Back to the Junction
Our journey along the Mineral Range from Pt. Mills Junction ends not at the Arcadian Mine itself, but at Arcadia Junction a mile or so beyond. Here is where this Arcadian line joins back up with the Mineral Range mainline, at a large Wye half submerged by the waters of Boston Pond. We have been here before, but today we take a fresh new look thanks to the contribution of one of our readers (Thanks Gordy!). We start with the building above, which I thought was a station building of some type. Turns out to be a potato warehouse which, rumor has it, was built from the wood salvaged from the Electric Park pavilion. But thats not the interesting part about this photo. As most of you have probably figured out, the DSS&A tracks are still down.
Heres a better shot (from Gordy again). This one looks south-west along the line towards Boston Pond. You can see the switch for moving trains to the potato warehouse siding on the right. I had thought that there was another siding along this line to the left in this photo, but this photo clearly shows that there isn’t.
Here is the same area taken last year from roughly the same spot. While the warehouse is still there, the tracks are long gone and there are a lot more trees in the picture. Gordy thinks his photos were taken some time in the 80’s and I’m not sure if the tracks were still being used. I believe all train service halted north of the bridge in 1982, which depending on exactly when Gordy snapped these photos would put these lines out of service.
Another pic from Gordy, this time from the front side. You can see the rail lines cross the road in the foreground on their way out towards Boston Pond.
Heres roughly the same angle taken more recently. The most noticeable difference is how overgrown this whole area has become. There are tree’s everywhere, including atop the ramp to the warehouse itself. A little daily use goes a long way, as does the lack of use over a few years. Ruins were a lot easier to find back then I would think.
Of course the importance of this place isn’t so much the warehouse as is its role as a once bustling railroad crossroads. From another shot from Gordy you can make out some rails as well as a pile of debris in the background. We think this might of been remains from the water tower that once fed trains here. Trains loaded from ore from Centennial to the north or Franklin from the south would get off the mainline here and take the Arcadian spur to Pt. Mills to unload their cargo at the mills.
While I provided a map of this junction during my last visit, this time I decided to use my new tool: the arial image. You can clearly make out the large Wye that once made up the Arcadia Junction. Sometime in the 30’s the mills at Pt. Mills closed and this route became obsolete. While trains still passed it for decades more, the Wye itself was never used again. The tracks were ripped up and soon - without yearly upkeep and maintenance - the marshland around Boston Pond began to flood its remains. Now most of the Wye is underwater, and the old line towards the Arcadian Mine paved over with a road.
I think these were taken in 1985 or 1986, I found an old newspaper article about the track removal which started in the fall/winter of 1986 at Calumet. The track was out of service many years already.
Gordy
Gordy Schmitt | December 12, 2007