 

Yes Bill, the New Haven went to Boston. In its final corporate configuration it had acquired every rail line south of the city. It had massive freight yards in South Boston which is only a mile or two away from the Produce mkt area you mention. Bob's Photo has some nice shots of reefers being unloaded in South Boston. There was also the Union Freight Railroad which ran along the waterfront connecting the NH and the B&M. Most photos of seen of perishable product on that line was for direct delivery to customers on line. The B&M and Boston & Albany also had facilities near the city center.


Roger Hinman
On Mar 15, 2013, at 4:52 PM, "lnbill" <fgexbill@...> wrote:

I have accumulated a nice file of photos of the Produce Mkt. area in Boston, the Faneuil Hall/Quincy Street/Clinton Street area.

I am curious if someone on this list can tell me how deliveries by rail of Perishables would have made it to this area? I am assuming wagons and then trucks. What was the distance? In the aerials I see no obvious railroad connection nearby. My assumption is the NYNH&H would have handled the FGE/WFE/BRE traffic. Did this railroad go in to Boston?

Bill Welch



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Bill Welch
 

Thank you Roger

I will call Bob. Do you remember how he would have these photos filed?

Bill Welch

--- In STMFC@..., ROGER HINMAN <rhinman11@...> wrote:

Yes Bill, the New Haven went to Boston. In its final corporate configuration it had acquired every rail line south of the city. It had massive freight yards in South Boston which is only a mile or two away from the Produce mkt area you mention. Bob's Photo has some nice shots of reefers being unloaded in South Boston. There was also the Union Freight Railroad which ran along the waterfront connecting the NH and the B&M. Most photos of seen of perishable product on that line was for direct delivery to customers on line. The B&M and Boston & Albany also had facilities near the city center.


Roger Hinman
On Mar 15, 2013, at 4:52 PM, "lnbill" <fgexbill@...> wrote:

I have accumulated a nice file of photos of the Produce Mkt. area in Boston, the Faneuil Hall/Quincy Street/Clinton Street area.

I am curious if someone on this list can tell me how deliveries by rail of Perishables would have made it to this area? I am assuming wagons and then trucks. What was the distance? In the aerials I see no obvious railroad connection nearby. My assumption is the NYNH&H would have handled the FGE/WFE/BRE traffic. Did this railroad go in to Boston?

Bill Welch



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
ROGER HINMAN <rhinman11@...>
 

I think in his refrigerator car books but he'd better answer that than me

Roger H.

On Mar 15, 2013, at 6:01 PM, "lnbill" <fgexbill@...> wrote:

Thank you Roger

I will call Bob. Do you remember how he would have these photos filed?

Bill Welch

--- In STMFC@..., ROGER HINMAN <rhinman11@...> wrote:

Yes Bill, the New Haven went to Boston. In its final corporate configuration it had acquired every rail line south of the city. It had massive freight yards in South Boston which is only a mile or two away from the Produce mkt area you mention. Bob's Photo has some nice shots of reefers being unloaded in South Boston. There was also the Union Freight Railroad which ran along the waterfront connecting the NH and the B&M. Most photos of seen of perishable product on that line was for direct delivery to customers on line. The B&M and Boston & Albany also had facilities near the city center.


Roger Hinman
On Mar 15, 2013, at 4:52 PM, "lnbill" <fgexbill@...> wrote:

I have accumulated a nice file of photos of the Produce Mkt. area in Boston, the Faneuil Hall/Quincy Street/Clinton Street area.

I am curious if someone on this list can tell me how deliveries by rail of Perishables would have made it to this area? I am assuming wagons and then trucks. What was the distance? In the aerials I see no obvious railroad connection nearby. My assumption is the NYNH&H would have handled the FGE/WFE/BRE traffic. Did this railroad go in to Boston?

Bill Welch
Donald B. Valentine
 

--- In STMFC@..., ROGER HINMAN <rhinman11@...> wrote:

Yes Bill, the New Haven went to Boston. In its final corporate configuration it had acquired every rail line south of the city. It had massive freight yards in South Boston which is only a mile or two away from the Produce mkt area you mention. Bob's Photo has some nice shots of reefers being unloaded in South Boston. There was also the Union Freight Railroad which ran along the waterfront connecting the NH and the B&M. Most photos of seen of perishable product on that line was for direct delivery to customers on line. The B&M and Boston & Albany also had facilities near the city center.


Roger Hinman
On Mar 15, 2013, at 4:52 PM, "lnbill" <fgexbill@...> wrote:

I have accumulated a nice file of photos of the Produce Mkt. area in Boston, the Faneuil Hall/Quincy Street/Clinton Street area.

I am curious if someone on this list can tell me how deliveries by rail of Perishables would have made it to this area? I am assuming wagons and then trucks. What was the distance? In the aerials I see no obvious railroad connection nearby. My assumption is the NYNH&H would have handled the FGE/WFE/BRE traffic. Did this railroad go in to Boston?

Bill Welch


The B&M never seemed to handle much produce or fruit coming into Boston via rail from the American south or west for reasons which should seem obvious. It did, however, carry a fair amount of meat traffic from the mid-west coming via Canadian Differential Routes.
Not to be overlooked here is the large volume of produce carried by NYC subsidiary Boston & Albany due in large part by the fact that the NYC could control the traffic all the way from Chicago, St. Louis and other such important gateways that the New England roads did not have direct access to. And when the New Boston Market Place, as it was titled, was constructed in the late 1960's it was built on land that I believe had previously been owned by the New Haven not far from South Station bordered by the Southeast Distressway and the loop used by the New Haven for turning entire trains. In those years I could see the produce terminal from my office window and the firm for which I then worked was heavily involved in insurance of it.

Cordially, Don Valentine
RICH CHAPIN
 

Bill,



The NHRRT&HS "Shoreliner", vol 18, #2 has an article on NH carfloat
operations that addresses, I believe, floating of reefers to ships for
off-loading of bananas. Might be something in that of interest.







Rich Chapin
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