Adams, MA: Restaurant/Boston & Albany Depot

(Satellite, the B&A is now the Ashuwillticok Rail Trail.)

Dave Blaze Rail Photography posted

Station Saturday

For Station Saturday here's a look at the brick former Boston and Albany Railroad Adams Station and adjacent express office which both date from 1884, the station having replaced an earlier wooden structure dating from the line's construction.  Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 the well kept station is now a popular restaurant AJ's Trailside Pub.  

The tracks once ran on this side, dating from 1846 when opened as the aptly named Pittsfield and North Adams Railroad (a wholly owned Western Railroad subsidiary). As late as 1951 the New York Central served this station with two round trips on this Boston and Albany (the Western's 1870 successor) branch line that reached 18 1/2 miles north from a connection with the mainline in Pittsfield. The little NYC 'Beeliners' (as Budd RDCs were referred to on that road) made their last revenue runs in March 1953 though occasional excursions rode these rails in later years. The branch passed from NYC to PC and then CR until the later sold it to the Boaton and Maine in 1981. It held on another 11 years until all but the northern five miles down to Adams were ripped up by Guilford in 1994, with another mile cropped back a year or so later. Guilford and Pan Am continued to provide freight service to two moderate sized customers near Zylonite station, about 4 miles south of North Adams. 

MassDOT purchased the line in 2015 with Pan Am retaining the freight rights and BSRM running passenger excursions on weekends when freight trains (now operated by Genesee and Wyoming's Berkshire and Eastern Railroad) are not running. MassDOT even reconstructed one mile of previously removed track into downtown Adams ending about 3/10ths of a mile ahead to the north. The tracks share the corridor for that last mile with the north end of the popular Ashuwillticook Rail Trail which now occupies the abandoned right of way down towards Pittsfield through Lanesboro and Cheshire in a nice example of 'trails with rails.' 

To learn more about the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum and and their wonderful little excursion on the surving stub of the line check out their page.

Adams, Massachusetts

Saturday September 20, 2025

Street View, Sep 2025

Photo, Dec 2016