Railfanning at Wilmington Junction featuring Heritage Units and Poor Behaviors

Wilmington Junction is the location where the former B&M Main Line and Wildcat Branch diverge and is therefore a popular railfanning location. The Main Line is now today's MBTA Lowell Line running between Lowell and North Station in Boston. The Wildcat Branch connects the Main Line to the ex-B&M Portland Division's Western Route, running between Boston and Portland via Melrose, Wakefield, Reading, Andover, Lawrence, and Haverhill. In the 1970s the Western Route south of Wilmington was planned to be abandoned and replaced with the Haymarket North Extension of the rapid transit Orange Line, which was intended to run all the way to Reading. All passenger service to Haverhill and points north would have been rerouted to the Main Line, which had a higher track capacity and speed limit, and would have diverged onto what is today known as the Wildcat Branch here to continue towards Haverhill. However, NIMBYism primarily in Melrose resulted in the subway extension being cut back to its present day terminus of Oak Grove, and the Western Route retained its commuter rail service as the MBTA Haverhill Line.

Under normal operations today, the Lowell Line (Main Line) and Haverhill Line (Western Route) are operated as two distinct services that don't usually overlap, even though the B&M intended for the services to effectively interline between Wilmington and Boston. The Wildcat Branch is normally only used by the Amtrak Downeaster service between Boston and Brunswick, Maine, which runs the way the B&M intended for all Western Route interstate service to operate, as well as a single rush hour round trip express train from Haverhill to Boston via Woburn and the occasional overnight freight train. However, throughout the summer of 2024, a track replacement project on the Western Route in Wakefield that is necessitating single-track operations through what is normally double-track territory has resulted in most inbound Haverhill Line trains during the daytime hours running via Woburn and the Wildcat Branch. MBTA Bus Route #137 is providing inbound service along the Western Route from Reading to Oak Grove, while outbound Haverhill Line trains continue to operate normally. The inbound commuter rail train seen coming off of the branch and joining onto the Main Line here is one of these reroutes. The outbound commuter rail train diverging onto the branch at the end of this video is the one regular outbound rush hour express trip that is scheduled to operate this way at all times. Several regular Lowell Line trains are also seen, as well as Amtrak Downeaster trains with one consist featuring a heritage unit from Amtrak's 50th anniversary.

Finally, please take heed of the PSAs that are included in this video and do not imitate some of the rather poor decisions that passengers made that were captured on video here. Thanks.