New Hampshire Central Railroad (NHCR) Discussion

I have a freind that knows the guy who owns the snowmobile club and they said there only taking tracks out from whitefeild NH to lillton NH. they dont want the tracks to dalton NH. so mabye the mt. divition will fixs the tracks to gilman VT this summer.

to answer the last two posts, I think the mt. div tracks are still there simply because I think the NHCR is willing to use the Gilman line if anything ever comes of it, and it's a nice connector to have with their line back to the shop and the Conway Scenic. Littleton hasn't had servable customers in years, the line already stops 3/4 through town to become a railtrail anyway, and it would never serve as anything other than a redundant route that copies where Gilman goes; an eventual connection with the VTR. Somebody is hoping that the voters will pay to fix the missing pieces in the Mt. Div puzzle, and as much as I would like a daily freight in my backyard, I am neither that somebody nor that voter

well thanks for the information. I think the town should say yes to to the tracks to be repaired because i know the town of Whitefield NH is very lazy if they no the track would just sit there in till the want it to be a rail trail.

it sits there as is, just as it has for the last 15-20 years because there isn't a reason to upgrade it. There is 0 business interest on that line between Maine and St. J, and nothing existing that would really be profitable by shipping thru rail. The mill in Gilman is silent, and there is nothing to suggest a need for dumping millions into a dead line with no active or imminent customers. the SLR does just fine to the north, and as has been stated elsewhere, when GRS took over the line, they abandoned it because they could move things faster to the south. Brushcutting is a solid, relatively cheap idea to keep the line visible, but unless a major business pops up anywhere on the line (extremely unlikely at this point), trees, weeds, and brush are going to keep winning the battle

PAR/GRS/MEC, whatever, still owns from St. Johnsbury
to the Connecticut River Bridge at the NH State line. I
am not sure if NH owns the bridge or not. The state
of NH owns the Mountain Division from the Ct river to
the Maine state line at Fryeburg. The state leases the
line from Whitefield to Hazens and up to Groveton to
the NHCR and the line from Hazens to Redstone (North
Conway) to the Conway Scenic Railroad.

At any rate, the state of VT has looked into acquiring the
portion of the line in Vermont. There was also the case
of the NHVT railroad claiming they had the right to scrap
the rail in VT, which I believe was blocked by PAR/GRS.

Theoretically, the slurry traffic from Florence VT could
move over the Mountain Division from St.J to Hazens
at Whitefield and up to Groveton to connect with the
SLR. Between 2,500 and 3,000 cars of the slurry are
shipped to Maine paper mills annually. However, PAR
would be unlikely to sell the line to VT, without attaching
restrictions to prevent the the re-routing of the slurry.

Presby plastics wants to get the tracks opened to gilman VT because he want to sell his sewer system over there. that's why they want the tracks to be opened again.

RRFAN wrote:Presby plastics wants to get the tracks opened to gilman VT because he want to sell his sewer system over there. that's why they want the tracks to be opened again.

Good luck with that... took river road out of gilman to connect to route 2 while on the road for work today, and there is a solid 50-100 feet of track hanging about 15-20 feet in the air halfway between Gilman and route 2.

NHV 669 wrote:

RRFAN wrote:Presby plastics wants to get the tracks opened to gilman VT because he want to sell his sewer system over there. that's why they want the tracks to be opened again.

Good luck with that... took river road out of gilman to connect to route 2 while on the road for work today, and there is a solid 50-100 feet of track hanging about 15-20 feet in the air halfway between Gilman and route 2.

That's been that way for a few years. Might look bad, but a relatively easy fix, due to the proximity of the road.

Mikejf wrote: That's been that way for a few years. Might look bad, but a relatively easy fix, due to the proximity of the road.

that's still money (at any cost) to be spent on a line with no purpose in the immediate future

Exactly. All I was saying is that fill would be a minimal investment. When you start replacing ties and rails, new ballast etc., that's when you start running into big $$$

NHV 669 wrote:

RRFAN wrote:Presby plastics wants to get the tracks opened to gilman VT because he want to sell his sewer system over there. that's why they want the tracks to be opened again.

Good luck with that... took river road out of gilman to connect to route 2 while on the road for work today, and there is a solid 50-100 feet of track hanging about 15-20 feet in the air halfway between Gilman and route 2.

Are we talking about the same presby. the one i know owns a bussness in canda, couple in whitefield air port, and part of the cog. This was also in a new paper actical of 2008.

here is a link to the actical

http://presbyeco.com/wp-content/uploads ... ilroad.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anyone know the approximate time(s) when the inbound gravel train travels through Woburn theses days?
Would love to record audio of that glorious racket.

Presby get's the pellets in by rail which are the raw materials that they use to make their pipe. The finished product goes out either on his trucks regionally or by using outside carriers for the longer hauls. He has alliances with different dealers around the country who market his green septic products. He also has a dealers in Quebec and other provinces who market his products. He has no other plants in the US or Canada that I know of. There is one in the early planning stages to be located in GA or TN and there has been some truckloads that have gone down to Georgia to a storage site to be distributed from there. David Presby has a winter home down there. As for the line from Whitefield to St Johnsbury one of customers puts products into Riverside Reload owned by the VTR in Bellows Falls VT and said that last fall when the MMA went south that, VTR was evaluating their options including possibly rehabbing the line from St J to Whitefield NH to connect to NHCR and then the SLR in Groveton NH. The bulk of this traffic would be from OMYA Corp in Vermont going to the papermills in Maine. VTR also evaluated going directly into Portland Me as a designated freight operator from St J to Portland Me . Where that is at I could not tell you.

^That's interesting!!

VRS operating freight from St Johnsbury to Portland!!

I also heard about the railroad in VT wanted to go to Portland ME.