New Hampshire Central Railroad (NHCR) Discussion

[rjones2]

I was in Whitefield this past weekend and did some railfanning yesterday. Here are some notes: the brush cutting looks great and you can see the difference in Whitefield and the lines radiating out of the town center. On the way to Dalton, I saw the brushcutting machine parked at Knobhill Road as they have clearance to Gilman. I saw the MOW equipment parked by the TOFC cars out by Hazen road as well. My first question is how will Presby be serviced? Will the have a siding at the area that has been cleared out? Is the wood chip plant a definite customer? What about the log yard out there as well? As far as Dirigo in Gilman, will the company invest money into the plant or will it be another doomed to fail operation? Are there other definite customers on the line north of Lancaster, including Lancaster itself?

[thebigham]

Any pics of the brush cutting machine or the work that it has done?

Chris

[rjones2]

Unfortunately I do not have any pictures--- the amount that was cleared along the line is unbelivable; not only on the line itself but clearance of limbs and branches along the line. I also heard of a rumor about a Cogen plant in Berlin, can anyone provide details on that?

[SLR 393]

My understanding is that the power complex at the Burgess pulp mill in Berlin is going to be kept intact and converted for selling electricity.

[toolmaker]

Any pics of the brush cutting machine or the work that it has done?

Chris

I posted recent pictures at http://www.myspace.com/toolengineer

There are pictures of the clearing and the excavator with a wood "chipper" attached to the boom. The tracks had rubber cleats and a set of flanged wheels for moving on the rails.

[thebigham]

Thanks!

The brush hog looks like the one that cleared the Belfast & Moosehead Lake RR last year.

Chris

[MBTA1109]

any news on whats going on in the whitefield area???...i was up there this past weekend and it does look completely different since i was up ther 4 years ago. there were two covered hoppers on the old mountain division at hazens..near the airport....i guess for Presby...also what are all those cars doing stored on the main????
i also noticed the brush had been cut in whitefield down the old B&M line towards littleton and there were two old hoppers down the line visable from the rt 116 crossing...further down rt 116 though the crossing is paved over and the line is overgrown and is overgown all the way to littleton....
the old mountain division towards st.j is all cut out but it does not look like anything has gone over these tracks yet...anyone have an idea of when the line will between st.j and whitefield will be reactivated?

[thebigham]

I don't think there has been any brush cutting between Gilman and St Johnsbury. There are not any plans right now to re-open this trackage.

[thebigham]

The Gilman paper plant is unlikely to reopen in October.

[MBTA1109]

here's a link to the article about the plant not reopening....
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 003/NEWS02

[toolmaker]

The new siding made the front page of the local paper;

"WHITEFIELD - The first two 65-foot-long covered hopper cars loaded with plastic pellets bound for the Presby Environmental factory in the Whitefield Industrial Park were hauled on Tuesday"

You must be a subscriber to the on-line addition to read the rest, which I am not.

http://www.cooscountydemocrat.com/

[rjones2]

Just to add on to the previous post, there were a few neat points in the article:
One of the hopper cars carried 200,000 pounds of recycled plastic from Texas and the other car came from northern Pennsylvania. David Presby stated that the company has orders in hand to supply one million feet of plastic pipe, packed into rail-to-ship box containers, to Morocco over the next 18 months.
It took $783,000 to upgrade and reopen the 23 miles of track from Groveton to Whitefield---extensive vegetation and brush clearing, more than 5,000 ties replaced, two rail bridges redecked and stringers and caps replaced, and soon 2.5 miles of heavier track 100 lb track will be installed from Route 2 in Jefferson to the new transload site in Whitefield, replacing the 75 lb track currently in place.
Talk of a possible tourist train originating in Whitefield may happen next summer
The area next to the tracks that has been cleared out is currently the size of two football fields, yet hopefully more will be cleared out so that logs and industrial materials can be shipped by rail.

Sounds promising what is going on!

[thebigham]

Yes, it sounds very promising!

[NHN503]

Was up there on Sunday with my motorcar and got to check out the new track alignment, along with two hopper cars that were parked by the airport road

Looking towards the airport, Mt Div with new derails on right


Mt. Div track re-alignment for car storage


Looking west from the new track alignment

[thebigham]

Thanks, Ian!