The Haverhill Line's least used station.

[@benpease7620]

I grew up midway between North Wilmington and Wilmington from 1964 to 1976. I learned to ride a bike in Wilmington and somehow survived; for a couple years I commuted into Boston for choir practice on the B&M. Wilmington station (Boston to Lowell) still has much more frequent service, and the infrequent Andover/Lawrence/Haverhill trains tended to come via Wilmington on the Wildcat branch (the trains on this branch ended at Reading). So it's not surprising North Wilmington ridership is small, but with irregular service through here to Haverhill it's good they stop here; fills a long gap in that line. Creative and intrepid of you to bicycle down from Ballardvale. In the '60s there just a ratty old asphalt platform at North Wilmington, no trains for years. Elia's Country Store was then in the gray building across the street from the station, but now is set back behind a parking lot to the left; it is still a competent local market and deli. Looking west (beyond a strip of Elia land and a town/MBTA parking lot, the big recently cleared land is proposed for 128 apartments. In Google Street View you can still see the 1950s-era commercial strip (then also owned by Elia), which in my day was big enough for a barber shop, deli (sub shop) and the Town Crier newspaper. As you began bicycling toward Wilmington, the strip mall and RMV on the south side of Middlesex Ave. was more of a business park in the 1970s; 100 years ago there used to be a tannery (N Wilmington fit on one Sanborn map page). You are so right, Middlesex Ave/Hwy 62 is a bit of a stroad. At least it has a sidewalk along one side (adequate for walking to school, and for kids on bikes but jerky to ride on); too busy a road, shoulder too narrow to ride comfortably. Farther east between the Town Common/High School/library there begins a somewhat older, mixed Colonial and railroad suburb part of town - Hwy 62 angles left and makes a beeline to the Wilmington Station, whereas Middlesex angles right and is more bucolic (but either way you emerge onto a busy strip of strip malls and highway commercial). The town bumps along on a series of eskers (glacial deposits) and swamps. One bit of nearby trivia - there used to be an abandoned, narrow-gauge railroad roadbed out past my backyard - you may be able to find it from the middle of Wilmington cemetery heading NW to Federal Street, on swampy town land. It was intended to transfer people and freight between the Boston and Lowell and the Boston and Lawrence (the Western branch) but the Boston and Lowell built the standard-gauge Wildcat branch themselves and put the local venture out of business before rails were laid.

[@MbtaVideoClips]

Trains still stop here on weekends. Only some weekends, when trains are running express from Ballardvale due to track work, is when they don't stop.

[@SFRM_22]

Nice video

[@foxytransit]

I see that the video was fixed! Great video!

[@arsenicCatnip413]

thank you! and sorry. I was extreemely tired when I first uploaded "this" video.