New Hampshire Central Railroad (NHCR) Discussion

Thanks for the reminder on the Railfan Saturday run to Hazens.
It will be interesting to see what assignment the 1751 (or 570)
gets on Railfan weekend.

Have not seen or heard nothing in Lancaster NH one the line. This was the second winter that they never even went to Groveton with Snow trail groomer. The tracks never had enough snow to ride on them. There are trees down across the track north of the Page Hill crossing.

BigFreight,
Thanks for the updates on the line- I enjoy and appreciate them! After the news of the G&W acquisition of RailAmerica, I have pondered the potential future benefit of the line, as it would be a 90 mile link between the STL&A in Groveton and NECR in White River Junction- via St. Johnsbury-Whitefield-Groveton. Just food for thought. Yes, I am aware of track conditions, who owns what lines, etc. etc.

rjones2 wrote:BigFreight,
Thanks for the updates on the line- I enjoy and appreciate them! After the news of the G&W acquisition of RailAmerica, I have pondered the potential future benefit of the line, as it would be a 90 mile link between the STL&A in Groveton and NECR in White River Junction- via St. Johnsbury-Whitefield-Groveton. Just food for thought. Yes, I am aware of track conditions, who owns what lines, etc. etc.

I would think G&W would be more interested in seeking overhead rights in Canada on good MMA track from Lenoxville to Iberville and CP track from St. Jean to East Allburg than dealing with the long-OOS Twin State RR segment of the Northern and all the crud between Jefferson and Northumberland. Or buying MMA outright and divesting some of the redundant Maine pieces if they're feeling a little adventurous with their wallets.

rjones2 wrote:BigFreight,
Thanks for the updates on the line- I enjoy and appreciate them! After the news of the G&W acquisition of RailAmerica, I have pondered the potential future benefit of the line, as it would be a 90 mile link between the STL&A in Groveton and NECR in White River Junction- via St. Johnsbury-Whitefield-Groveton. Just food for thought. Yes, I am aware of track conditions, who owns what lines, etc. etc.

It's a cool thought but you need traffic to justify it other than just moving power around. They just use CN to do that.

Regardless of the economics of using the St. Johnsbury-Whitefield-Groveton line
to move traffic to/from the St. Lawrence and Atlantic, there would be a major
stumbling block to get PAR to sell the line between St. Johnsbury and the NH
state line. PAR would be wary of any diversion of traffic from Vermont to
Maine, that they already handle, such as the slurry cars from Florence VT.

The pickup came thru Lancaster last week checking the line out headed south. They removed the tree that was on the track north of the Page Hill Rd crossing. No trains yet!

^Last year you posted that the first freight run was April 26.

They are late this year.

I was out of town for a few days and missed the southbound move. I would assume it was a car for Presby. On the 14th around 400pm the Geep 1724 came north with 11 covered hoppers. They must have turned in LLPX2304 over the winter.

BigFreight,
I enjoy your posts- I have family in Whitefield, so I always like to keep a tab on everything that is going on up there. Were those 11 hoppers stored cars that were recently activated? Any other talk for business on the line?

Also, for those that are interested, there are some great videos posted by the user NHRRMAN of portions of this line from years past. Below is a link to the Ray Burton campaign train in 1990.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHHuhjg4dBM

The cars were stored on the siding in Hazen. Other than Presby Plastics that is about it for traffic.

Hello,
I've been doing some field work on the Johnson Farm in Canaan (Vermont) over the last week and have followed the NHCR south from the Columbia covered bridge to North Stratford. I haven't seen much going on.

Last Monday, June 10th, the doors to the shop building were open, and the NHCR GP9 7324 was parked inside. It doesn't look like they are working on any cars right now. They have moved the baggage car onto one of the shop tracks next to the flanger.

Yesterday and today, the shop doors were closed by the time that I passed (around 1600 each day), but I did notice that they had spread the stack of new rail that was piled next to the shop building on Monday along both sides of the track from the shop complex south to the junction with the SLR in North Stratford. The rail appears unused, was manufactured in 2011, weighs 115 pounds, and comes in approximately 80 foot lengths. As I was checking out that rail, I noticed that the existing rail was manufactured by L.S. Company of Buffalo, NY in 1905. Replacing the old with the new rail will build on the surfacing and tie work that they have done over the last couple of years.

Finally, there are still miles of mostly boxcars but also covered hoppers stored north of the shop complex. Most of these cars have been there for a few years now as opposed to the many covered hoppers and tank cars that were stored for the last one or two years (many of which have been returned to service).

That's all for now.
Have a great weekend.
Fritz

There will be a CSRR Special (Charter) train at Hazens on Sunday (6/16) between 1:00 and 2:00PM.
Just a heads up for any railfans living in the north country. Just a short layover for photos
and the train will depart back to Fabyan and North Conway.

Are they prepping for a ramp up in service?

I have been training in Colebrook the last 2 weeks and noticed the welded rail as well.

The GP9 was out and about, but is now back inside from what I can tell.

They have moved 3 box cars to the shop lead

on June 26th at 540PM NHCR7324 came south thru Lancaster with 1 Hopper for Presby . Returned north at 745PM deadheading to Groveton.