Greetings all,

I am a MA candidate at UMass Boston interested in urban transportation, growth, and labor.  After scouring multiple online journal databases and article collections, albeit in a limited capacity due to the constraints of any library, I haven't been able to find any archaeology of 19th century horse railroads, save the project that I'm studying for my in progress thesis.  My collection comes from a support complex of the Metropolitan Railroad Company of Boston, Massachusetts, which operated from the 1850s until the 1880s, when it was swallowed up by a conglomerate of street railway companies that would become the later electrified lines.  The complex, which consisted of stables, carhouses, various workshops, and a blacksmith, was dug in the late 1970s by the archaeology staff of what was then called the Museum of Afro American History, and the report was completed in 1986 by Beth Anne Bowers.   The artifacts are largely architectural and industrial, that is, relating to the harnessing of the Company's many horses, the maintenance and construction of its streetcars, and various materials coming from the 20th century demolitions and construction onsite. 

I am particularly interested in the leather harness collection that was recovered during Phase II and III, of which there are portions representative of every piece of 19th century industrial draught horse power.  Unfortunately, as mentioned above, I can't seem to find any analogous reports or literature against which I might compare my collection.  This seems odd considering that in the latter half of the 19th century, most metropolitan areas of the US from Los Angeles to Philadelphia had adopted horse rails for commuter transportation, and further, that some urban archaeological excavations probably have encountered the vestiges of these systems.   

So I'm turning to you to see if any of your collective experience remembers anything of the sort.   Thanks so much in advance for any information you might be able to supply as I seek to learn more about these interesting urban contexts.