Infrastructure Dorkery Part II

As a continuation of yesterday's historical infrastructure dorkery (trolley tracks at Somerville Ave), I walked by the same site today, and there was enough interesting stuff going on that I posted the shots to my Flickr page.


One interesting item was the shape of the track--it has that "cup" on one side of the track--necessary for it to function as a flush part of a surface street, while still having somewhere for the railroad wheel flange to go. Some Wikipedia searching revealed that it is known as grooved rail ("invented in 1852 by Alphonse Loubat, a French inventor who developed improvements in tram and rail equipment, and helped develop tram lines in New York City and Paris").


Also, the excavation revealed that there were cobblestones under the asphalt surface. I have a soft spot/nostalgia for cobblestones--I distinctly remember my family driving around various NYC neighborhoods, and the car rumbling around on the cobblestone street portions, back in the 1970's.



They are reducing the width of the sidewalk on the side next to the commuter rail tracks. Huh.. I wonder if they might be adding a bike lane or something? That would totally rock. But maybe they're just making the street into two lanes or something.