Defunct lines in downtown Nashua

...plus it's probably not too good an idea to pose somebody in the gauge of the rails, whether it's on the property or at a grade crossing.

Where do embargoed / abandoned railroads fit into this picture, in instances where the rail is still extant? If, for example, our friend were to want to take photos on the long-dormant section of the Mountain Division, would he be just as liable to be arrested if discovered?

Just to let everyone know that's interested in the history of Nashua's deep railroading past, the City Station freight house (Nashua & Lowell Railroad) at Railroad Square, which was condemned last summer, is being restored. From what I know of the downtown area, this may be one of the oldest buildings in the city (downtown at least - the oldest house in Nashua is out by Exit 4), having been built in 1860 puts it before the start of the Civil War and about 20 years after the first steam railroad began running in New Hampshire between Nashua and Lowell.

It's good to see this downtown landmark, which has taken a beating over the last few years, getting some TLC that will keep this old building around for years to come.

NASHUA – A former railroad station dating to 1860 will be returned to its original state as part of a yearlong project to save and restore the condemned building.

“For a small project, it’s been quite a challenge,” said John Stabile of Stabile Companies, construction manager for the work to restore the Canal Street building that once housed the Cattleman’s Sandwich Shop and Saloon and the Speed Queen Laundromat.

Read the full article at the Nashua Telegraph: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/784 ... track.html


For those interested, the other remaining railroad buildings in the city are:

Nashua & Lowell Railroad carhouse (Nashua, City Station)

• Today is the Peddlers Daughter restaurant. It was restored a few years ago to its 1920s appearance.

Nashua & Lowell Railroad freight house (Nashua, City Station)

• Subject building of above. Condemned July 2009, being restored.

Concord & Montreal Railroad freight house (Nashua, Union Station)

• Today is the Nashua Farmers Market and they have it well maintained.

Concord & Montreal Railroad roundhouse (Nashua, Union Station)

• One stall remains of the roundhouse. It’s used as a maintenance garage and storage for a local business.

Concord & Montreal Railroad freight house (Otterson Street)

• I’m still trying to figure out if the building I think is the freight house really was used by the railroad or if it just happens to be sitting in the right place at the proper angle next to the old roadbed.

Matt

from the newspaper article:

>>Brick and granite pigeon houses were built into the side of the old railroad building.

...and now we know how train orders were delivered, pre-telegraph.

PBM

Nashua & Lowell (later Boston, Lowell & Nashua), Concord (later Concord & Montreal), Worcester & Nashua (later Worcester, Nashua & Rochester), Wilton, Nashua, Acton & Boston.

At an earlier time it was Nashua Junction.

The Nashua and Lowell and Concord comprised the Boston-Concord, NH mainline. The Worcester and Nashua ended a few miles out of town and was split from the remainder of that line by the Nashua highway bypass. The Acton Branch ended about a half mile out of town with a few industrial tracks and the Wilton was a continuation of the original Nashua and Lowell and was part of the B & M's Hillsboro Branch. There were at least four station locations in the downtown area. Union was on the Merrimack River where the Concord Railroad met the Nashua and Lowell. The junction point would look like a Vee from the air. On the side away from the river, the Nashua and Lowell went about a mile further and connected to the Wilton at a depot called Nashua City. Up until the late 1940s or maybe even a little later, at least one Boston commuter train left from City and returned in the evening. City also was the focus of the Boston & Maine Transportation Company's bus operations, Boston-Lowell-Nashua-Manchester-Concord and beyond and a couple of other routes to country towns. The Worcester and Nashua line had a station at Main Street and the Acton Branch had a station at Otterson Street.

Did the Manchester & Keene line (abandoned after 1938 hurricane) run through downtown Nashua?

Well through trains ran from Nashua to Keene via the route of the Wilton RR, but the Manchester and Keene portion was quite a ways west of Nashua. The Wilton RR had a legal existence as a leased line of the B & M and was a problem for the B & M. B & M's legal experts determined that either in the charter or the bylaws of the Wilton, it had to provide passenger service. So after regular passenger trains were discontinued, the B & M offered passenger accommodations in a caboose on the local freight, Nashua-Wilton. B & M received ICC permission to buyout the stockholders and then made changes so it could end the service which was labelled as a mixed train. The B & M had been running B&M Trans. bus service along the same route for years.