Almost 100 years ago, Westford had three railroad lines with eight stations and two trolley routes in town.  The main trolley line which opened May 31,1906 was an interurban line which ran from Ayer to N. Chelmsford.  The back section of the building at 2 East Prescott Street housed the electrical equipment for the trolley, converting electricity from AC to DC for trolley use.  At one time Joseph Connell was the caretaker of this power station.  On the stretch from Forge Village to Graniteville, the trolley tracks ran parallel to the railroad, coming out between 94 and 98 N. Main.  It then went along North Main Street, down Beacon and crossed Nutting Road where the old bridge abutment still exists.  Next it crossed Dunstable, Tyngsboro and Forrest Roads, eventually coming out on Groton Road (Rt. 40), to connect with the Boston and Northern Street Railway Company at North Chelmsford.  Cars operated in both directions almost hourly.  According to Arnold Wilder in an interview with June Kennedy, "The mill workers in town would go to Lowell once a week, on Saturday.  The schedule was such that they would work from six until twelve on Saturday, have time to go home and get their clothes changed and catch the one o'clock car [trolley] for Lowell, or train."  

The other line in town was a branch line which opened on May 25, 1907.  It started at the Triangle Store on Groton Road in West Chelmsford, went to Nabnasset and then to the Brookside Mill area and stopped.  B&M officials would not allow the trolley  to cross their railroad tracks.  Passengers were required to cross the tracks on foot and hop on another branch trolley that would then travel from Brookside, along Lowell Road, up Cummings Road to Depot Street and finally to its terminus in front of the J. V. Fletcher Library on Main Street. 

Imagine the surprise of the two school teachers at the Tadmuck School (20 Boston Road) that day in May 1907 when they went to call their students in from recess and not a one was in sight.  They were all at the town common, acting as an impromptu Reception Committee for the trolley!

Several Westford men worked on the line as conductors or motormen, among them Alfred Tuttle who lived at 14 Boston Road, J. Edward "Hunka" Clement, afterwards a School Bus operator.  Walter Cutter and J. Edward Sherlock were featured as the crew in an early photograph near the Fletcher Library. Lastly, Ed Szylvian, of Westford, remembered Jack Daffy as one of the conductors.  Jack would later be a ticket taker at the Ayer Playhouse theater.

In December 12, 1911, the "Westford Wardsman" reported that "The trolley cars have been crowded during this week, many people from this village going to Lowell and Ayer for their Christmas shopping."

The years of trolley service were not many.  In order to entice ridership, amusement parks such as Whalom Park, Canobie Lake Park, and Lakeview were built to become weekend destinations.    Our summers are too brief, and even that didn't create enough business, and ridership continued to dwindle.  The trip on the Brookside trolley line to Lowell which took over an hour and required two changes, took only twenty minutes by train and cost only a few cents more.  At the same time, the automobile was becoming serious competition to both the trolley and the train.  Without enough customers to support the service, the branch line from Brookside to the center was out of business by 1920.  The line through Graniteville and the branch from Brookside to the Triangle Store survived for a few more years.  The Eastern Mass. Street Railway took over those route in 1926, but suspended car service on July 9, 1929.  Eastern Mass. Railway then furnished bus service until terminating even that service in 1932.   

Today, one finds it hard to believe a little, yellow trolley car called the "Jolly Jumper" used to make its way up the hill to Westford Center, and the ride to Lowell only cost a quarter.

Many thanks to Arnold Wilder, Ed Szylvian and to Alex Belida (1918- 2001) for sharing and recording their memories of Westford's trolley history.