History
The Fitchburg Railroad began serving the town with a stop, located off of School Street east of Main Street, when it reached the town on October 1, 1844. The railroad completed the first station in 1845 and, when the new station was built in 1892, the old station was moved to Jones Farm and used as a fire station until 1927. The new South Acton Station served the Boston & Maine Railroad until the company sold the building in the early 1970s after it exited the passenger transportation business. This station burned in 1984 and was torn down. South Acton served as a station stop for both the Fitchburg Branch and Marlborough Branch of the B&M. The Marlborough Branch split off from the Fitchburg Railroad after the station. The station also maintained a two-stall round house, a freight house, and a turntable, located off the Marlborough Branch.
The South Acton station was temporarily closed on January 17, 1965 but reopened on June 28, 1965. After service to Fitchburg was discontinued on March 1, 1975, South Acton was the end of the line until service was restored as far as Gardner on January 13, 1980. During that time, the line was known as the South Acton Line.
In the 1980s, the Town of Acton and the MBTA moved the station stopping point two tenths of a mile westward, off of Central Street west of Main Street, to provide expanded on-site parking. The original parking lot is now the "overflow" parking lot; portions of the former platform remain in the brush off the north side of the tracks.
Read more about this topic: South Acton (MBTA Station)
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