Bedford Depot Park Project
The Depot Park complex enhances the Bedford terminus of the popular Minuteman Bikeway. It offers facilities for cyclists, pedestrians, and other visitors in surroundings that recall the railroad history of the corridor. New landscaping, period-style benches, lighting, bicycle racks, picnic tables, public parking, and public restrooms were all part of the project. A vintage Boston & Maine Railroad passenger car that once regularly operated between Bedford and Boston was acquired from the MBTA, moved to the site by road in 1998, and restored as a static display. That cosmetic restoration, done by Friends of Bedford Depot Park volunteers, Bedford DPW personnel, and contractors, was completed in 2009. Purchased by the Town of Bedford in 1999 for inclusion in Depot Park were the railroad’s 1870s-vintage freight house and passenger depot, both of which had been in private ownership for more than 40 years. Their restorations were completed in 2009 and 2014, respectively.
Reconstruction of the nearby Railroad Avenue/Loomis Street/South Road intersection was a separate but complementary project. It included relocation of overhead utility wires to underground conduit, new granite-curbed sidewalks, and signal-controlled crosswalks. The Bedford DPW completed that work in 2005.
The Massachusetts Highway Department and Town of Bedford implemented the Depot Park project with $1.35 million in funding from the Federal-state Transportation Enhancement Program. Planning and design services were provided by Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., and site construction was done by D’Allessandro Corporation.
The project has been aided since its inception by the Friends of Bedford Depot Park. FBDP volunteers staff the Freight House welcome center and open the railcar to visitors on weekends during the biking season. Operation of the complex is funded by Freight House food and beverage sales, rentals of store or office space in the Depot, and rentals of the railcar. Those revenues have made Bedford Depot Park self-supporting.
Above Bedford Depot in November 2014, shortly after its exterior restoration was completed (James Shea).
Right Northeast corner of the Depot in June 2021, with one of the restored train-order signals (William Deen).
Bedford terminus of the almost-new Minuteman Bikeway in 1994, before the creation of Depot Park. The bakery, facing South Road, is the former narrow-gauge engine house, built in 1877. In time, it would be transformed into today’s Freight House welcome center.
Bedford passenger station in 1994. It was built by the Middlesex Central in 1873, retired by the Boston & Maine in 1958, and sold in 1959. It remained in private hands until 1999, when it was acquired by the town for restoration as part of Depot Park.
Bedford’s abandoned rail yard in 1994, looking east toward the bakery on South Road. The large building on the left, once a coal and grain dealersip, would become a bike shop and the yard area itself would become paved parking for Depot Park visitors.
Billerica & Bedford Railroad
Two-Foot-Gauge Interpretive Track
The Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiats selected FBDP for its 2003 H. Albert Webb Memorial Railroad Preservation Award. This $10,000 grant, plus an additional $2,000 donation from the Amherst Railway Society, enabled the construction of a segment of narrow-gauge track along the former roadbed of the Billerica & Bedford Railroad between Loomis Street and The Great Road in Bedford. This track segment honors the history of the country’s first “two-footer.”
Tom Dickey, coordinator for the track project, was assisted by David Buczkowski, Jean Paul Capistran, Earl Dickey, John Filios, Edward Ganshirt, Bob Gilligan, Steve Healy, Neil Leary, David McKenzie, Bill Marsh, John Mentzer, Barry Sampson, Jim Shea, and Edward Stickney.