The Wildcat Branch is a single track railroad branch line which connects the MBTA Lowell Line in Wilmington, Massachusetts to the MBTA Haverhill Line at Wilmington Junction. The total length of the branch line from the connection with the Lowell Line to the merge with the Haverhill Line is 2.88 miles (4.63 km). It was operated from 1836 to 1848, then rebuilt in 1874, and has been used since.
The Wildcat Branch splits from the Lowell line just north of the outbound Wilmington platform.
Salem Street station (viewed here in 2014) was only open from 1959 to 1967. It was the only passenger station ever used on the Wildcat Branch.
The Lowell Line is a railroad line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, running north from Boston to Lowell, Massachusetts. Originally built as the New Hampshire Main Line of the Boston & Lowell Railroad and later operated as part of the Boston & Maine Railroad's Southern Division, the line was one of the first railroads in North America and the first major one in Massachusetts.
An outbound train arriving at Anderson RTC in 2023
Early-20th-century postcard of a train at Lowell Union Station
An MBTA demonstration train at Concord, New Hampshire, in 1979
For a time in 1980-81, some MBTA Commuter Rail trains routed on the New Hampshire Main ran as far up as Concord.
