Watertown Branch Railroad. GX1, Voigtlander 75mm.

The Watertown Branch Railroad, Wikipedia tells me, was chartered in 1846, and formed a loop off the Fitchburg Line to serve the towns of Watertown and Waltham before rejoining the mainline to Fitchburg right next to that lovely signal cabin which was the subject of a previous Blip some weeks back. The Watertown Branch has had a long downhill history starting when the Boston and Maine Railroad took control of the Fitchburg line around 1900. Passenger service on the branch ceased in 1938, but the line still supported a sporadic goods service right up until about 2007. Now the right-of-way is completely abandoned and will eventually all become a bike path, the fate assigned to many of New England's numerous branch lines. If you're a railway enthusiast, there's something very sad about that. On the other hand, if you're a cyclist, you've got a ready-made path with easy gradients.