History of the Manhan Rail Trail
The following is provided courtesy of Craig Della Penna, excerpted from a draft of his upcoming book on rail trails in the region.
- 1995-6 Easthampton receives Federal Enhancements Award and Town Meeting supports to acquire from the Pioneer Valley Railroad
- 1997 Award for design of Easthampton portion
- 1999 Pioneer Valley Railroad removes track structure
- 1999 Easthampton section design, 75% complete, MassHighway holds hearing
- 2001 Rail Trail from South St. to Fort Hill Road cleared and graded
- 2002 100% design completed and accepted by MassHighway. Project put out to bid
- 2002 Manhan Rail Trail mural by Nora Valdez is installed
- 2003-4 Rail Trail is constructed by Lane Construction
- June 19, 2004 Ribbon cutting for phase 1
Typical of many New England towns, Easthampton Massachusetts was a factory town with a number of large antediluvian mills—primarily textile mills. These complexes provided steady, well paying jobs for the residents and they also provided lucrative traffic to the railroad.
In fact, Easthampton's industrial base was so extensive, that it was served by two competing railroads—the New Haven Railroad’s Canal Division and the Mt. Tom branch of the Boston & Maine Railroad.
Prosperity reigned in Easthampton right up until the mid 1970s. Indeed, in 1974, the PennCentral Railroad — successor of the New Haven had over 4,000 cars a year terminating in Easthampton.
By the late 1970s, changes in the environmental laws and relocation of businesses to places like North and South Carolina, brought about a shift that made the mill buildings in Easthampton largely dormant.
By the late 1980s traffic was down to under 500 cars a year, and by 1991, the Pioneer Valley Railroad (PVRR) — who had taken over all the trackage in town — instituted a several hundred dollar per-car surcharge on traffic terminating in Easthampton because of poor track conditions.
The last customer using the railroad in Easthampton was the W.R. Grace & Co.’s Zonolite plant and they too left town when the railroad wasn’t able to serve them at a price that worked for them. 1992, the PVRR filed for abandonment of the approximately 5 miles of corridor in Easthampton.
By 1996, the idea of converting all the old trackage into a linear park or rail trail began to take hold. A local grass roots organization—the Friends of the Manhan Rail Trail—was created to help fund raise for the community’s portion of the cost to construct the trail and the Town Meeting voted that year to support the acquisition from the PVRR. By 1999, the PVRR removed the track and town acquired the corridor.
To read more, and to view accompanying images and maps, download Mr. Della Penna’s PDF draft chapters (488 KB).
More images will be coming soon.