Thursday, November 30, 2017

There ain't nuttin there now

If you visit Wood River Junction Rhode Island on RI route 91 today, you would not be wrong if you asked, "What junction?" By looking at the map below you would be 100% correct. Today there isn't much there, route 91 running parallel to the Amtrak mainline and Switch road which ends at the tracks.


The truth is, this is another place in the country that has outlived it's name. Originally this was the meeting place of the Wood River railroad and the New Haven Railroad.
  
The Wood River line operated it's 5.6 mile route between 1874 and 1927 when floods destroyed part of the line. The new Haven railroad bought it, restored it, regretted it, and sold it to a Grain Mill operator in 1937 for $301.00. In 1947 the Mill closed and with it the railroad. When active it served Kenyon, Peacedale, Carolina, Kenyons.
Kenyons

Washout, train crash, and fire




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Further East there was another railroad formed, The Narragansett Pier RR. It ran from Narragansett Pier through Narragansett (that station is now a laundromat) to Kingston and met the New Haven railroad. The line opened in 1876, in 1952 it ended passenger service, but continued with freight traffic. It also ran excursions up until the 1970s.  It later cut service to Narragansett and operated only to Wakefield, in 1981 it was shortened again ending now in Peacedale, later that year it suspended service never to operate again. the line is now a bike trail and the station and engine-house in Peacedale still stand.