| Onset | |
| Style: | New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad |
| Address: | 447 Onset Avenue |
| Coordinates: | 41.7569°N -70.6758°W |
| Line: | Cape Main Line |
| Other Services Header: | Former services |
Onset station is a former train station located on Depot Street in the village of East Wareham, Massachusetts. Originally known as Agawam, then East Wareham, it was combined with a nearby station under the name Onset Junction in 1891. Known as Onset by the 1930s, it was closed in 1959. The station building remains in use by a business.
The Cape Cod Railroad was extended from to in May 1848. By 1857, Agawam station was located at Onset Avenue, serving its namesake village.[1] The Cape Cod Railroad was acquired by the Old Colony Railroad in 1872. Onset Bay station, about east of Agawam at Main Avenue, was added by 1879.[2]
In 1885, the Onset Bay Grove Railroad opened between Onset station (formerly Onset Bay) and Shell Point in Onset Bay Grove, a religious camp meeting site and summer resort.[3] [4] Later called the Onset Bay Street Railway, it operated horsecars and steam dummies. The Old Colony constructed a new station building at Onset in 1885 to serve transferring passengers.[5]
Around 1888, the competing East Wareham, Onset Bay and Point Independence Street Railway opened between East Wareham station (formerly Agawam) and Onset Bay Grove.[6] [7] The Old Colony parked a railroad car at East Wareham in 1889 to serve as an expanded station.[8] In May 1891, the two horsecar lines agreed to merge, which included the abandonment of the Onset Bay Street Railway line to Onset station. The station was closed; the station building was relocated to East Wareham and renamed Onset Junction. The existing East Wareham station was converted to a freight house.[9] [10]
The horsecar line was acquired by the New Bedford and Onset Street Railway (NB&O) and electrified in 1901.[11] [12] It had a short spur track leading directly to Onset Junction station.[13] The NB&O was abandoned in 1927; by the 1930s, the station was again known simply as Onset.[14] [15] In 1936, the town proposed to move the station back to Main Avenue.[16]
Onset was intermittently a stop for the Cape Codder and other New York–Cape Cod trains until at least the 1940s.[17] [18] [19] [20] Passenger service to Onset ended on June 30, 1959, when the New Haven ended passenger service on its Old Colony division.[21] The former station building, still extant, is used by an antique store.[22]
commons:File:1937 New York–Cape Cod timetable.pdf
. June 21, 1937 . New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad . Wikimedia Commons.commons:File:Cape Cod pages from 1930 timetable.pdf
. June 9, 1930 . New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad . Wikimedia Commons.commons:File:1938 New York–Cape Cod timetable.pdf
. June 1, 1938 . New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad . Wikimedia Commons.commons:File:1940 New York–Cape Cod timetable.pdf
. July 21, 1940 . New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad . Wikimedia Commons.commons:File:New Haven Railroad 1955 timetable.pdf
. New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad . 6, 36, 37 . Table 29: New York to Cape Cod-Martha's Vineyard-Nantucket . Wikimedia Commons.