New England Logging Railroads

Have any of you followed any old logging railroad ROWs? A bunch of us have followed a number of logging RR in the White Mountains.

We have followed the old right of way of the Bartlett & Albany which ran from the MEC line at Bartlett up past the Kancamangus Highway. The Sawyer River Railroad. This ROW is now a dirt road leading from Rte 302 to a AMC hiking trail. The ROW then becomes a part of the hiking trail and we have walked the whole thing. The end of it also reaches the back part of Bear Notch Road. On one portion of the trail we found a rail frog that they did not rip up. In fact the rails used on the Sawyer River were from the Eastern RR. This line met up with the MEC Mountain Division between Bartlett and Crawford Notch.

There is also the Rocky Branch which met the MEC Mountain Division at Glen. The weird think about this line is that after almost 20 years of going up the Mt. Washington Valley, I never realized this line exisited until a couple of years ago. It cuts across Rte 302 and you can actually follow a portion of it.

Also out of Glen, there was the East Branch RR, which can also be found as the ROW is now a hiking trail. We even found some lengths of rail embedded in the ground.

If you have a topo map and two excellent books on the subject, Logging Railroads of the White Mountains by C. Francis Belcher and a book by Bill Gove, which the name of escapes me, you will be well armed to railfan these lines.

These logging railroads are what helped make a lot of the MEC and B&M lines hum back in the day.

I forgot to mention that the other great thing about chasing these logging railroads is that the majority of them are offical hiking trails, so there are no tresspassing issues.

A lot of the old logging railroads of NH are now hiking trails. Good for cross country skiers and... Well hiking. There's a book in the Clark's Trading post gift shop about all the logging railroads. I didn't pick up the book nor do I remember the name but I browsed through the book and learned a lot from it. Zealand River area seems to be a good area to find a lot of old logging railroad ROW's. Also I believe that Clark's trading post has one of the last operating steam locomotives used in NH. It was taken out of retirement briefly to help the B&M rebuild the line south of Lincoln after server wash outs took place in the mid 1950's I believe it’s engine #5???.
On a 2nd note (I can't remember where I saw and read about it) but there use to be a rail line that connected the Conway branch and the Plymouth & Lincoln RR at one point in time. I'm not sure where it was located but it looked as though it started on the east end of the line just south of the Conway rail yard in Madison. I can not remember where it connected to the Plymouth & Lincoln rail line. I do believe the entire line was abandoned before the B&M started taking over most of the railroads in that area. This may or may not have been a logging railroad but it did move passengers in its brief history. Does any body know what I'm talking about?

*

Just got Bill Gove's latest book,"Logging Railroads along the Pemigewasset River". His 2 others,one referred to in an earlier post,are "Logging Railroads of the Saco Valley" and "J.E. Henry's Logging Railroads".

All are worth the $25-30 price for the photos/maps alone,but Gove is a wonderful writer,in my opinion,and puts the railroads in the context of the timber harvesting operations.

Bud

Thanks! It was Bill Gove's "Logging Railroads of the Saco Valley" that was the second book that was very valuable. The maps were detailed enough to follow the actual ROW, plus, when we went out on the trail, we brought it with us and compared the old pictures to what we were actually seeing. It really brings the story to life.

Have any of you out there followed some of these logging RR's or others not mentioned?