Re: Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn

Thanks for the story, Robert!

I'd be happy to share what I have come up with as far as BRB&L track layouts are concerned if you're interested.

I'm virtually certain of the track arrangement at East Boston yard. The last piece fell into place for me when Jim Eagan, a good friend of mine, managed to confirm the existence of a run around switch on the ferry slip side connecting the two southernmost tracks in the south East Boston trainshed. I think he found a photo of this at the Lynn Historical Society. This switch connected the east end of the two tracks where the engine and coaches are shown in your photo. The east run-around switch for the north trainshed is well-documented in your photo at the bottom of page 86.

The photo on the bottom of page 30 in your book shows the location of the "certain" Lynn turntable beautifully in relation to the Lynn trainshed. I'm thinking the "possible" second Lynn turntable connects the three engine house tracks in Lynn as shown on the bottom of your page 49. This photo shows the Lynn enginehouse was on the west side of Lynn yard.

The layout at Orient Heights yard is far more conjectural for me. I think you're right about there being no turntable in Orient Heights, just the turning loop - and I'm not certain THAT was there in steam days.

At any rate, I'd very much like to continue this discussion off-line. I can be reached at email address: "christensenge@yahoo.com" if you are interested.

Please drop me a line.


Sincerely,
Glenn