Recently I broke my ‘strictly west coast’ rule [swg] and drove a friend out tothe east coast and spent 2 weeks in Concord, NH. Being out of my element I had no idea who’s tracks are there or what action there is. I didn’t see a train the whole time I was there. I since found out it was B&M tracks, and that there are coal trains going to Bow (just south).
Can someone give me the ‘Cliff Notes’ version of what the rail action is around there? There is a good chance I will be going back soon and would like to be better informed next time.
It’t not just that you missed the action at Concord but that you were also withing shouting distance of so much more, from the narrow gauge of Maine to the half dozen tourist/historical railroads of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts (did ya get to see Hoosic Tunnel? or the covered bridges along the abandoned right of way of the Claremont and Concord–now a walking/bike trail? Kennebunkport Seashore Trolley museum? Oh, dozens more museums and tourist roads from the Long Island Sound to Quebec and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Hudson River???)! If you didn’t see any of these great rail attractions, you were driving the wrong roads or in your sleep!!!
I lived in Contoocook, NH (about a dozen miles west) for a year when I was a kid about 60 years ago. Things were quite in “Tookie” as the Concord & Claremont had dropped passenger service about that time, but it was definitely busier in Concord. At one time the Concord station shed had 6 tracks, and all tracks would fill when trains from all over NH and beyond would converge there. They were making proposals to bring back passenger trains, by extending Boston commuter trains first to Nashua, NH. However, the folks of Nashua (many of whom used to, or still commuted to the Boston area) didn’t leave Mass. to have their taxes follow them there. The nearest Amtrak station is Durham, NH toward the east coast on PanAm’s mainline to Maine.
The last time I was in Concord was 10 years ago, and the line north to Lincoln seemed to be mostly tourist roads or out-of -service. Contoocook lost it’s rails about 50 years ago, but the station and covered bridge were still in the center of town. Amtrak also runs the Vermonter along the Connecticut River/west boundary of NH.
Contoocook’s station is now a rail oriented museum with wooden B&M coach and signal on the ROW and the bridge there and the other two west of Newport have been refurbished complete with electric alarm and fire hydrants…The station at Newport is preserved and used by a pre-school group. A lot of the ROW is now a bike/walking trail into Claremont as well as both sides of Contoocook. I inspected them and the route path last February and again in June. Hard to follow from just west of Contoocook to Wendell and Newport but the ride is nice and the highway is often on the roadbed. Turn off Rt 11 at Kellyville and you’re on the road to Claremont which follows the railroad and Sugar Creek.
I doubt there is much anymore in that immediate vicinity. Back about 45 years ago, I spent most of one summer evening and early the following morning watching the switchers and road freights moving back and forth at the throat of the B&M’s Concord Yard from the exterior 2nd floor walkway of the Howard Johnson’s motel that was a little higher and just over a palisade-type wood fence, maybe 100 ft. away (I’d saved my ‘train-spotting’ notes from that encounter until just a few years ago, too.) But the yard was torn out years ago, and it appears that the HoJoMo has now been replaced by a Fairfield Inn, at about these Lat./ Long. coordinates on the west side of I-93 and the northeast side of Water St./ US Rt. 3, at the end of the Guth St. stub: N 43 11’ 47" W 71 31’ 42"
More likely is about 40 miles west, whatever that railroad is along the Connecticut River and I-91 (ex-Central Vermont ?); also about 40 miles away, but to the south is the former B&M/ Guilford/ Pan Am/ now Patriot Corridor (joint venture with NS) line from Mechanicville, NY through the Hoosac Tunnel to the Boston area, roughly parallel to Mass Rt. 2; or finally, about 55 miles south, the former NYC’s Boston & Albany RR (then Penn Central, ConRail, and now CSX), through places like Framingham, Mass (plus MBTA commuter trains, etc.). Problem is, I suppose that none of these lines hosts over 6 to 8 trains a day total - and most of those being at night, too - so finding one to shoot photographically could entail a long wait.
Nevertheless, best of luck to you with it, and please post some of the resulting shots here !
Ive been through Concord quite a bit in last few years. I never noticed anything there , I know in Gorham the SL&A operates the ex Grand Trunk line from Lennoxville Que.to Portland (close to it anyhow) I spend a lot of my time along the Connecticut river line North of St Johnsbury Vt. on the Ex CP line from Newport Vt to Brookport Que. Richfield Vt still has a nice station.
Durring and before WWII Concord had the main line from Boston through Lowell, Nashua, and Manchester. At Concord one could go almost due west on what became the Concord and Clairmont, with twice daily 2-6-0 pulled passenger trains through covered bridges to Clairmont Junction on the Connecticut River Line, or mostly west but somewhat north to White River Junction (Darmouth College at nearby Hanover) the route of the Boston section of the Ambassador to Montreal, the day train, and a companion overnighter that operated in the consist of the Red Wing to Concord before seperation, or one could go more north than west to Wells River Jc. and a connection with the CP and the route of the daytime Allouette and the overnight Red Wing, and also due north on a stub-end freight line to Lincoln. Then there was the Soncook Valley short line with its little 2-6-0 and combination everything car, and lots of coal hoppers for a "Sport Tog factory in Pittsfied, NH, to the northeast, that turned out helmits and protective gear for the armed forces. The station was a classic work of beauty with a Concord Stagecoach in display in the waiting room. A large train-shed that covered all but the furthest of the six available tracks. The wonderful variety of B&M steam power, 2-6-0’s 2-8-0’s, 4-6-2’s, 4-6-0’s, 0-6-0’s, was further enlivened by the occasional presence of the CP red striped 4-6-2 on the Allouette. This train also had a brass rail observation-parlor-buffet. Local trains had either wood open platform cars or second hand P-54’s from the PRR. And there was one gas-electric that ran regularly south to Manchester and then over to Portsmouth on the coast, — and back.