Worcester & Hillsboro Branch/Worcester & Contoocook Branch

[b&m 1566]

I know the majority of the trains (passenger & freight) going to or from Concord, NH/Worcester, MA went via Hillsborough/Peterborough, NH but for trains going to and from Boston, MA/Peterborough or Hillsborough, NH did the B&M route trains onto the Cheshire Branch, where the two crossed next to Whitney Pond in Winchendon, MA? or did all trains go via Gardner?

[edbear]

After the Boston & Maine operated everything in central and southwestern New Hampshire, these routings prevailed.
From Boston to Peterboro use either a Cheshire Branch train to Winchendon or a Fitchburg Mainline train to Gardner and change to a Worcester-Peterboro (or beyond) train, or
use a train from Boston to Nashua and either change trains or on some schedules run right through Nashua out through Milford and Wilton to Elmwood. At Elmwood change to a branch train and either head south to Peterboro or north to Hillsboro or beyond on the Worcester-Contoocook Branch train. Some of the trains out of Nashua ran through to Keene and others to Hillsboro.

[jaymac]

Adding some detail, Fitchburg Division Time Table (yes, 2 words) No. 61, effective 12. (yes, decimal and not colon) 01 A.M., Sunday, Sept. 25, 1927, shows connection waits at Winchendon and Gardner for delayed Southern Division trains, the Worcester and Contoocook then being Southern Division. The waits at Gardner seemed primarily for passengers to and from the west, the Winchendon waits better serving passengers to and from the east. Later ETTs had combined all Divisions, and No. 10, effective Nov. 22, 1931, has no connection waits listed, probably a reflection of trying to use inconvenience to reduce ridership to reduce trains. That same ETT shows the Worcester and Contoocook assigned to the Fitchburg Division from Worcester to Winchendon, the rest of the route remaining in the Southern.
Somewhat on topic, the Historical Society of Cheshire County published Bradford Blodget's Marium Foster's Boston and Maine Railroad in 2011, an in-depth look at 40+ years of the Chesirfe Branch and eastern Fitchburg Division. Dunno its current availability, but it's worth chasing down.