Boston-North Conway, Boston-Lincoln

Hi, I was wondering, is there any existing rail that makes it POSSIBLE for a passenger train (as in special Railfan excursion) to run from Boston to North Conway? Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but there is the possiblity for Boston-Lincoln?

Joe

Boston - Lincoln would be easy and direct.

Boston - North Conway would be a lot tougher since 20+ miles of the conway line are long out of service. You would have to either run to Maine, up over the SLR to Groveton, down to Whitefield and back east over the Mountain Division to Intervale and back onto old B&M line into North Conway. Or, go west, up the Conn River to St. J, east over into Whitefield and on to Intervale. That said, I thought I remembered reading about some kind of problem with the St. J - Whitefield piece as far as running anything.

Hopefully someday we maybe able to catch a special train ride from Boston to North Conway again on the Conway branch; I strongly feel the 11 miles that are abandoned will be refurbish for train use in the next 15 to 30 years. The state has put money into studies and from what I gather all the studies show that it will greatly enhance and help support the area buy offering alternatives. Not to mention the ROW is still in good condition even though there's 20+ years of vegetation on it.

On the other line though, I'm not sure the track north of the Bow Power Plant via Concord to Laconia is serviceable for specials. I know there is a yearly caboose train that goes threw but there all private cabooses and I’m not sure if that falls under the guide lines to operate passenger trains on track that's only allowed for freight. The track is a class 1 and if I’m not mistaken the lowest class for passenger trains is a class 2.

b&m 1566 wrote:Hopefully someday we maybe able to catch a special train ride from Boston to North Conway again on the Conway branch; I strongly feel the 11 miles that are abandoned will be refurbish for train use in the next 15 to 30 years. The state has put money into studies and from what I gather all the studies show that it will greatly enhance and help support the area buy offering alternatives. Not to mention the ROW is still in good condition even though there's 20+ years of vegetation on it.

On the other line though, I'm not sure the track north of the Bow Power Plant via Concord to Laconia is serviceable for specials. I know there is a yearly caboose train that goes threw but there all private cabooses and I’m not sure if that falls under the guide lines to operate passenger trains on track that's only allowed for freight. The track is a class 1 and if I’m not mistaken the lowest class for passenger trains is a class 2.

Class one track can take passenger trains at a maximum speed of 15 MPH
while exempted track can not take any passenger carrying trains.
The last I knew, the entire line between Concord and Lincoln is at least
better than exempted track, exactly how good it is I do not know.
Noel Weaver

Well I learned something new there. I take it that there are not many railroads out there operating on a class one with passengers. I know the CSRR operates on a class 2 track, but I’m not sure about the Winnipesaukee Railroad or the Hobo Railroad. Someone did tell me that they don’t go over 15mph. To me even though it’s a scenic train, 15mph is a little to slow.

b&m 1566 wrote:Well I learned something new there. I take it that there are not many railroads out there operating on a class one with passengers. I know the CSRR operates on a class 2 track, but I’m not sure about the Winnipesaukee Railroad or the Hobo Railroad. Someone did tell me that they don’t go over 15mph. To me even though it’s a scenic train, 15mph is a little to slow.

The speeds are a result of federal standards regarding track and they go
back to the Penn Central days when derailments were happening "every
hour on the hour" with more in between. When the standards were put
into place, in some cases whole lines were restricted to 10 MPH or even
sometimes 8 MPH. Some of the lines were eventually upgraded and fixed
up for higher speeds but a good number of other lines were either sold
off and became small railroads or were abandoned and torn up.
The Boston and Maine had some lines that were in this catagory and most
of them today are history.
Noel Weaver