The National Archives as well as some other outlets has made available digital copes of Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. This one shows the railroad structures in Ayer in a little more detail than the map I previously published here. Starting in the east are the tracks of the Fitchburg RR as well as the parallel tracks of the Boston & Lowell which at this time had incorporated the Stony Brook Railroad. The B&L maintained a brick freight depot (on the site of the current Post Office) as well as a stub track at the union station. The station, which had been there since 1848(?) was a frame structure which included a train shed covering the Fitchburg RR tracks with external separate platforms and shelters for the old Worcester & Nashua and the Peterboro and Shirley (later the Greenville Branch) which at this time were both incorporated into the Fitchburg RR.
Anyone curious about the "way things were" in the railroad scene elsewhere in New England would find it very profitable to consult the Sanborn map collection for the appropriate maps. It is amazing how much railroad infrastructure has disappeared over the years..

Photographed by Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, 1887.
Added to the photo archive by Ron DeFilippo, May 20, 2024.
Railroad: Fitchburg Railroad.

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