Page Two: The Plot Thickens.
Spring, 2006:
Sometimes it takes a while, but I've found that sooner or later, someone will
e-mail with the solution to a mystery like this when you ask online. Or at least
provide some remarkable clues.
To prove this, Buudy W's photos showed up in an e-mail. (Thank you SO much!)
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And here they are. When I asked when they were taken, he said "1992", which was not long after I had taken the photo that had started me on this mystery.
Interesting! Clearly this IS the same depot. (Notice the utility tower in the background.) The one which really interested me was Photo #4. Because it looks the way I remembered. As I recall, it was sort of slumped down behind some dirt piles and you can't really tell that from my photo.
Hmmmmm. So it IS Turner's Falls, eh?
Well, that solved part of the mystery anyway. I know more or less where I was when I had taken my photograph. But just what depot was this, and who had put it on blocks like that? And where is it now- if it still exists?
Ah, but WAIT! There's more......
Out of nowhere came this truly amazing image attached to an e-mail from Buddy
W!
Check THIS out.......
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"Steve,
I came across a photo from
1960 that I picked up at an auction several years back
The caption on the back is:
"Turners Falls, Ma. 4-17-60...Old B&M station in temporary location. Stub end of B&M branch line. Old New Haven "through" line crossing under bridge and continuing north to industries."
I have no idea who the photographer is."
-Buddy
WOW!
Let me say that again- WOW!
I now have this image as my desktop wallpaper. Such a wonderful, sharp image. What an interesting and intriguing scene!
So what does this all MEAN, anyway?
Seems to me that this depot was placed on blocks decades ago. I think what I photographed was simply this exact scene- but almost 30 years later. If you look up Turner's Falls, Mass in Karr's, you'll see there were actually two lines going into Turner's Falls, the New Haven and the Boston & Maine. In 1947 the New Haven line was abandoned, and at that time the B&M started using the New Haven track, and later abandoned their own. Did this scene have something to do with this change? Sure looks to me like the depot in the black and white photo from Buddy could have been sitting there for about 13 years or so.
And just what IS this? Is it an original Boston and Maine depot? Or is it one taken from the New Haven and moved here for some reason? Was it only a freight depot- or, as I believe, was it a combination depot? (Passenger AND freight.)
And of course, the Big Question: what happened after I took the photo that got me started on this? Did it get torn down? Moved? Is it actually still there?
I have been convinced that this is indeed a depot at the village of Turner's Falls, in Montague, Massachusetts. But these other questions have yet to be answered.
As always- any info you might have would be much appreciated. (My e-mail addy is "mail at stevefisk dot net")
-Steve Fisk
----------------Update- Fall, 2006: The Plot Thins -----------------------
I am very sorry to say, but as it turns out, some morons destroyed this beautiful ediface. It has disappeared for the last time.
From Buddy W:
"Here's the latest skinny on the TF building.....Just after the turn of the century, (2000 - 2001), the person who owned the property that the station/freight house sat on demolished the building. The name was Macklin (hope I spelled it correctly). This is from a phone conversation with the Montague Town Office of Building Inspectors 5 minutes ago."
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And this from Brian Cummings:
"Steve; I have been researching your quetions in refernce to Turners Falls.
First answer, Yes this is the B&M Depot. The depot was located appoximately at where Food City Grocery store lies in the shopping plaza. There is a dead end street behind the plaza in which access was to the depot and other railroad structures. It was moved to the position in which your photos were taken, where it was placed on blocks in hopes for some use. The yard tracks to the right were last used in the late sixties when new dam gates for the Turners Falls dam were delivered by rail,sometime later the tracks and the bridge were removed.
To much of your disapointment the depot and former railroad land belongs to Mackin Construction Company of Greenfield, and they tore it down a few years ago. I am trying to find the date for you.
Your second question much easier, the blueprint of the station diagram is the NH Depot which stood about a half a mile south of the B&M depot, a car wash now stands in its place. The NH did have full services at thier terminus at was is now Unity Park in Turners Falls. The bike trail is much under construction, it runs south from north of B&m depot to the south to Depot St. in Montague City. The final leg goes east from depot st accross the road and connects with the NH later B&M row including the redecking of the bridge over th CT river to end up at East Deerfield yard, this should be completeted soon. I had the oppertunity to work on this branch as a brakeman many a times,Including an inspection train in 1974 consisiting of one budd car. If if need further info on this line I can try to fill you in. In the meanwhile I will continue to research for your final aswer to your twice vanished. "
-Brian Cummings
(Thank you very much, Brian. And yes, You Betcha- I always welcome info on any of the depots on this site.)
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So it would seem that the building was moved shortly before Buddy's B&W photo was taken. It was placed on blocks, (did they plan on moving it elsewhere and never did?), and it was left untouched after that. Then, 50 years later or so, I happened along with my camera and took the photo that started this all. I had no idea it had been sitting there on blocks, unmolested for half a century!
Not long after, Buddy did the same thing. A few years after that, someone bought the land and tore the building down to make way for a lovely strip-mall.
Rats.
Well, at least a little part of the mystery remains. Notice in my 1988 photo that you can see where the staion sign used to be, and in the historical photos you can still see it on the side of the depot. So... where did it go? Is it still out there in somebody's garage someplace?