The Central Massachusetts Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts. The eastern terminus of the line was at North Cambridge Junction where it split off from the Middlesex Central Branch of the Boston and Lowell Railroad in North Cambridge and through which it had access to North Station in Boston. From there, the route ran 98.77 miles west through the modern-day towns of Belmont, Waltham, Weston, Wayland, Sudbury, Hudson, Bolton, Berlin, Clinton, West Boylston, Holden, Rutland, Oakham, Barre, New Braintree, Hardwick, Ware, Palmer, Belchertown, Amherst, and Hadley to its western terminal junction at N. O. Tower in Northampton with the Connecticut River Railroad.
History
Inception (1868–1883)
In the late 1860s citizens in the towns of Sudbury, Wayland, and Weston petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts to build a railroad through their towns. On February 21, 1868, the state chartered the Wayland and Sudbury Branch Railroad to run 6.75 miles from Mill Village in Sudbury through Wayland to a connection with the Fitchburg Railroad at Stony Brook in Weston. Later that year another group of citizens submitted a petition requesting that the new railroad extend further west to Northampton. On May 10, 1869, the General Court chartered the Massachusetts Central Railroad and united it with the Wayland and Sudbury Branch.
thumb|300px|A map of the proposed route of the Massachusetts Central Railroad from 1871
The Massachusetts Central Railroad was organized on September 2, 1869, with James M. Stone of Charlestown elected as its first president. Construction began the following fall despite difficulty in raising capital. The company hired contractor Norman Munson to build the railroad in April 1871. By the summer of 1872 it was reported that work was being done at 30 places from Weston to Northampton. But the Panic of 1873 forced Munson into bankruptcy and halted construction. The railroad stagnated until June 5, 1878, when new president Silas Seymour called a stockholders meeting. The stockholders elected a new Board of Directors which appointed George S. Boutwell president in 1879
That same year, the Massachusetts General Court amended the railroad's charter to allow for several new expansions. The most significant was an extension east through Waltham and Belmont, which eliminated the connection with the Fitchburg at Stony Brook. Original plans called for the route to briefly parallel the Lexington Branch cutoff through North Cambridge and terminate at the Boston and Lowell Railroad (B&L) mainline at Willow Bridge. However, this was later changed to join the cutoff at North Cambridge Junction, west of North Avenue (now Massachusetts Avenue). Other amendments included a branch from Amherst to a connection with the Troy and Greenfield Railroad in West Deerfield
With its new connection in the east the stockholders approved a 25-year lease of the Massachusetts Central to the B&L on March 21, 1880, pending its completion within two years.
Resurrection and operation under the Boston & Maine (1883–1902)
thumb|left|The Central Massachusetts Railroad in 1888.
To restore service to the line the Central Massachusetts Railroad was formed out of the failed Massachusetts Central Railroad Company on November 10, 1883. The directors contracted with the B&L to operate trains over the Central Massachusetts route in the fall of 1885 with service resuming from Boston to Hudson on September 28 and to Jefferson on December 14. The new schedule included seven daily round trips from Boston to Jefferson and another ten to Waltham.
thumb|Oakdale Station on January 13, 1897. Accidents were common at the diamond on the right side of the photo where the Central Massachusetts Branch crossed the WN&P Division main line.
The B&L formally leased the Central Massachusetts on December 7, 1886, resuming work on the route to Northampton but abandoning any plans for branches to Holyoke or West Deerfield. Though considerable grading work had already been done along the original planned route in Hardwick, Greenwich, and Enfield the railroad's leadership decided to redirect the route through an easier terrain in the Ware River Valley, taking the line into Palmer and reconnecting with the original route in Belchertown. This turned out to be a fortuitous decision given that much of the disused portion of the line was flooded in the 1930s to construct the Quabbin Reservoir. Tracks were installed through Muschopauge in Rutland by November. The tracks reached Ware on June 27, 1887 Two years later, on February 20, 1902, the B&M outright purchased the Central Massachusetts Railroad and dissolved its corporate entity.
The new portion of the Central Massachusetts Branch started just west of West Berlin Junction in Berlin where the Central Massachusetts Branch connected with the Fitchburg Line of the NYNH&H. From there it ran northwest into Clinton through a -long tunnel. The western portal of the tunnel opened onto a 917-foot viaduct near the site of the Wachusett Dam that passed over Route 70 and the Nashua River before connecting with the WN&P Division main line at Clinton Junction. Traffic over the Central Massachusetts Branch followed the WN&P Division main line through Sterling into Oakdale where a redesigned junction routed it back onto the original Central Massachusetts Branch. Just before Clinton Junction an additional connection branched off at Reservoir Switch leading to East Switch on the WN&P Division to allow traffic to approach the Central Massachusetts Branch from the north or continue from the Central Massachusetts Branch north along the WN&P Division main line. The first train passed over the new route on June 2, 1903, while the old track was officially removed from through service on June 15 but remained in place and used during the remainder of the reservoir construction, some of it being re-gauged to 3' to allow construction trains to utilize it. Under this arrangement the WN&P main line between Oakdale and Sterling Junction became exceptionally busy as it accommodated B&M traffic from the WN&P Division and the Central Massachusetts Branch as well as NYNH&H traffic heading between Worcester and Fitchburg along the tracks of the original Fitchburg and Worcester Railroad. Construction finished by May 9, 1913, with service between New York and Boston scheduled to commence on June 23. Just days before its grand opening operations were suspended indefinitely as Mellen faced a hearing before the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) regarding his questionable business practices. He abruptly resigned from the presidencies of both the NYNH&H and B&M on July 9 leaving the Hampden a bridge between two suddenly competing railroads. Despite one more tour by B&M officials in November 1914 neither they nor the NYNH&H wished to lease the line, which was shut down for good in 1925.
In spite of the subsidies, ridership continued to decline on the Central Massachusetts Branch, and by 1969 the MBTA recommended an end to all service on the line. Devoted riders managed to briefly delay the decision, but in December 1970 the B&M filed for bankruptcy. On July 30, 1971, the state renewed the B&M's annual subsidy but without funding for the Central Massachusetts Branch. A group of citizens from Wayland argued that the single train along the route was too inconvenient for commuters and so on October 1 the MBTA announced that it would temporarily schedule more trains to determine whether the line was still viable. After two months, the MBTA concluded that the modest increase in ridership was not sufficient to warrant continued funding; on November 26, all passenger service ended on the Central Massachusetts Branch. More recently, two Massachusetts courts and a state agency refer to the ROW's status as "inactive". Around the same time the B&M and MBTA increased vertical height clearances along the New Hampshire Route main line. This made the Hill Crossing Freight Cutoff obsolete and in 1980 the B&M and MBTA took up the Central Massachusetts Branch track between Hill Crossing and North Cambridge Junction to make room for the MBTA's Red Line. However, construction took significantly longer and is still planned or ongoing in various sections, as DCR funding was limited and various funding sources were identified.
Waltham eventually completed the main Waltham section in 2023, except for the Linden Street Bridge that DCR completed restoration of in 2025. DCR moved forward in Weston and Wayland ; in 2019 it opened a 4.5 mile paved section of the trail from Stony Brook Bridge over the MBTA Fitchburg line at the Waltham-Weston border as far west as Wayland Station near the intersection of Route 126 and US 20. A crushed stone continuation connects the fully paved portion with the shopping center at the intersection of US 20 and Andrew Ave in Wayland. In 2024, in Sudbury and Hudson, a 7.6 mile paved section was completed, in partnership between DCR and Eversource's buried power line project.
Efforts to convert the property to recreational trails also found success elsewhere along the route. The portion of the Marlborough Branch between Gleason Junction and Marlborough became the Assabet River Rail Trail. In Boston the former Central Massachusetts Branch section of the Hill Crossing Freight Cutoff between Hill Crossing and North Cambridge Junction became the Fitchburg Cutoff Path.
thumb|A photo of the [[Norwottuck Rail Trail Bridge|Central Massachusetts Railroad bridge over the Connecticut River, which is now a part of the Norwottuck Branch Rail Trail.]]
The towns along the former Wheelwright Branch exhibited similar enthusiasm for recreational trails along the property. In March 1985 with support from the local governments and regional planning agency the state purchased 10 miles of the line between the west end of the Connecticut River Bridge in Northampton and Amherst with the intent to convert it into a rail trail. Work began in 1992 and on July 29, 1993, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management officially opened the Norwottuck Branch Rail Trail, now the Norwottuck Branch of the Mass Central Rail Trail. By 1997 the trail extended as far as Belchertown where progress halted due to a concerted effort from private landowners who had taken over the long-abandoned property. In 2006 the western end of the trail was extended to N. O. Tower. In West Boylston, Holden, and Rutland a volunteer organization called Wachusett Greenways began to convert the roughly 30 miles of property between Oakdale and Rutland to the Mass Central Rail Trail.
The Mass Central Rail Trail Sterling Spur is a portion of the former Fitchburg and Worcester Railroad in Sterling between Sterling Junction and Sterling Center; however this route was never a part of the Central Massachusetts Branch. It does not connect with the rest of the trail since the former WN&P Division main line tracks remain in service as the Worcester Main Line of Pan Am Railways.
|October 1, 1881
|None
|Before 1944
|N/A
|N/A
|Flag stop, originally simple platform<br>Japanese style building by 1897<br>Burned by vandals sometime in the 1940s.
|-
|rowspan=4|Hudson
|23.34
|Mirror Lake Junction
|1942
|None
|1945
|N/A
|N/A
|No station<br>Connection to the Fort Devens-Sudbury Training Annex
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|24.14
|Ordway
|1902
|
|January 17, 1965
|N/A
|N/A
|Ordway's Crossing before 1909<br>Passenger shelter demolished in 1972
|-
|25.64
|Gleasondale
|October 1, 1881
|December 1, 1924
|January 17, 1965
|N/A
|N/A
|Rockbottom before April 2, 1900.