B&M Connecticut River Line???

cu29640 wrote:So are there sidings with power switches between East Northfield and WRJ? I have never seen them during my times up that way.

Yes several. Putney, North Walpole, Claremont. Used to be one in Heartland but a B&M crew tore that up in a derailment and it hasn't been fixed.

cu29640 wrote:Doesn't MBTA want to run commuter trains at least to Concord up from Boston? I can see that making some sense...even moreso to Manchester.

The MBTA has an operational plan to run to Manchester with a layover yard there. NH needs to pony up the cash, unknown if it ever will occur. Reelection of current governor keeps project on positive "track" though.

Thanks. What would be an average daily train count for the line through Windsor. (not counting any future plans pan am southern may have.)

newpylong wrote:

cu29640 wrote:So are there sidings with power switches between East Northfield and WRJ? I have never seen them during my times up that way.

Yes several. Putney, North Walpole, Claremont. Used to be one in Heartland but a B&M crew tore that up in a derailment and it hasn't been fixed.

When did B&M/ Guilford run its last train North of White River JCT up the CT river Line and when did that same portion lose its CTC? Up near Wells River there are still some searchlight signals.

I don't know when GTI's last train ran. I don't think WRJ - Wells River ever had CTC. It's shown as ABS in ETT #21, 10-Apr-77, and also in ETT #70, 26-Apr-59.

After New Hampshire and Vermont RR took over operation of the B&M lines from Wells River to
Berlin and Groveton, they also had trackage rights to White River Jct., so GTI wouldn't have had
much reason to run north of there after the CP interchange traffic was rerouted via Mechanicville.
Haven't been able to pin down a date of operational take over by NH&V but would guess late 80's.

Purchase/lease of Woodsville-Groveton was 11/21/1989. I've seen photos of GTI power as far north as Lisbon post-'90, perhaps there were arrangements in place before Clyde Forbes could get power up this way.

After I made that post I wondered if there was any local business left between WRJ and Wells River
that would been have been GTI's responsibility to service?

Apparently, NHVT didn't get track rights down to WRJ to pick up their cars until sometime in 1993, and got a whopping two years out of that until they lost the Berlin route out of Woodsville with the condemning of several bridges. Dave Poor, engineer on that final March run, notes that at the time, there was no local traffic between WRJ and Littleton, and that GTI's trains were sometimes just a single car.

Perhaps these were the cars that went to Commonwealth Lumber in Littleton until 12/97? It seems the salt traffic for Wilson's was already done by then.

I could be wrong, but I always thought the last train to depart Littleton, NH was in March 1998.

While searching for the post-1990 photos of GTI power in Woodsville, (which I know are out there somewhere), I came across some photos posted by Benjamin Campbell to the historical page on FB that we both belong to. If you dig into the shared media files, he posted an album with a plow extra running between St. J and Whitefield with a card noting that the last service occurred for Commonwealth Lumber in Littleton on 12/9/97, and that SLR would be switching Groveton to start 1998. This left the Simpson paper mill as their only customer for the last two years of their physical existence.

Dave Poor notes NHVT was only switching Groveton about 3x a week beforehand, so I can't imagine it was much traffic for SLR.

Not the photos I was looking for, but these are probably the latest I've seen of GTI running on the Conn. River north of WRJ, 9/1/92:

http://photos.nerail.org/s/?p=16330

http://photos.nerail.org/s/?p=16333