Dedham Branch
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DEDHAM BRANCH
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Former site of East Dedham station, photographed in 2015
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| Overview | |||
| Type | Commuter rail | ||
| System | Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority | ||
| Status | Abandoned | ||
| Locale | Southeastern Massachusetts | ||
| Termini |
Boston South Station Dedham |
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| Stations | 7 | ||
| Operation | |||
| Opened | 1835 (Boston and Providence Railroad) | ||
| Closed | April 1967 | ||
| Owner | New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad | ||
| Operator(s) | New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad | ||
| Character | Surface-level | ||
| Technical | |||
| Line length | 11.7 miles | ||
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) | ||
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The Dedham Branch was a spur line of the Boston and Providence Railroad (later acquired by the Old Colony Railroad, and then by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad), opened in 1835, which ran from the junction with the main line (now the Providence/Stoughton Line and part of the Franklin Line) at Readville through to central Dedham; it was the first railroad branch line in Massachusetts. In 1966, it became part of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, but was abandoned the next year.
The Boston and Providence Railroad (B&P) opened on June 4, 1834 from Boston to south of Readville, and from Readville to Canton (now Canton Junction) on September 12 of that year. Initially, there were no branches off the B&P main line, but, on February 5, 1835, the Dedham Branch opened from Readville to Dedham (the first railroad branch line in Massachusetts); the B&P had previously provided stagecoach shuttles along this route, starting July 28, 1834. For the first seven years of the Dedham Branch's existence, service along the branch frequently switched between Boston-Dedham through trains (also known as "Dedham Specials") and horse-drawn cars cut out of Providence trains at Readville; from June 1842 onward, however, Boston-Dedham through trains were a permanent fixture of the B&P system. These trains were the first B&P trains reliably scheduled to depart Boston after 5:00 P.M., and, thus, the first B&P commuter rail service usable by those on a 9-to-5 schedule.
Starting in May 1849, Norfolk County Railroad trains ran via the Dedham Branch, using it and the B&P main line as its entry to Boston; this ended when the Boston and New York Central Railroad (the successor to the Norfolk County) opened its own route from Islington to Boston in January 1855, but resumed in August 1855 as the result of an injunction preventing the operation of the B&NYC's new Islington-Boston route, before ending again in March 1857.
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Wikipedia