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Citizen complaint of the day: A bit of Charlestown's industrial past comes back to trip somebody up
By adamg on Mon, 04/01/2024 - 11:39am
A concerned citizen files a 311 complaint about a dangerous remnant of an old railroad switch along Medford Street in Charlestown, from back in the day when freight rode the rails to and from the waterfront:
My daughter fell on rusty metal piece of old train track.
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Comments
NIMBY aside..
i still think its nuts that a "world class city" like boston doesnt have rails going to its ports. Its put on trucks, shipped to worcester, then put on rails. Or, just put on trucks in newark and driven here.
Maybe the daughter needs a free eye exam?
She might walk into a tree or a parked vehicle at some point.
Do you look down at the sidewalk every second?
It's hard to tell from the picture, but I doubt that thing's more than a few inches tall. People tend to look straight ahead while walking, with occasional glances down to the street surface. If they didn't, they'd more frequently walk into other people or trees or whatever. It's very easy to miss unexpected things on the ground, especially for kids running around.
Note that it doesn't say that she tripped over the signal itself
It's perfectly possible to trip or slip from something else, and suddenly find yourself falling on something that's much more dangerous than you'd expect to be near a sidewalk or roadway.
My cat's breath smells like
My cat's breath smells like cat food.
Trespassing?
It looks like those tracks are back a ways from the street and probably on private property?
(Hope the kid is okay, however.)
Massport
They own the rail line, I think they bought it out when it was threatened to be abandoned about 20 years ago. I don't think it's ever been used. Supposedly Massport may have bought it for a haul road? New England suffers from having ~0 ship-rail freight.
Back in the day there was a multi-level rail crossing, with this line running under the El which crossed streetcar tracks at-grade. The 92 and 93 were converted to buses in the late 1940s, but the tracks were active to access the 100 Fellsway cars until 1955.
Map pin is off
The true location is more like here, or maybe even by to one of those driveway crossings, a lot closer to the street.
I wonder if this is it
https://maps.app.goo.gl/fXgbSXxLxusy8bw97
that's from 2021, not sure what it looks like now.
Yes
It's a popular dog walking spot, fortunately the dogs don't walk into such objects without noticing them first.
RR Right of Way?
Seems like a railroad right of way? Yes, near where you walk but not a city issue.
Impressive
That's an impressive looking piece of equipment. So solid.
Kinda surprised
No one has taken it for the scape metal value yet.
The old train equipment is all pretty impressive.
or a garden ornament
That would look pretty cool painted up and placed in the backyard if one were a train aficionado.
As in the case of crime and
As in the case of crime and most mishaps involving kidlets, it's supervision, supervision, supervision.
B&M RR Historical Society has webpage on the switchstand
B&M RR Historical Society has webpage on the switchstand
A quick search on the part numbers revealed:
Ramapo Ajax Corp.
Hillburn NY
Model E2229
enclosed within rhombus.
The E2229 switchstand is on Page 8 of a 4o page document.
Victim blaming!
How dare you guys accuse a three year old out for her job of being careless and running into this rusty thing!
If she is 3
We don't know her age from that brief 311 report.
Hope the daughter is okay
But the complaint reads like a line from the first draft of "Whitey on the Moon".
I mean... that sucks, but...
...there are many things in the world that would be hazardous to fall on, and it doesn't look like this one was directly in the path or anything.
I can remember
I was taken to task on this website way back in the day for suggesting the reconstructed playground at Fallon Field, which makes generous use of concrete, was a tiny bit dangerous to the very young among us. I believe that the gist of the grief I took was because kids need to be able to deal with things around them. If the kid couldn't handle there being the remnants of railroad infrastructure along the remnants of a railway, I don't know what they can handle, really.