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The actual name was the Southern New England Railroad. The reason for the nickname was that the funding was lost with the sinking of Titanic. Construction started in 1912 (in Monson) with roadbed grading & bridge abutments, (to my knowledge,) no rails were ever laid.
It is directly connected with (what became) the Monson Developmental Center, because that State granted it a Right-of-Way at the confluence of Chicopee Brook & the Quaboag River, running South to what is now Hospital Road on MDC property.
There also has an indirect connection to the Bay Path, in that from the Chicopee Brook to Steerage Rock (in Brimfield,) it literally closely tracked that Path. In addition, the final roadbed was within yards of the location of Richard Fellow's Tavern site.
(The original plan was to have it run further South and crossed the Chicopee Brook & road, near what became C.F. Church plant, then turning North and climbing the Fenton end of East Hill on a more gradual grade. However cost considerations won the day.)
Larry Lowenthal (of Brimfield) is an authority on this railroad and has publushed the book "Titanic Railroad: the Southern New England, the Story of New England's Last Great Railroad War" (Brimfield, MA: Marker Press, 1998).
See:
Titanic Railroad - Southern New England and/or
Larry Lowenthal's House of History and/or
Larry Lowenthal Collection.
Also, the Palmer Public Library Railroad Advisory Board recently published One Town Seven Railroads, The Railroads of Palmer, Massachusetts
Past, Present & Never Were (goto Palmer Public Library ) or pick a copy up at the library.
See also:
New York, New Haven & Hartford ... - Google books.
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