Mt Tom Railroad

The first really warm day of 2009 we decided to walk along the old Mt. Tom railroad in Holyoke, MA. This paved road is closed to unauthorized vehicles but is open to pedestrians.

Construction of the one mile rail line began in 1897. With a 21 degree grade, the rail cars had special slanted seats for the passengers. The railway ran until 1938 when it was closed, dismantled and sold for scrap.

Following are links to some great old pictures and history of the area from the turn of century.
Mount Tom RR
Holyoke Mass Mount Tom RR
Wistariahurst Chariots of Change
Catskill Archive Mt Tom RR

At the elevation of 900' there is a memorial to the "Flying Fortress" bomber that crashed at this site in 1946. There were 25 service men onboard when the B-17 slammed into the mountain. No one onboard survived. At the time the road was still dirt and rocks so the rescue effort was difficult. This memorial was dedicated in 1996. Read more about it at Gendisasters.

The view from the memorial was nice and as I am relatively new to the Pioneer Valley it was a chance to orient myself to the terrain and landscape of the area. We had our lunch here, sitting on the rock wall, enjoying the warm weather and sunshine. We weren't the only ones enjoying the beautiful day along the Mt Tom railroad line. There was a gentleman who passed us on our way up and at a rapid pace. He looked like he walks this road often. A young man in camo with a HUGE pack on was setting a good pace up the hill and he was making it look easy. And when we were leaving three young men were pushing their trail bikes up the road. When we asked if there were going to ride back down they said yes, but on the other side. When we reached the bottom of the mountain we heard a lot of yelling and hooting going on from the top of the mountain. I think it is safe to assume they reached their destination and were enjoying the ride back down.

A rather haunting aspect of our trip was the plane parts scattered around the crash area. Over the years people have picked up some of the parts and left them on the stone next to the monument. Standing there, looking at the rusted pieces of scrap metal and thinking about what happened at that spot and the lives that were lost was moving.