The Bolivar Street Bridge
Claims Another Victim
By: Chris Brindley
At about noon on Wednesday, February 26,1997, another tractor trailer unit tried to
defeat one of Canton's oldest obstacles, the Bolivar Street Railroad Bridge. Needless to
say the truck lost. The truck was heading from Canton Center to probably Will Drive. He
got almost half way through before the bridge took another victim. Railroad officials were
called to the scene to inspect the bridge. Prior to this mishap a freight had gone up to
Stoughton. He was now trapped their until the bridge was checked out. A major delay
getting onto the main line at Canton Junction could result in trains being delayed as far
away as New York and the local passenger trains being backed up to Boston. Permission was
given to Freight RE1, being pulled by Conrail Engine #1993, to proceed to the bridge and
stop until instructed by the Railroad Bridge Engineers to proceed. Conrail #1993 proceeded
at about 2 miles per hour as officials watched the rails with concern. After the train
crossed the bridge safely, officials began listening and eyeing the rails for strange
sounds or twists. Everything appeared to be all right. A short time later an MBTA
passenger train, stopped, then crawled over the old town landmark. All this was going on
while the trailer was still wedged tightly under the structure. At this time the trailer
was being unloaded. Interstate Towing arrived on the scene, on both sides of the bridge
with heavy wreckers, a set of large dolly wheels and all sorts of blocks and jacks. No one
was hurt in this incident, but it did cause traffic problems for many hours. By 5:00 p. m.
the truck was freed and the trains were running at a near normal speed.
The Stoughton Branch Railroad opened on April 7, 1845. At this time the rail line extended
from Canton Junction to Stoughton Center. About May 19, 1855, the line was opened to
Easton. This rail line opened only ten years after the first passenger train crossed the
Viaduct on July 28, 1835. The original bridge was a wooden structure that was referred to
as the "Red Bridge". The bridge that stands today was built in 1882, it has seen
hundreds of trucks crash into it, and in all these years has only suffered a few dents.
This is a picture of the Bolivar Street railroad bridge, looking
towards Stoughton
taken about 1894, the embankment the old gentleman fell down can be seen on the left.
I would like to relate a few stories that took place in the vicinity of this bridge in
the mid 1880's. The first is a heroic story about Man's Best Friend. It was winter with
snow on the ground, an old gentleman of about 80 years old ( I don't recall his name) was
walking with his dog from Canton Center to Springdale where he lived. It was common
practice to walk the tracks in those days. He was walking in the middle of the tracks
because there was less snow. He was wearing a long old overcoat and walking slowly, he had
bad hearing and his sight was about the same. He was about 30 feet or so before the
bridge, when the Stoughton bound train rounded the curve by where the old chicken factory
stands. The train blew its whistle furiously, but the old gent did not hear it. The dog
started pulling at his master, but he paid little attention. The train was trying to stop,
but had built up a lot of speed to make the long grade to Stoughton. When the train was
only a few feet from the man and his dog, the dog grabbed the man's long overcoat and
pulled him from in front of the train. The dog used so much force, the man rolled down the
embankment to Bolivar Street, he suffered some bruises and broken ribs. The man and his
dog survived to walk the tracks again, a little more carefully though.
This photo is of the old Chicken Factory, formerly the power plant
of the Blue
Hill Street Railway. This is about the location where the skunk met his maker.
The next story kind of stinks a little, you'll see why in a minute. It was evening and
the train was coming out of Stoughton headed for Boston. As the train rounded the same
curve as mentioned above, the engineer saw something on the tracks, he started ringing the
bell and blowing the whistle. Whatever it was it was not moving so the engineer applied
the brakes and stopped the train. Of course when the train stopped everybody got out to
see what was going on, (we were a very curious people back then) as the engineer and crowd
approached the object it was discovered to be a skunk sitting on the rail. The skunk had
no plans about moving, by this time the crowd had moved back to a safe distance. The train
crew started thowing rocks and making noise, but that skunk did not budge. With the train
being already behind schedule, the conductor had everybody get back on the train. When
this was accomplished, the train started up and headed to Canton Junction. The skunk did
not move, no further explanation is needed here.
Boys fishing from the Forge Pond railroad bridge, circa 1890,
looking
towards Sherman Street. The coal car rolled down the other side of this bridge.
My last story is about a collision at the Forge Pond Bridge, about 100 yards closer to
the Canton Depot than the previous story. A freight train was in West Stoughton heading
for Canton, they were a little behind schedule. The train needed to stop at Canton Depot
to pickup a few cars and then get on the main line at Canton Junction within a short
period of time. When the train was about where Will Drive is today, the train crew decided
it would be faster to disconnect the cars and let them coast slowly towards Canton,
without all that weight the engine could run to Canton Depot, pickup the cars, then back
up the Branch and meet the rest of their train. Good theory, bad timing. Everything went
as planned until the train met the cars at the Forge Pond Bridge. The engineer misjudged
the speed of the oncoming cars, when they met there was a tremendous crash and one of the
coal cars was hurled down the embankment to the pond. Luckily the ground was soft and the
car did not roll to far, if the ground was hard the car would have bounced into the pond.
There were no injuries.
The Stoughton Branch did claim may lives over the years, including a School Superintendent
in 1882. Back then the train traffic and foot traffic was a lot heavier than today. I hope
you have enjoyed a look into life on the Stoughton Branch Railroad in the 1880's.
Please note that the pictures are
Courtesy of the Canton Historical Society.
This page was created with
Microsoft Word 7.0
