Where am I? The photo contest

The EGE said:
Not my photo (actually taken by MassDEP in 2008) but here's one that baffled me for a bit.

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Looks like a good one for the "Ode to Brutalism" thread. ;)
 
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JohnAKeith said:
Redditor (ugh) posted this on Reddit. It's cover art for an Alarm album from the 80s.

https://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/1krzk35/anyone_know_the_locations_of_these_3_photos_in

First two images are Central Artery but this one .. I admit, I'm stumped (never happens). Wasn't there a "gear" like this in South Boston across from the Gillette building where the welding company is?

(There's currently a red railroad something in that area but I don't mean that one.)

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That thing is almost certainly a generator from a 1890s power plant, but I can't tell you where you could find one outdoors and seemingly disconnected in 1960s Boston.

en.wikipedia.org

File:Mechanicville Hydroelectric Plant.jpg - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Correct! They appear to be a secondary access point (emergency exit?) for the trail tracks. I'm not sure if they're ever actually used.
 
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Some strange extant tracks I found today, no tracks nearby that they’d connect to. Anyone know where I am?
 
I won't spoil it. but I thought I knew the location immediately. I was wrong - it's about a neighborhood over from there. There's a clue in the image that gives you a good lead. One of those streets you'd never go down unless you had a good reason.
 
A bit of a twist - I don't know the answer, so I'm enlisting AB to help. It's a War Department photo from WWII showing "fresh vegetables picked at the Victory Garden on the Boston Common being loaded into refrigerator trains". It could plausibly be the B&A Back Bay yard, the South Station yards, the New Haven's Seaport yards, or the B&M yards around North Station and across the river. The industrial building at left seems somewhat distinct, but thus far I've failed to match it to anything still extant.
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The EGE said:
A bit of a twist - I don't know the answer, so I'm enlisting AB to help. It's a War Department photo from WWII showing "fresh vegetables picked at the Victory Garden on the Boston Common being loaded into refrigerator trains". It could plausibly be the B&A Back Bay yard, the South Stations yards, the New Haven's Seaport yards, or the B&M yards around North Station and across the river. The industrial building at left seems somewhat distinct, but thus far I've failed to match it to anything still extant.
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That building in the background is almost certainly 75 Kneeland - that facade detail is unique. The building at right with the blank facade however is what ID'ed it for me - that would be the Kneeland St. steam plant, which would then make this part of the B&A depot, and those trucks on what was South Street which is now part the Massdot district 6 parking lot - that photo was taken approximately here on Google Street view.
 
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Amazing detective work, thank you!

Adjusting a bit to match what was on the ground then (this is the 1938 Bromley map), it looks like this is B&A freight house #4, with the nearer boxcars actually on the Union Freight Railroad. We're looking over the extension of Atlantic Avenue.

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