This photo by lifelong Somerville resident and railroad historian John Roderick shows a Boston and Maine train coming through the heart of Davis Square in 1976 just before the tracks were torn up and the underground Red Line was extended from Harvard Square. It was the beginning of a major transformation of an area that had clearly fallen on hard times. The renovation of the Square included the removal of the buildings attached to the side of the Somerville Theatre as well as those immediately across the tracks such as the Pine Tree Diner and the two story brick building behind it. The B&M train coming through the Square is a Budd Car, named after its manufacturer, the Budd Company in Philadelphia. The car is an RDC-1 or Rail Diesel Coach (number 6146), a self-propelled passenger train which serviced Boston for thirty years from 1957 to 1987. Photo courtesy John Roderick.