May, 1867, ... the union of that line with the Western Railroad Corporation resulted in the formation of the Boston and Albany Railroad.

https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en/download/HistoryoftheTownofAshland_10290763.pdf

When the Boston & Worcester Railroad, chartered in 1831, built the railroad through Westborough and offered full service in July 1835, it was a pioneer of railroad development in Massachusetts. Although the new rail line had many supporters, it also had many detractors.

The first train to arrive in downtown Westborough in 1834 was called an iron horse, a noisy, smoke and embers belching wood powered steam locomotive pulling the first passenger coaches that were nothing more than recycled stagecoaches were adapted to run on the rails. Several years later, coal replaced wood as the fuel of choice. Wood was becoming scarce and expensive in comparison to coal which was plentiful and less expensive. At first the downtown train was merely a curiosity factor, but soon the train became a very popular mode of mass transportation and a boon to the business and industrial growth of Westborough.

Almost overnight, downtown Westborough was transformed from a quiet residential community with fine large homes in a bucolic setting and large dairy farms on the edge of the center of downtown. The town became a bustling manufacturing community employing hundreds of people where new business and industry, hotels, and bars flourished. Westborough's dairy farmers immediately took advantage of the new faster transport and enjoyed a robust period of prosperity shipping their fresh milk into the Boston market. 

Introduction to the Boston & Worcester Railroad...The Downtown Train 1834-1899