Double track through Dover, NH

There was a spur show in the Wakefield NH history of the past book that shows the mainline curving out towards lovell lake, where trains were loaded with ice. Today all that remains is the roadbed. If you are in Sanbornville though, if you walk to the opposite side of the track where that spur to the lake used to branch off, the ties are all in place where a siding followed the main line up to the frieght shed, that is still standing. It must have been used as a team track. (I have pictures in the 80s of it still in place, NHN must have removed the rails).
Also on another note for anyone intersted in checking out neat sidings, In Milton at the bottom of exit 17 a spur branched off the main line by the town shed and went to Iron Mountain and a coal trestle (Huge!) The coal trestle is still in place and some of the rail and ties are still in up to it. The trestle is long enough to seat about 4 cars..

In milton NH behind the fire station an old building sits next to the track labled MLB for Milton Leatherboard Company. They also have a siding next to their building and a coal trestle still in tacked with a bumper at the rear of it.

Cory

If we're going to talk about old spurs on the Conway Branch, let's not forget about the one which left the mainline just north (rr east) of the siding at Hayes Station. The track are still in place on both sides of Route 125, albeit disconnected from the mainline and having been entirely removed from the grade crossing. I believe that this spur was used to access the old Spaulding Fiber plant (please correct me if i'm mistaken). Does anyone know when this spur was last/used removed? I know that when the state purchased the line they did a great deal of trackwork, including removing all sidings except for at Burleyville and the aforementioned Hayes one, so I feel that the spur was probably removed around the same time (mid 1980's?).

I don’t believe the state owns the right of way between Rollinsford and the rte 28 over pass (north of the Ossipee pit), I believe NHN owns it. The line was rebuilt in the mid 1990’s after purchasing the ROW from the B&M. The spur you’re talking about I believe was nothing more than a private spur belonging to long gone customer. I don’t know when freight dried up on the Conway branch but it must have been sometime in the late 70’s or sometime in the 1980’s.
There also looks to be an old abandoned spur further north just south of rte 75 with a north facing switch with the spur veering east towards the hydro plant on the other side of 125. It looks as though the spur ended on a bridge structure on the back side of the hydro plant.
There is another abandon spur further north just after the line crosses underneath 125. Again it looked like it was a north facing switch with the old side running south; to where I don’t know.

Can anyone fill me in on the layout of the old Rochester yard in the later years (1970-1990) prior to removal of the wye trackage? I've heard that Portland Street had at least one double tracked crossing (near Blue Seal Feeds) and I feel that it might have had another one as well (behind the old freight depot-now KOC Hall where one leg of the wye passed through).

If you look closely as you drive by Madbury Metals, you will see the rails from the old siding next to the driveway, ending in the treeline before they reach NH 155. To answer the previous question, the crossing on Portland Street next to Blue Seal was double track until NHN did modernizations in the early 1990s. In my recollection the wye was single-track, the rails and crossbucks themselves only being removed about five years ago.

In reference to an earlier post I made about the old spur off of the Hayes siding in Rochester. I saw this link on the CSRR forum and after doing some searching, I saw pictures http://gilford.rrpicturearchives.net/lo ... x?id=90034 circa 1979 of two B&M GP-7's and the old 4267B servicing the customer on the spur. In another search of the site, I found two more GP-7's servicing the spur circa 1976 http://gilford.rrpicturearchives.net/lo ... x?id=90247.

With PAR under the "new" management of David Fink Jr. and indications that they are
actively persuing local business, I have to wonder if there are any businesses left in
Dover that could conceivably use rail transportation. Unfortunaturely, most, of not all,
the major manufacturing companies in Dover have all either gone out of business or
left the area. There is still a small unloading platform in the Dover yard, along freight
track #2, west of the crew trailer, but it has not been used in many years.

Back in the 60's, the B&M operated a switcher crew on the second and third shifts, six
days a week, that made up the local freights, serviced the Sawyer's (old Portsmouth line)
branch and the Lakeport branch and several customers adjacent to the yard and the big
Davidson Rubber plant west of the Arch bridge. During the weekdays, there were local
jobs between Dover and Lowell, later Lawrence, D6/D5. B&M GP7 1566 was the regular
locomotive on this job for several years. Other locals ran up the Conway Branch to North
Conway, occasionally going to the MEC interchange at Intervale. This was DI-1/ID-2. Up
on M-W-F and return on T-T-S. Also serviced the Wolfeboro Branch and Farmington
Branch as needed.,(before the Davidson Rubber Co. built a large plant using rail). There
was also a D3/D4 local that ran occasionally between Dover and Portsmouth, via Rockingham.
but Portsmouth was primarily served by the Concord or Manchester to Portsmouth job.
Power on DI-1/ID2, and D3/D4 was usually a 1200 class SW9 or other end cab switcher.
D7/D8 were based at Dover and were the gravel train to Ossipee, using GP7s or GP9s and
the remaining F7B 4267. In addition to the gradual loss of the manufacturing base and
lumber and fuel dealers, the GRS strikes ended most of the local service out of Dover.
For a time, a Dover-Biddeford local ran, but even that ended in the 80's. The only remaining
B&M buildings in Dover are the remodeled engine house off Oak St., now used as a pottery
shop and the "carpenter shop", a group of buildings at the south end of Grove St., across the
tracks from the Downeaster station, now used by the Track and Signald departments. A leased
crew trailer office is located west of the former engine house off Oak St. If it was not for the
NHN interchange of non-gravel cars at Dover, there would be almost no activity at Dover. At
present, PAR does seem to use Dover to set off and pick up Portsmouth traffic, rather than
Rockingham Junction. Only two yard tracks remain at Dover. I should have noted that the
DI-1/ID-2 crew used the bunk house at the North Conway Engine House to lay over.

Mattydred wrote:If you look closely as you drive by Madbury Metals, you will see the rails from the old siding next to the driveway, ending in the treeline before they reach NH 155. To answer the previous question, the crossing on Portland Street next to Blue Seal was double track until NHN did modernizations in the early 1990s. In my recollection the wye was single-track, the rails and crossbucks themselves only being removed about five years ago.

hello if you were on portland street heading towards town the first crossing next to blue seal had been single tracked since the 70's once you crossed the track you came to the double track crossing behind the kc halle which were neamed the house tracks
mk

ihdavis1 wrote:In reference to an earlier post I made about the old spur off of the Hayes siding in Rochester. I saw this link on the CSRR forum and after doing some searching, I saw pictures http://gilford.rrpicturearchives.net/lo ... x?id=90034 circa 1979 of two B&M GP-7's and the old 4267B servicing the customer on the spur. In another search of the site, I found two more GP-7's servicing the spur circa 1976 http://gilford.rrpicturearchives.net/lo ... x?id=90247.

hi yes that tracked served the former spaulding fiber, the pictures would be more likely the power from do-1 the gravel train, stopping to switch the plant, the gravel train would have the older bm 5000 series bulkhead flat cars with the loads wrapped in white.
the local train do-2 would also switch the plant leaving it's train behind encore shoe on the siding and heading north with 1-2 boxcars, mostly mid western roads, frisco etc loaded with rags this was up until the mid 80's

Earlier today I was going through some of the late Richard 'Moose' Ouellette's videos on YouTube courtesy of nhrrman. At about the 6:30 mark in one of his videos, "NHN loaded gravel train Ossipee to Dover,NH on 03/20/1991", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UjBhqKL ... -g&lf=plcp I see NHN approach a crossing that looks like it used to be double-tracked. I presume, by the earlier footage in the video, that this is somewhere in the Somersworth (almost) Rollinsford area. Does anyone know what that track was used (old east? leg of wye to Pan Am mainline) for or what road the train is crossing?

That crossing is Watson Road. It led to the Rowell and & Watson Fuel Company property.
I am not sure if they were a rail customer or not. I believe the trackage there was the
remnants of the wye track that connected to the main line near the current Rollinsford
fire station. I think that portion of the Conway Branch between Rollinsford and Rochester
may have still been owned by Guilford at the time of the video. Some time after the
video, the NHN derailed some empty LPG cars at that switch in a slow speed derailment.
The switch was eliminated during the track repairs and all siding trackage was removed.
You can still drive down to that crossing, and Watson Rd. deadends after the crossing.

Dick H, that was my thinking as well, I just wanted someone else to confirm it for me. Do you know the last time the wye was used by chance? My thinking was sometime prior to the abandonment of the Conway Branch between Ossipee and Conway.

Don't look now but believe it or not they're putting the east leg of the wye back in.

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... age=4&key=
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... age=4&key=

Don't look now but believe it or not they're putting the east leg of the wye back in.

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... age=4&key=
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... age=4&key=

Looks like I am wrong. Here is a post with more information...



Re: Official New Hampshire Northcoast Thread (NHN)

New postby bm1838 » Sun Jul 22, 2012 4:01 pm
The new switch is at the location of the old wye track at Rollinsford, NH. A new transload facility for a rollinsford customer is being built at the location. The old tracks that were in the woods were torn up, and new pannel track is on its way to put two sidings in for the new customer. The rollinsford business recycles automobile oil, used oil will get trucked to the facility, and the clean new motor oil will be transloaded into tank cars in rollinsford. If you are looking for the exact location of this, its between Rollins Road and Watson Lane.

Cory F

Cory, was there much in the way of trackage in the woods that used to be the east leg of the wye?