Just past the depot one comes to a small railroad yard. The track branching off to the right ahead runs to the Needham Industrial Park; it is out of service. But there's something blocking the main track ahead; what is it?
It's a locomotive.
It's an Alco S-4 switcher, Bay Colony Railroad 1061, built by the American Locomotive Company. According to the Bay Colony Railroad Web site, it was built in September, 1950. Time has not been its friend. See this page for several pictures of this locomotive in happier times.
This is the rear of the Alco.
Looking east from the rear platform of the Alco, one can see that the track disappears in thick weeds. Until 1957 it used to connect with the Boston and Albany Railroad's Highland Branch at Newton Highlands, but that line is now the Riverside branch of the MBTA Green Line light rail system and the tracks no longer meet.
I took a peek into the cab of the Alco; there's not much left. alas.
At 45 Tower Road (where else?), immediately adjacent to the freight yard, stands the 1,063-foot self-supporting tower of WHDH-TV (Channel 7). This station's predecessor, WNAC-TV, lost its license in 1982 after a federal court declared its owner, RKO General, Inc., unfit to hold a license. Thus Boston became the only city in America where two television stations have lost their licenses.
At the base of the WHDH-TV tower are some satellite dishes and a couple of ENG ("electronic news gathering") trucks.
Before retracing my steps homeward, I took this picture looking back into the yard from the front of the Alco.