Our Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area interpretive tour Sunday took us on a narrated jouney down the branch railroad.  The Chester and Becket Railroad was chartered by Town Vote and money in both Chester and Becket in 1896, (Chester giving $7,000 and Becket giving $3,000) and it was completed in Jan of 1898. The New York Central Railroad took over operations and leased it in 1906, citing that the little railroad did not have the man power or money to keep it operating, plus they would not let their cars run on the main rail at Chester Factory Village. they saw money in it for themselves so they took over and leased it to the tiny CBRR. The CBRR paid $50 per car for the granite to the B & A.

The Chester and Becket Railroad dissolved sept 1931. It ran for 35 years as a spur off the main Boston and Albany railroad built specifically to bring Granite down from the mountain in Becket and Otis, there was no granite in Chester. In 1927 the Hudson and Chester Quarry started using trucks, in 1929 trucks took over completely.

This tiny railroad was built with oxen and two wheeled dump carts hauled by mules, which was employment for the local farmers. The line was first run by wood burning locomotives (which blackened the landscape and caused forest fires) and carried granite down the slopes two wooden flats at a time. Charlie Harris would ride all day in the cab with his father, conductor Lucien Harris to watch for fires. Eventually a coal burning locomotive took over and standard main line flat cars were used. No more than 3 empty flats cars could be pushed up the grade and the limit down was 2. It took 90 minutes to 2 hours to make the climb 5 miles and it usually headed down to Chester Village at about 2pm.

The line had its own 5-man section crew which cleared rock slides, filling washouts, cutting brush and curing derailments. It had two switchbacks but only room to turn the locomotive around up at the Hudson and Chester Quarry, hence why it climbed the grade in reverse. Most of the rail was taken up for scrap during WW2 but here and there you can still find artifacts of this line, the railbed itself and the Mitchell and Bowe switchback are in excellent condition. The granite was shipped all over the country and is an important part of American history going back to it’s very first boulder quarrying roots. We hope to see more of this railbed officially blazed and open to the public in the years to come.

Western Mass Hilltown Hikers Visit the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts Massachusetts Office of Outdoor Recreation Visit Massachusetts  Explore Western Mass #hikethehilltowns with the #westernmasshilltownhikers #hilltownhistory  #hilltownhikersadventures #discoverthehilltowns    #intheberkshires #hiking #visittheberkshires #hilltownhikers  #hikingwithdogs @topfans
SEE MORE and  become a member at www.hilltownhikers.com Support us at –> https://hilltownhikers.square.site/ Text HILLTOWNHIKERS to 707070 to donate!
Venmo @hilltownhikers