Bay View streetcar line in South Boston
Jonathan White
to the rediscovery of a bunch of very old rail that I assume must have
come from the former Bay View streetcar line, which IIRC was one of
the earliest car lines converted to bus operation (in the 1920s). The
route is still served today by the 11 bus.
The utility workers have unearthed and stacked a pile of about twenty
rails on the corner of East 8th and G, right near the Route 11 bus
stop (which has itself recently been moved across G Street from its
former location). The rails are heavily corroded T-rail, not girder
rail, about six feet in length each, and are quite small... I'd
estimate no more than 55 pounds per yard (you and a couple of friends
could easily lug away a piece of Boston transit history, if you don't
mind getting very dirty doing it). The streetcar line's trackway may
have been paved with bricks, as several of the rails still have chunks
of old brick stuck to the web of the rail.
As far as I can tell, the rails were dug up out of a hole near the
curb - but that hole is actually on G Street, not East 8th. How, when,
and why the stuff got chucked off to the side there is a mystery to
me. And it's pretty remarkable that the rails didn't get dug up before
now. In the seven years that I've lived in the area, East 8th and G
Streets have both been completely scarified and repaved once - and dug
up again by utility companies countless times.
By the way, East 8th Street was once proposed to be part of the route
of an elevated rapid transit loop through the South Boston peninsula,
long ago. That would have been really interesting...
--
Jonathan N. White
South Boston, Massachusetts
RTSPCC
>Keyspan utility work at East 8th and G street in South Boston has led
>to the rediscovery of a bunch of very old rail that I assume must have
>come from the former Bay View streetcar line, which IIRC was one of
>the earliest car lines converted to bus operation (in the 1920s). The
>route is still served today by the 11 bus.
>
01/19/1929 is the conversion date I have.