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  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England

Moderators: MEC407, NHN503

 #184668  by Finch
 
Hey folks, just registered with this forum.

I'm pretty much from a train family, and I seem to have caught the railroad bug from my father, uncles, and grandfather. My grandfather (James Finch) has worked for the New York Central and New Haven railroads. He was an exec at one of them for a time...maybe vice president of the NYC or something...but I don't really remember. Anyhow, he's a train guy. Then there's Uncle Peter who was at one time, if I remember correctly, Chief Safety Engineer (or something like that) for Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. And my uncle Jay used to work at the White River Junction station on Amtrak's Vermonter route. My dad doesn't work for the railroad but likes trains. So I guess it's sort of in my blood. :-D

I'm a student at the University of New Hampshire, and I'm greatly enjoying my close proximity to trains up here! The Downeaster goes right through campus (actually stops on campus), and there's a fair amount of freight on the route as well. I've been writing down the times when freight trains go by, though I'm sure I miss some of them because I'm not right next to the tracks. I've started noticing patterns in when the freight trains go by, but it's a very rough science. Mostly it's just fun!

Anyhow that's where I'm at. Any info about radio feed or schedules or anything from freight in this area?

 #184670  by Aji-tater
 
Hey Finch, welcome! Slightly off topic from your question but here's some advice. Get a tape recorder and sit down with any of your relatives who may still be with us, and get their experiences, stories and memories of the railroad. No matter how many or few, once the people are gone you can't learn anything more from them. And as your knowledge grows you may find more things to ask them. Railroading is always changing, and the new modern stuff will suddenly become the "good old days". You have a good resource with those guys who worked the railroad: preserve it!

 #184691  by shadyjay
 
Ah, my alma-mater (is that how you spell it?). I attended UNH from 1996 to 1998. I frequently visited the train station (then just the "dairy bar") to see what I could see. Sometimes I'd get lucky. I would have to pass over the tracks at least twice a day as I went to the Thompson School part of UNH. I saw the passage of BODO/DOBO (the gravel trains) several times, with NHNC power. I believe one of those ran late night. I remember the talks about the upcoming Amtrak service to Maine and I waited patiently for the service, but it began years after I had graduated. No problem though, as I took a bus to Boston, then Amtrak from there down to CT. I had some great times at UNH and met a lot of cool people, and quickly earned the nickname "Train Boy". Welcome to the forum, and enjoy the sights and sounds of UNH and the trains.

-JH

 #184805  by Finch
 
OK, learning time. What's BODO/DOBO? And what's NHNC? New Hampshire...something?

Yep, the dairy bar is still there and the train still stops in front of it, but it's still not actually the station. There's just a "Quiktrak" machine is inside the Whittemore Center...and that's as close to a station as it gets (though the dairy bar does have the platform in front of it with the yellow line, and a handicap platform).

I can get right next to the tracks by going over to the mini dorms and going around the end of the fence...hehe. I've gone to read chemistry (the devil's subject!) by the tracks a couple times. One time I saw a 94 car freight train, which was a pleasant surprise. There are also late night trains, as you said. I heard one at 2:34 am last night...I was definitely up too late because I had a chance to write it down!

I am also earning a bit of a reputation for my train habits, though only among my friends. I'm kind of proud of it...I guess I sort of have to be. With hobbies like trains and radio controlled vehicles, you just have to do it and not worry about how unusual it is.

 #184818  by Aji-tater
 
NHNC is New Hampshire North Coast, a shortline railroad. BODO and DOBO are train symbols. Different railroads identify their trains in different ways. Conrail used to use two letters to represent the origin, two to represent the destination, and a number corresponding with the last number in the date the train started. So a train from Selkirk yard in Albany to Boston on May 23rd would have been SEBO-3. Its westbound counterpart would have been BOSE-3. CSX uses a different system entirely, and I'll let somebody else explain that. As for DOBO, I'm not familiar with the operations in that area, I'd guess BO was Boston and have no clue what DO represented - Dover maybe? Dorchester? Somebody will provide the answer I'm sure.

 #184822  by shadyjay
 
Sorry 'bout using too much NH lingo to someone new to the area.... as was stated, NHNC is New Hampshire Northcoast. DOBO/BODO referred to the gravel train which ran from NHNC's gravel pit at Ossipee, NH to Boston Sand and Gravel in Boston. From Dover, NH to Boston, MA, the train was a Guilford-operated train with NHNC power, symboled DOBO Sb and return the next day as BODO.

Guilford is former Boston & Maine and Maine Central, with most of their locomotives lettered for Guilford Rail System and sub-lettered on the cab with B&M, MEC, or ST (Springfield Terminal). Borrowed power from CSX can also be seen, along with other "foreign" power. Other symbols of Guilford trains in recent years have been SENE/NESE, POED/EDPO, etc. (SE - Selkirk NY/CSX, NE - New England/Portland ME (Rigby), PO - Portland (Rigby Yard, So Portland), ED - East Deerfield, MA. Got any more Guilford related questions there's a Guilford forum here.

When I started going to UNH, the 'Whit' was brand new. I remember seeing many hockey games there and a concert or two. I could hear the trains at night from my dorm at Stoke.

-JH

 #184826  by Finch
 
Hey, thanks for the insight guys. I don't see most trains (I'm in Hubbard, by the way), so I haven't seen much lettering on the locos. I do believe I saw CSX markings one time recently, however.