282:, in 1895, thereby gaining control of the Nashua, Acton and Boston as well. On paper the Concord Railroad continued to lease the Nashua, Acton and Boston, while the Boston and Maine in turn leased the Concord, so B&M effectively controlled the Nashua, Acton and Boston. In 1905, the Concord and Montreal foreclosed on the Nashua, Acton and Boston's mortgage bonds following approval by the New Hampshire legislature. A further corporate reorganization occurred in 1909, when a new company known as the Nashua and Acton Railroad Company purchased the assets of the Nashua, Acton and Boston from the Concord and Montreal, though still under the lease of the Boston and Maine. In March 1921, the New Hampshire legislature authorized the Boston and Maine to purchase outright the Nashua and Acton, formally ending the company's existence.
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to the
Fitchburg Railroad to reach Boston. The railroad was locally nicknamed the "Red Line" due to its operating losses ("red" symbolizing the color used in finance to depict losses). The competing Nashua and Lowell/Boston and Lowell system was integrated and allowed seamless travel between Nashua and Boston, giving it a major competitive advantage.
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approving abandonment in April of the following year. Despite objections from remaining shippers, the final trains ran in May 1925, with the entire line being abandoned apart from the first two miles (3.2 km) out of Nashua. This spur line continued to be used for freight traffic until 1980, when
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The Nashua, Acton and Boston managed to run its trains in comparable time to the Nashua and Lowell, despite its route being six miles (9.7 km) longer than that of its competitor. Ultimately, the company struggled to turn a profit due to long layover times at
Concord, where passengers transferred
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in New
Hampshire's history. Construction was completed in June 1873, with the railroad's first passenger train arriving in Nashua on July 1, 1873. Prior to opening, the railroad advertised it would charge a lower fare to passengers than its competitor; the Nashua, Acton and Boston pledged a fare of $
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wondered that any railroad should be so absurdly managed as to have complaint made by one or two hundred people on this line of road to the state authorities, representing their grievances. They could not believe that any manager of a railroad could, in his sober senses, be so blind to the interest
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Construction of the 20-mile-long (32 km) line took place between 1872 and 1873. Spalding built the railroad "as straight as a gun barrel" after construction made it out of the Nashua city limits. This required the demolition of a ledge approximately four miles (6.4 km) miles away from
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The Nashua, Acton and Boston survived as an independent company only until 1876, when it was leased in its entirety by the
Concord Railroad, which had been heavily involved in the NA&B from the beginning. Service rapidly declined along the line following the Concord's takeover, generating
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New
Hampshire granted Spalding a charter the next year, allowing construction to commence. The railroad's construction was supported by the Concord Railroad, which wanted an alternate route from its southern terminus in Nashua to Boston. At the time of the Nashua, Acton and Boston Railroad's
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Regardless of the changes to the company on paper, traffic continued to decline, with the last through passenger train operating in June 1921. After this point, the only train service along the line was a single daily freight train out of Nashua, mostly carrying lumber for customers in
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complaints from residents in the area. While as an independent company, the Nashua, Acton and Boston operated three passenger trains a day in each direction, the new owners operated only one train daily, which left Nashua at 6:30 in the morning for Boston and returned in the afternoon.
189:, and it was later alleged by a local newspaper that Spalding incorporated the company because the Nashua and Lowell's president refused to renew his annual pass to ride the railroad. In June 1871, Spalding petitioned the governor and
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of his employers and so regardless of his own credit, as a business man, as to run a road so incommodiously and obviously hostile to the reasonable convenience of the legitimate patrons of his line of road... -An article in the
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system that was previously the only railroad along this route. Three passenger trains per day operated along the railroad in each direction, powered by the company's two steam locomotives.
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Soon after opening, the company obtained a charter for a four-mile-long (6.4 km) extension southward from Acton to
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in 1895. Most of the railroad line was abandoned in the 1920s, though a short portion in Nashua continued to be operated until 1980.
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commented, "While we welcome this reduction, we hope that it will lead to no ruinous competition between the Lowell and the Acton."
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836:. Boston and Maine Railroad. September 30, 1917. p. 65 – via Wikimedia Commons.
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The Nashua, Acton and Boston
Railroad was formed in 1871 by an act passed by the
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556:"To the honorable The Governor and Legislature of the State of New Hampshire"
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The rail lines of southern New
England : a handbook of railroad history
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was a railroad formed in 1871 to build a line between
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Defunct railroad in Massachusetts and New Hampshire
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728:"New Hampshire Forestry"
527:"Acton Road Foreclosure"
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315:Connections and notes
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888:at Wikimedia Commons
804:"Washington, Aug. 25"
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708:. February 19, 1879
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478:24.3 (39.1)
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453:23.0 (37.0)
438:17.9 (28.8)
431:East Groton
423:15.2 (24.5)
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400:Bridge over
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461:Sandy Pond
390:(Westford)
367:8.2 (13.2)
306:Miles (km)
85:Track gauge
895:Categories
504:References
457:Nashua, NH
446:Dunstable
388:Pine Ridge
356:4.2 (6.8)
341:1.9 (3.1)
131:of tracks
79:Technical
69:Successor
854:KML file
627:32604470
371:Westford
320:0.0 (0)
312:Station
208:dynamite
104: in
46:Overview
324:Concord
172:History
99:⁄
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427:Groton
349:Acton
288:Groton
158:Boston
148:, and
120:Length
51:Locale
345:Acton
309:City
863:help
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
