Last Revenue Train Inbound on Boston's Elevated Orange Line

[RobertPaniagua]

Now I know why the Transit Police Officer was staring at the back of the train from the platform, to make sure no one tried to "surf" the train since it was the last run from the railcar's pantograph gates or the two bars flanking the doors at Forest Hills starting at 00:42

[TPIRLOGO]

what kind of camera you had at the time?

[PKingman]

@TPIRLOGO It was a big clunky Magnavox VHS-C camcorder.

[RichieEastside]

lol gotta love how the driver beeps the horn "Woohoo big event!! I'm driving!! beep beep!!" That struck me as funny for some reason xD

[MrBirdman1001]

WTH where i am x_X

[rocketdude1979]

At at about the 2 minute mark I think I saw a guardian angel!!! Thats awesome!

[kirkreeves]

While this might have been the last public train, there were many others until it was torn down. I remember seeing a movie crew taping. They weren't making a movie but rather using the best quality motion picture for historical and archival purpose. They also ran some older orange line cars. It was important to me because it was an escape from the mean side of town. Thank you for this.

[DamageMM91]

All in the name of progress...

Thanks for the posting this. It brings back memories.

[3siadrak]

sad wish i could have rided on ne

[akjorlaug1]

For those saying that the Silver line "subway" covers the Washington St. elevated branch this is true and false. It is a bus, not a subway or trolley. Also, there are stops every other block almost. It is really slow and does not have a dedicated lane the entire route). I am not normally one to claim racial/economic discrimination, but the silver line runs in a lower-middle class area with many minorities. Think the silver line would fly in Cambridge or Back Bay? I think not.

[MattytheDem]

@akjorlaug1 it was determined that it "was not cost effective"

[Tonezone]

I am 26, going on 27. But I barely remember the elevated Orange Line. My dad use to take me to visit my mom in Roslindale, so we would take the train from Dudley (no one under 25 would remember Dudley once was a train station, lol) to Forest Hills. I also remember Egleston Square having a station as well

[BostonUrbEx]

Great video, I feel like I was a part of this from watching it. My grandfather told me about it a couple times, think my dad did, too. I was born a couple years later and unfortunately never saw it myself. I'm lucky enough to remember the old Green Line elevated at North Station though. How things have changed, huh? Wow.

[AutisticPsycho]

10:35 Camraderie like that is rare in Boston, at least outside of Cs, Bs or Sox games.

[northlanderdude]

why was this line abandoned ?

why would a subway line be abandoned to begin with ?

most subway lines are built to handle expanding areas and population !

I have never heard of a subway line being abandoned until now !

[AutisticPsycho]

Because this was an elevated line and I might be wrong but if you look at the start of the video, there's a set of lights and that's todays Forest Hills station.

The new line ended up in the same place although a part of Washington St underserved and that today is covered by the Silver Line.

Anyways, second part, seven years earlier they retired an older series of cars, and more or less are only left the set seen here in the video. There wouldn't be enough cars to run both branches properly.

[parejopinto]

there was a really big branch of the green line abandoned and a stop in the E train also in NY the 8 is an example

[jbird1701]

I wish they didn't tear it down.

[October2nd1869]

Sad indeed.

[mbta12]

What a excellent video ! Thanks for posting such GREAT footage. I felt as I was watching it I was with the riders what people experenced.

[B0sToN24]

this is sad i wish i culda been born like 20 years earlier to see this.... are there any remains at all? like atleast a sign that it was once there? what hapenned to the portal?

[PKingman]

Not much is left. But the Northampton Street Station sits somewhat intact up at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunk Maine. The old entrance to Essex Station can be seen on Washington Street by Essex Street. I believe that the portal in Chinatown near Washington Street has been sealed.

[B0sToN24]

this is sa i wish i culd been born like 20 years earlier to see this lol.... are there any trace remains ..what happend to the portal?

[eas617]

man if only I was born when this happened ! But hey I love riding the Orange Line, especially all the way to Oak Grove and back to Forest Hills. Im surprised they even still have the same trains !!!!!!! But I am from Ashmont and I ride the Red Line more than any other line. Great video though. I'm going to ask my parents about the El Orange Line to see if they ever caught it.

[elizardoamaya]

When was the last day?

[PKingman]

It was about 20 years ago.

[RobertPaniagua]

April 30, 1987 oficially but technically overall, the very extreme last run happened at 1:30AM on May 1 of that year (next day) which was a deadhead run to the Wellington Garage which only carried T officials but it also carried a few real die-hard railfans who wanted to be in the deadhead trip. I most certainly would have been on the last outboud ride then the deadhead inbound run, but back then I was living in Germantown, Montgomery County, MD

[GoofyNewf]

Great video peter, My folks took my brother and I on the line that day(Last ride was too late for kids!). I remember the operator letting us sit in the cab the way back from oak grove to forrest hills. I miss the views from th El especialy Washington st in Roxbury and S.End. On a final note, I was in North Hampton station last week at the Seashore Trolly Museum. Brought back lots of memories!

[PKingman]

I didn't ride that line too often, but I do remember how nice it was to ride above the green tree tops in the Summer. I saw Northampton Street Station sitting in the weeds up at Kennebunkport a number of years ago. That ride up front must have been fun.

[Modeltrainguy]

Great Job. I snapped a few photos in the weeks leading up to the last day of the Old Elevated Orange Line. Some of the photos came out quite well. Kudos to this video! ^__^

[SavCub]

Impressive video, I wish I had gotten a chance to ride the old EL. I grew up in the Boston area and the furthest I went was to Essex station on the OL.

[heelsgrl]

Please post more!

[nicademas7779]

gold line 4 boston protest boston we need 1 just like n.y. an others

[nicademas7779]

wow takes me back when i waz a kid i we miss ridein this train down washington st goodtimes the 1st overpass city train 4 the public in the u.s.what made boston boston every cassic city has 1 we did in 87 the T try to replace it with bus stations but is not the same they need an boston but big dig had other mediocre plans that all fallin apart 1 day i hope they make a glod line 4 boston we need one real talk.

[jm554]

Guardian Angels on board too. There was another video here of a ride from the motormans cab during the day of a trip on the orgage line el. I also remember the el from St. Elsewhere openning credits.

[s7o0a0p]

At 10:10, the seats were padded differently than today! I never knew that about the 1200s!

[hkfreak]

The Swahilli Ad, too! Ahh...I never got to see the ol' El. Thanks for the post!

[Cocoabrothaa]

I remember taking the train from Dudley Station. MAN!!, that was a sharp squeaky turn!. I miss those days! Northampton, Dover. The EL would get  to downtown Boston in NO time.

[adelgado75]

Are there any elevated trains in Boston?

[PKingman]

All gone except for a short stretch between a tunnel at North Station and Lechmere in Cambridge where light rail trolleys run over a viaduct. But basically Boston's old EL is completely gone. The EL to Forest Hills was the last of it.

[adelgado75]

Thanks for your reply. Happy New Year.

[s7o0a0p]

Not really any more. The Green Line from Science Park to Lechmere is sort of elevated, but really all it does is it goes over the Charles River.

[burbank]

Thanks for posting this video. I wish I were there to see that last ride. I miss the elevated trains. My how Washington Street corridor has changed in 20 years!

[mespada4940]

The good olden years! I miss the Dudley Street Station but I wish they could rebuilt it. What a memory!

[PKingman]

I was down there for the first time in years last summer. Had jury duty up the street. It sure looks alot differnet than the old days.

[s7o0a0p]

You will get Memories riding the Silver Line.

[dwn2earth]

this is such a happy video, I love it!!! I missed the old elevated trains!!!

[PKingman]

I actually only used this line a few times.  But one very pleasant memory is a ride in summertime where it felt like we were riding over the tops of a whole bunch of beautiful green trees to either side of the elevated structure.

[PKingman]

I think that many of the people on this ride were quite happy having had some celebratory liquid refreshment, perhaps amber colored liquid, before boarding.

[RobertPaniagua]

Yeah there was maybe 1 or 2 more, and that extreme last inbound train (a few trains after the one you got on) carried members of the press, a few amateur photographers/camareman and MBTA Administration, including perhaps then-NYCTA Administrator David Gunn, who was originally from Boston. Also, I wish I could have been there like you. Although at the time I was living in Germantown Montgomery Co, MD (outside Washington, DC) so I misse it by 46 days (when I moved to Southeastern Massachusetts)

[PKingman]

I went home after riding this train, got a couple hours sleep (I think?), then got up and went to ride the first train outbound on the new Orange Line. Felt like crap. Stood right next to Fred Salvucci, the then or past Transportation Secretary for Mass. Someday I'll find that video and get it on YouTube.

[RobertPaniagua]

Wow, thanks for this greates video of the last train ride outbound. Now, did you get on the very last inbound trip back to Downtown Crossing (then known as Washington) till Wellington? Someone I know did, and that train left the EL Forest Hills on 1 May 87 at 1:15 AM, and somebody else I know took a picture of that last inbound train's attendant.

[PKingman]

My video is a little mislabeled. It starts out with the very last revenue trip inbound for the general public. Then we got to ride back to Forest Hills. That's in the video too. Not sure, but I guess I was on the last outbound to Forest Hills. There may have been other trains moving around, but not for the public. I went home from Forest Hills in my pickup truck.

[adelgado75]

Was it replaced with buses? That sucks. More pollution.

[PKingman]

Yes.  The line was replaced by buses, but I think that they are powered by natural gas rather than diesel.

[ooxcfhxoo]

holy crap i love this video

[fishbowl671]

I lived on the top of a hill just before Dudley station and I will never forget that night hearing the last train moaning out its sad song as it rounded the Dudley curve

[ISLAVERDE29]

I find it sad that the MBTA, which made the first ever elevated line in the US for electric trains would not even try to fix the problems and just completely eliminate it and make it look like there was no such thing!

Just my opinion. Thanks for the video.

[PKingman]

The elevated structure did become a blight upon the neighborhoods that it ran thru. It blocked out the sun for everything below. I was just down there this week riding the new Silver Line buses to Dudley Station. Things are prettier.

[AutisticPsycho]

Were those car horns in the background?

[PKingman]

The train's horn was being sounded repeatedly. Saying goodbye. Might have been some salutes from the street also.

[AutisticPsycho]

Yeah, I've just come to realize that the subway cars have horns, I've never really heard them used often up until these past few weeks since I've started commuting on the Blue Line.

[PKingman]

I don't think that they are used very much.

[videonut33]

It was an historic night for the Orange.

Too bad the el for it is gone.

20 years later.