New Bedford Railroad

The New Bedford Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts. It was incorporated on July 1, 1873, as a merger between the New Bedford and Taunton Railroad, the Taunton Branch Railroad, and the Middleborough and Taunton Railroad. The main line ran from a junction with the Boston and Providence Railroad in Mansfield through the towns of Norton, Taunton, Berkley, Lakeville, and Freetown to the deep-water whaling port of New Bedford. The railroad also had several branches, including the former Middleborough and Taunton Railroad, which ran from Weir Village, Taunton into Middleborough through Raynham, and a shortcut to Providence via the Boston and Providence Railroad which ran from Taunton to Attleborough through Norton.

Less than a year after its formation, on February 2, 1874, the New Bedford Railroad entered into a fifty-year lease agreement with the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Railroad. Two months after the lease was signed, on April 8, 1874, the Legislature of Massachusetts authorized the sale of the former Middleborough and Taunton Railroad to the Old Colony Railroad, but the rest of the tracks remained in the system. On June 1, 1876, the New Bedford Railroad was consolidated with the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Railroad to form the Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg and New Bedford Railroad. In 1879, the Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg and New Bedford Railroad was leased for 999 years to the Old Colony Railroad, but still extended its own lease of the Framingham and Lowell Railroad to 998 years on October 1 of that same year. On September 10, 1881, the Framingham and Lowell Railroad was deeded on execution sale to the Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg, and New Bedford Railroad, forming the railroad's largest network with 126.2 miles of track system-wide.