The Boston Engine Terminal is located just north of Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge in Somerville, Massachusetts. This 36-acre state of the art maintenance facilities is one of the largest in the state of Massachusetts. There is about 7 miles of track on the property and the building’s roof spans nearly nine acres. On Saturday, November 12, 2016 I was able to visit this facility thanks to the Mystic Valley Railway Society.
The Mystic Valley Railway Society is a non-profit providing railroad related group trips to members and others throughout New England. Every so often MVRS host a member only excursion and this trip was one of them. I’ve been a member for over 25 years. I’ve been on many trips with the group including a trip on Amtrak’s Cape Codder, Maine, and a few others. Sadly I haven’t been on any excursion in years due to being so busy. When I saw this trip in the group Waybill, their quarterly newspaper, I couldn’t pass it up.
About 25 members including my dad and myself boarded the bus from three pickup locations around metro Boston on that Saturday morning. Our first stop was Charles Ro Supply Company located in Malden, MA. This is America’s largest model train store. Charles Ro has one of the largest selection of O gauge equipment I’ve ever seen. The store also has HO, N, G, S scale trains as well. On the second floor they have an operating train layout with G and O gauge trains.
After exploring Charles Ro, the group made it’s way over to Mount Vernon Restaurant for a buffet lunch. Then we made tracks over the Boston Engine Terminal.
This facility is massive and the largest of the three MBTA maintenance facilities. We started the tour with a meet and greet with our MBTA and Keolis hosts. They gave us an overview of the day to day operations at the facility and we had the opportunity to ask questions. During the tour we were able to see MBTA equipment up close. Please check out photos below of the facility:
I would like to thank MVRS, MBTA, Keolis, and our tour guide and MVRS President Theresa Rylko for this great opportunity.
