Concrete blocks are ready to be installed as retainer walls 
on the Holden, River St. rail trail bridge.

Work begins on River Street rail trail bridge abutment, October 12, 2001.
The Bates Corp.of Clinton removed trees and brush from bridge area in preparation to 
 construct the bridge abutment retainer walls.

On a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, the last one in September, 2001, 19 people met in Rutland to sample stretches of the Mass Central Railroad route between Rutland and Northampton. We started at the area where the railroad used to cross under Route 56 north of Rutland Center and discussed the possibility of running the rail trail under Route 56 again, in view of the fast moving traffic and short sight distances. We then went round the corner on Miles Road, past the site of the Rutland Station to the former RR overpass and walked the embankment which divides Thayer Pond, sighting heron and other bird life. We then checked out Charnock Cut, where the ice buildup in the winter sometimes prevented trains from getting through, drove down Barracks Hill Road and out Whitehall, noting the location of the West Rutland Station and the 55 foot high embankment cutting across Whitehall Pond.We stopped on Route 122 at Parker's Crossing in Oakham and checked out Dick Williams' old photos of a truck-train collision there around 90 years ago. We noted the bridge abutments near MDC's Shaft 8 in Barre, where the Ware River line turned north toward Winchendon. We drove beside Vernon Avenue on the former Mass Central location right next to the currently operating new Mass Central Railroad Corporation, and checked out the Barre Plains Station location and the former RR route under Route 67. We drove to the Wheelwright mill and
the group walked the right-of-way south over the bridge trestle to the New Braintree Station location. At this point, running an hour behind our
promised schedule, we drove directly west to Amherst and Hadley, parking near the Wal-Mart on the Norwattuck Rail Trail. The group dispersed to picnic tables, Bread and Circus, shopping, cycling and walking in the classic New England fall afternoon.