Forge Park/495 station
The newer the station, the farther out, the bigger the ocean of parking
Forge Park/495 station
The track forms a narrow isthmus between two oceans of parking.
Forge Park/495 station
Looking up the line towards Franklin station
Forge Park/495 station
Station, canopy, pedestrian grade crossing, and a lot of salt
Forge Park/495 station
Don't usually see timber roofs on station canopies these days; this one must have been a one-off.
Forge Park/495 station
A single mini-high at the west edge of the platform, below a pedestrian bridge where West Central St. used to have an overpass.
Forge Park/495 station
They used the same failing tactile-edge treatment her as at Needham Junction, it appears.
Forge Park/495 station
Another different mini-high design, with a much bigger wood edge treatment propped up by steel brackets.
Forge Park/495 station
You can see pretty clearly where the old bridge abutment was partially demolished as part of replacing the West Central St. overpass here, I guess so they have the option of widening the railroad to two tracks through the station?
Forge Park/495 station
Under the yellow sign, another sign indicates "end of automatic block signals" — beyond Forge Park, the line operates on train order control. The MBTA recently took ownership of the line from CSX after leasing it for a decade; I believe freight customers are now switched out of Grafton by the Grafton & Upton.
Franklin station
Before Forge Park station was built, passenger service ended at the historic Franklin station in downtown Franklin.
Franklin station
Although you'd think land in downtown Franklin might be a bit more valuable, Franklin station stil has its own ocean of parking. A new 257-unit apartment complex has recently been built on Dean Ave. just north of the station limits.
Franklin station
I briefly considered picking up the handset to see if this payphone still had dialtone when I noticed that it was broken in half Surprised the entire pedestal hasn't been removed at this point.
Franklin station
Looking north up the ... oddly wide platform.
Franklin station
South of the platform and through the ... wide underpass is a switch. The diverging route, about a quarter mile farther south, continues on to Forge Park and ultimately Milford, while the straight-ahead route serves a few remaining freight customers for another mile and is then rail-trailed. Note the absence of a mini-high here: this station is completely inaccessible.
Franklin station
The station signs can't seem to agree on what this stop is called, but the maps and timetables still generally call it just "Franklin".
Franklin station
Something weird about this platform, I just can't put my finger on it...
Franklin station
OK, here's the deal with thr platform: this used to be a two-track station. At some point, probably when the line was extended to Forge Park, the MBTA lifted the second track and just duped several yards of hot-mix on the trackbed to lengthen the platform so it would be full-length, although how they got away with not making it accessible at the same time I have no idea. The line down the middle of the platform is the edge of the original platform, which was shorter.
Franklin station
Trains wait at the Franklin layover facility, north of FRANK interlocking, for service to resume on Monday. The Station 117 apartment complex is just left of the layover facility, screened by the trees.
Norfolk station
Here we see the first signs of construction on the Franklin Line Double Track project, which was suspended in late 2020. The three-phase program was to restore most of the original double-tracking between FRANK and SPRAGUE interlockings. allowing for 35-minute peak headways on the line. On the other side of the white fence is a new development of 32 single-family detached condominiums, with town-owned senior housing off to the northwest.
Norfolk station
This doesn't seem like the usual ocean of parking only because I never saw the main parking lot.
Norfolk station
The Franklin Line Double Track project proceeded far enough to have graded the trackbed through the station. Because the project was implemented by Keolis, there's not a lot of information available, and I can't find anything detailing whether the project includes a platform to serve the second track.
Norfolk station
Looking up the line toward the north end of the station
Norfolk station
That seems like quite a lot of grading to have done here opposite the existing mini-high.
Norfolk station
The walkway (but not the platform) continues a long way south of the mini-high, which is very unusual.
Norfolk station
After passing under the Main St. underpass, the walkway continues for a very long distance, and then climbs a lot of stairs to a large parking lot (that I didn't even know about, and only discovered when I went back to look at the maps to see where this path leads).
Norfolk station
A small shelter at the north end of the platform where the line crosses Route 115; there is another large parking lot on the other side of 115. Note the signals here are pointed away from the tracks and are not active.
Norfolk station
Looking across Route 115 at the southern end of the new double-track segment, which runs 3.3 miles north to the previous end of the passing siding at WALPOLE WEST interlocking. Google's aerial maps haven't been updated so I don't know how complete the track segment was before work was halted.
Walpole station
Two legs of the full diamond interlocking between the Franklin Line and the Framingham Secondary; this track handles traffic from the Franklin Line heading towards Foxborough, Mansfield, and Middleborough. Because of the station platform placement, Foxboro trains cannot actually serve Walpole station. (For many years, Foxboro event trains would pull past Walpole and reverse into the other branch of the wye, because the MBTA did not want to fix the switch leading to this track.)
Walpole station
As a part of the "Foxboro pilot" service, automatic block signals were added to the Framingham Secondary between Walpole and Mansfield; this segment had previously been controlled by train orders issued by the CSX dispatcher in Selkirk, New York.
Walpole station
Being located on a diamond crossing of two (at one time competing) railroads, Walpole station has platforms facing both the Franklin Line track and the Framingham Secondary through track (both formerly branch lines of the Old Colony system and then the New Haven Railroad).
Walpole station
A few remaining industrial buildings surrounding the station that haven't been pulled down yuet
Walpole station
"Union and West', a 192-unit apartment complex, opened in mid-2020.
Walpole station
Crossing signals protect a pedestrian grade crossing of the Foxboro lead track.
Walpole station
A lot more rail and ties for the double-track project take up space in a parking lot for CSX employees working in the yard on the Framingham Secondary just on the other side of the Franklin Line. The double-track was to have continued north from Walpole to Norwood in the final phase of the project.
Walpole station
This is all the platform that exists at Walpole. The smart thing would be to build a full-length high-level platform between the two tracks as a part of the double-track project but I doubt they will even if the project is resumed.
Walpole station
No matter how much I stare at te aerials, I can't make this view match up with the Google Maps interpretation. But there's definitely not enough room here for a full-length center high platform.
Walpole station
Looking south along the Franklin Line past the diamond crossing toward the beginning of the old Walpole passing siding. CSX freight joins the line from the yard at right.
Walpole station
Walpole station
Note the CSX locomotive switching yard traffic at top right
Walpole station
Looking northwest into the Walpole freight yard. Definitely looks like the Franklin south-to-Framingham north lead has been removed.
Walpole station
Walpole station
Parking lot between one lead track and the Framingham Secondary through track
Plimptonville station
This is, umm, a "station". Or was; it's now closed, hopefully permanently.
Plimptonville station
Plimptonville, before its closure during the COVID-19 pandemic, received the least service of any MBTA commuter-rail station, just a single train each way, which amazingly served a dozen passengers per day.
Plimptonville station
Even less of a parking lot than Hastings in Weston, another hopefully-permanently-closed station
Plimptonville station
Looking norith up the line towards Windsor Gardens, note the abutments for the overpass clearly were built for a second trackway, now blocked off with sawhorses. If Plimptonville is closed, it's a fairly easy task (albeit expensive) to restore the second track through here, as was planned before the pandemic.