the track too firm and unyielding. It wore the machinery of the locomotives and cars so rapidly as to induce a substitution of wooden ties.

The Medford branch of the Boston and Maine Railroad was incorporated March 7, 1845; and the names of the petitioners are James O. Curtis, Henry L. Stearns, Joseph Manning, jun., Daniel Lawrence, Nathaniel H. Bishop, and Andrew Blanchard, jun. On the 22d of January, 1845, the town passed the following:

"Resolved, as the sense of the people of Medford, that it is expedi ent that the prayer of the petitioners for a railroad to connect Medford with Boston be granted."

In order to have an estimate of the cost of this lastnamed road, a committee of citizens employed James Hayward to make certain surveys. He did so; and the original copy of his report, now yellow with age, has come into our hands. It is as follows:

TO MESSRS. BISHOP, LAWRENCE, AND OTHERS.

Gentlemen,The survey and estimate which you requested me to make for a branch railroad from Medford to the Maine Extension Railroad in Malden have been completed; and a horizontal trace and vertical section of the line selected as 'the best, which will conform to your wishes in this behalf, are represented in the accompanying drawing.

The line selected by this survey is as follows: it commences on Ship Street, near the public square in Medford village, and proceeds eastwardly, in a very direct line, crossing Cross Street near the pound, thence, in nearly the same direction, across Park Street, and thence to the Boston and Maine Extension Railroad, with which it unites, by a curve of one thousand feet radius, about fifteen hundred feet east of the farmhouse of the Messrs. Wellington, and about two hundred rods from the railroad bridge over Mystic River.

The whole length of this line, from the Extension Road to the terminus in Medford, is ninety-eight hundred feet. The only considerable curve is that by which it connects with the Maine Extension Road, and even this might have an enlarged radius if it should be thought expedient.

The highest grade is about sixteen feet to the mile, as I have laid the profile of the road, and estimated the cutting and filling. There is no marsh land or rock-cutting; but the ground is very favorable for the construction of a railroad, being generally sand and light gravel, and requiring no very deep cutting or high embankment. The largest item in the earth-work will consist of about sixteen thousand yards of embankment, to raise the ground for the depot buildings and woodyard. The line intersects two cross-roads, neither of them much trav elled; and from each of these intersections nearly the whole line of the branch road may be seen.

The damage to real estate will be trifling, considering the fact that the road will commence near the centre of so extensive and so compact a village.

The accompanying estimate provides for a single-track road of the first class; embankments fifteen feet wide at the surface of the roadbed, with slopes of one and a half to one, and excavations of twentyfour feet in width at the grade-line, with the same slopes as those of the embankments. The superstructure estimated for is the wroughtiron T-rail, weighing fifty-seven pounds to the yard, laid on chestnut sleepers, and secured by a heavy cast-iron chair, which will effectually hold the ends of the rails in place. The estimate contains nothing for land, or damage to real estate. Of this subject you are much better judges than myself, and will be better able to ascertain the opinions of the owners, or of the other citizens of Medford, by whose opinion, in some degree, such questions, in case of disagreement, will ultimately be decided.

To the expense of building the branch, I have added that of building a second track on the Maine Extension Road, from the proposed junction with that road to the Middlesex Canal, where the route proposed on the south side of the river would meet the Extension Road. This I do, that we may have all the data for comparing the two routes proposed.

The distance to Boston by the northern route is thirty-two hundred feet greater than that by the southern route; and the southern branch will be forty-two hundred feet longer than the northern.

With these remarks the annexed estimate is respectfully submitted by Your obedient servant,

JAMES HAYWARD.

ESTIMATE OF COST.

Excavation and embankment, 30,000 yards, at 12 cts.
Masonry, 455 yards, at $1.50
Fencing, 1,200 rods, at $1
2 road-signs (25 feet long)
6 road and field crossings
Superstructure, 2 miles
Depot buildings.

To which add for grading the second track from the junc-
tion to Mystic River, 7,092 yards, at 163 cts.
From bridge to Middlesex Canal, 6,333 yards, at 163 cts.
Masonry near Wellington's, 25 yards, at $2
Superstructure north of Mystic River

1,182 00

1,055 55

50 00

4,621 21

Superstructure south of Mystic River

2,743 84

3.473 50

Engineering, contingencies, etc., ten per cent

$38,208 60

By the Act of Incorporation "the capital stock was not to consist of more than one thousand shares at one hundred dollars each." The Act further stated, ·

"If the said railroad shall not be constructed within two years from the passage of this Act, then the same shall be void."

This includes about five hundred feet of side-track.

It was readily finished, and proves to be a most productive and convenient road.

The Stoneham Branch Railroad Company was incorporated May 15, 1851. Thaddeus Richardson, Amasa Farrier, and William Young, were named as the corporation. Section 7 of the Act has the following condition:

"The construction of the said road shall not be commenced until the capital named in the charter shall have been subscribed by responsible parties, and twenty per cent paid into the treasury of the said company."

This road was commenced and graded from Stoneham into the bounds of Medford, where its further construction suddenly stopped, and was given up.

The Medford and Charlestown Railroad Company was incorporated May 15, 1855; the petitioners therefor being James M. Usher, James O. Curtis, Samuel Teel, jun., Albert Hanscom, and Edwin Wright. The Act of Incorporation was modified by supplementary legislation March 9, 1857, and April 6, 1859.

The company was organized Feb. 28, 1856; and its bylaws were adopted Dec. 26, 1859.

Early in 1860 a location was granted by the selectmen of Medford and Somerville; and Mr. George E. Adams took the contract for building the road, the track being laid, as located, in the middle of Main Street from the Square to Mystic Avenue, thence on the east side of Main Street to the terminus near the junction of Main Street and Broadway on Winter Hill.

In May of the same year the company, for twelve thousand dollars, purchased of the Somerville Railroad Company its Winter-hill Branch, extending from the summit of Winter Hill, through Broadway by a side-track, to the Charlestown line.

Two or three months later the road was completed to Medford Square, and went into operation under lease; first to George E. Adams, and later (Nov. 1, 1860) to the Malden and Melrose Railroad Company, which transferred its lease to the Middlesex Railroad Company in January, 1866.

In 1863 the company contemplated extending its track to Malden line, and a location through Salem Street was granted therefor by the selectmen; but no part of the extension was ever built.