page_title: Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad
section_title: Point Shirley Street Railway
hierarchical_section_title: Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad / History / Winthrop sections / Point Shirley Street Railway
caption_attribution_description: English: The first track spike for the Point Shirley Street Railway is driven at Winthrop Beach station on August 4, 1910
context_page_description: The Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad was a 3 ft narrow-gauge passenger-carrying shortline railroad between East Boston and Lynn, Massachusetts, from 1875 to 1940.
context_section_description: The Point Shirley Street Railway was built from Winthrop Beach station to Point Shirley beginning in August 1910 and opened later that year. The 1.2-mile (1.9 km) single-track line ran along Shirley Street and Tafts Avenue. The BRB&L acquired the entire line with legislative approval in October 1912. By 1914, the line operated 30,594 car miles (an average of 35 daily round trips), carried 165,037 passengers (an average of 452 daily), and employed seven people.
  Unusually, the Point Shirley Street Railway did not operate with electric power from overhead lines. It first used a gasoline-powered electric streetcar, then a battery-powered streetcar owned by the BRB&L, but these did not prove adequate for reliable service and by early 1919 buses were used instead. This prompted a public outcry with demands for conventional overhead-powered cars; instead, the BRB&L introduced two lighter battery-powered streetcars with better performance to the line in May 1919.
  Even the 1919-built cars proved to be too expensive to operate on a marginal low-traffic line. In 1928, they were permanently replaced by buses.
caption: Ceremonial driving of the first spike on the line in August 1910
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