At a glimpse: Commuter Rail Stations in Southern MA

So since I'm on Spring Break this week and stuck in Plainville, I can't do any posts featuring pictures and events from currents happenings around Boston. Instead, I did as best as I could to find something to write about that is Boston-related while I'm out of the city, so behold this post about stations on the MBTA commuter rail line.

I took a few hours yesterday to drive around to all of the commuter rail stops in my area and take some pictures showing the different types of architecture (or lack thereof) of the different stations. I visited six stops in total; three are on the Providence line: South Attleboro, Attleboro, and Mansfield; and three are on the Franklin Line: Walpole, Norfolk, and Franklin/Dean College. As you'll be able to see from looking at the pictures, most of the actual station buildings are closed and in various states of dilapidation, except for one of Attleboro’s and the one at Mansfield, which as far as I can tell are still open for the purpose of selling tickets.

Click on the thumbnails below to view the photo albums for each stop.

The Attleboro station was originally built in the early 1900s as part of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad. Later in the 20^th century, the MBTA and Amtrak came into ownership of the tracks, and currently, the southbound station building is closed, being rented out for office space.

The South Attleboro station is the southernmost station located in Massachusetts, and is located right off of I-95. It was opened in June of 1990 on the former site of a Holiday Inn Hotel.

Mansfield station was rebuilt in 2004 and was originally the south end of the former Old Colony Railroad line.

Norfolk station is at grade level and has a single track. There is no station building and it only has one boarding platform.

Formerly called Walpole Union Station, now just simply called Walpole station, it used to be a part of the Old Colony Railroad and also the New York and New England Railroad. The head house closed on September 1, 2009.

The Franklin/Dean College station used to be the terminal station on the Franklin Line, until the Forge Park/495 stop was built in 1988. There is a coffee shop inside this station house, serving all the weary commuters who come through the station at the beginning and end of the day.