Hillsboro (Hillsborough) Branch

[flyingfox10]

State of NH wants nothing to do with rail service. The governor wants to end all state funding for rail lines and says rail transportation is a waste of money and the money is better spent funding road widening such as I-93, Route 3, etc.

[Dick H]

Do you have a specific news story for that policy?
I know he is opposed to passenger rail, but I have
not seen that he has taken a position on freight
rail.

[johnpbarlow]

Town of Milford, NH has weighed in at the STB vehemently stating their opposition to Pan Am's adverse discontinuance petition waiver: https://www.stb.gov/filings/all.nsf/ba7 ... 243543.pdf

Cogent excerpts:

This action is just another attempt by Boston and Maine to shut down the operations of this local line and is a further example of its hostile 30 year campaign to
disrupt a local industry.

Milford-Bennington, unlike Boston & Maine, maintains its track system to ensure the safe transportation of goods.

The Board should also examine B & M's motives in this case, as it has a long history of unsupported legal maneuvers to shut this successful rail line down.

[BostonUrbEx]

NA-1 derailed at the Main St crossing in downtown Nashua. Nothing major, but there's a car blocking most of the roadway.

[b&m 1566]

Here's the article https://patch.com/new-hampshire/nashua/ ... ain-street" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[neman2]

This photo from Wayne Johnson on NERAIL New England photo archive gives a good idea of the condition of the Hillsboro. The crew member hanging on with two hands looks like he's staring at the rail thinking " we'll be on the ground any minute now." Meanwhile the engineer can't see a thing through the overgrowth.
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... ex=4&key2=" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Ken Rice]

Hendrix Wire and Cable in Milford - they get a bunch of plastic pellet cars presumably for coating cable. Those cars are spotted on a long siding between the road and the building. There’s a separate small building with two tracks going into it that looks like it’s maybe long enough for a single car on each track inside the building. Do they get anything delivered in there anymore, and if so what kind of cars? I’ve never managed to see actual action on the Hillsboro branch, I don’t get out that way too often.

[Backshophoss]

Better put in some gauge holding ties real soon!!

[BowdoinStation]

Hello, Hendrix usually gets covered hoppers. Pan Am Crews go up there almost once a week, and they do the runaround in Wilton. It's not pretty, but they do move along at 5mph or less. Milford Bennington also uses those tracks in warmer weather between Wilton and Granite State Concrete a little ways south (east) of Hendrix. Do the math, it takes them a little while to go 13 miles, plus there are many crossings without signals that they have to flag. Lately they seem to been running (bad pun) up there at night.

[Ken Rice]

The track did look pretty bad last time I was out there, sounds like it hasn't gotten any better. So the covered hoppers are spotted on the track next to the large building, but nothing goes into the little building with the two tracks going into the doors?

[BowdoinStation]

Hello, each bay holds one hopper, and yes the Pan Am crews move cars in and out of there. You may be able to find some pictures on NERAIL of their switching work.

[Ken Rice]

Thanks for that info. I've found pictures on nerail that show switching out the long outside track with plastic pellet cars, but not the building.

Do you know what material is in the hoppers they need to unload inside the little building? I'd assume the hoppers are dump gates rather than pneumatic connections like the pellet cars, and it must be something other than plain old pellets.

[NashuaActon&Boston]

Last I met a crew in Milford, they’d outlawed on the one trip out from Nashua. This was 5-6 years back. Is this routine for NA-Hillsboro crews? I know, obv. it’s slow going on the Hillsboro..

[b&m 1566]

They tied the engine down in Milford on at least one occasion this year (March?), that's the only one I can recall recently.

[curious 03055]

New ties along the tracks in Milford. I haven't seen that in a long time.