Acton had excellent roads due to a contribution from a former Acton resident - Alvin Nothrop. He had grown up in Acton before moving to Washington D.C., where he became a successful merchant. He donated money to the town of Acton to purchase a stone crusher for improving local roads. Because of this contribution, Acton had water-bound macadam highways long before its neighbors. With the advent of the Automobile, the railroads serving East and North Acton fell into decline. The Nashua and Acton line was completely abandoned in the mid-1920s while passenger service ceased on the Framingham and Lowell line in the 1930s with the last vestiges of service on the line occurring to North Acton lumberyards in the early 1990s. This line too, has been formally abandoned. The Framingham and Lowell line is in the process of being converted into a rail trail, with the Acton portion scheduled for 2015.