Manchester-Lawrence still in use (Freight Discussion)?

Yes that grain place! Behind that was the lumber place that was also a customer until about the same time as the potato chip place. I know exactly where the chip place is, I didn't know they were a rail customer though, thats interesting. I still don't know off the top of my head where that station is though, ill have to drive down 28 and check it out next time im up there. Its funny that you guys remember driving by and seeing trains, I remember sitting in the dunkin donuts on rt 28 with my grandparents eatin donuts, hoping to just happen to catch a train go by. I never actually saw one though. This was probably late 80s early 90s so if i had, it would have been just a freight with a few cars. So its probably a safe bet that if they ever did return passenger trains to that corridor, freight would return as well

You seem to know the area pretty well. If you remember a little shopping plaza (across the street from the gas station at the intersection) the station is directly behind the shopping plaza. Sal’s Pizza is located just to the right of the station and the shopping plaza and left of Dodge Grain.
When I did see the train in Salem it usually had 4 to 5 covered hoppers and 2 to 3 box cars.

hmmmm, talk about thread revival.
I kill time on my job by lurking here and reading, but this is close enough to home to answer more completely.

As a kid, I *trespassed* about a million times on the tracks, was given the occasional cab ride, and was allowed to help switch cars.
anyway, after you passed the old train station, there was a siding on the left that was for the old grossmans" lumber place.

directly across was a siding for dodge grain,and this was connected to the main from the south, ran north over the road, and had another short spur off of that for grossmans, then ran north some more and connected to the main again.
across to the west was a spur with derailer that went into zurback steel. they used to get big rolls of steel in on covered cars.
i remember watching the zurback overhead crane being used to grab the back of the car, when they were done with it, and give it a pull/push out of the building, and a worker using the handwheel brake to stop it before the derailer.
I also remember more than once seeing a wheel on the ground due to the derailer.
just a tad north of that, before the granite state potato chip company, there was a short spur that was for liquid propane deliveries to dalrymple gas. they had to back into it.
The chip company is way too small for rail service, but I've seen the train stopped there a boatload of times, so the crew could get a box of freshly made chips and a cold coke.
go past there, and up to nearly the rt.111 crossing, and there was another small siding for canobie lake. I remember seeing "the canobie queen" replica paddlewheeler delivered on 3 flat cars.

dang....i'm getting old. I remember the tracks getting ripped up, and being a teen, driving a car on the row , before they gated the entrences off. shoot, we used to drive for miles along the wn&p line too.

salem is actively looking into paving the bed.

i saw a question in an earlier thread about the 111 bypass. the bypass has totally plowed right through the old bed, and they will be putting in a pedestrian bridge over it to connect the railtrail on either side.

Yes you are correct. Salem is going to continue the paved bike path right down to IHOP at the state line. The bridge abutments at the 111 by-pass have already been constructed. I also noticed that brush has been cleared recently from the tracks between Best Buy and Denny's. I would assume in the next month or to the tracks will be removed all together to resurface the bed to make way for the asphalt.
Heard that the Salem Depot will be restored in the near future, unfortunately I have no other information in regards to that.

although not etched in stone, they are talking of moving the old station across the street,rehabbing it, laying down a track panel, and displaying a donated caboose.
last I heard,anyway.

Too bad they don't rehab the line through Methuen/Salem, NH. Friends of mine live in Methuen and they say that if you don't get on Rt. 93 by 6AM you will be stuck in traffic pretty much the whole way to Boston.

I would think they would have good ridership and that area is only getting more developed.

As far as I know the M&L ROW is intact after it switches off the MBTA Haverhill Line just past CPF-AS in Lawrence. Their used to be a lone customer still active just in Lawrence, but I believe that that is now gone. The tracks I believe are still their up to at least the State Line. Past that it cuts in and out in pieces and that’s as far as it goes. The farthest out I have seen the rail still in place is by the Granite State Potato Chip Factory. In fact I believe the line is double tracked behind their.

As for your friend’s in Methuen, have them drive to Haverhill or Lawrence or Andover and take the MBTA Commuter Rail to and from town. Only $ 7.25 from Haverhill, $ 6.75 from Lawrence and $ 6.25 from Andover

W Rising Gas Prices.. it's alot Cheaper

I would ecourage taking the train as well, but I know that if you don't get to the station early, then you run into having the parking lot full and no place to park.

eriemike wrote:I would ecourage taking the train as well, but I know that if you don't get to the station early, then you run into having the parking lot full and no place to park.

That's certainly true in Andover. Is Lawrence's new garage filling up too?

I was referring to Andover and Bradford/Haverhill. I'm not sure about Lawrence though.

GP40MC 1116 wrote:As far as I know the M&L ROW is intact after it switches off the MBTA Haverhill Line just past CPF-AS in Lawrence. Their used to be a lone customer still active just in Lawrence, but I believe that that is now gone. The tracks I believe are still their up to at least the State Line. Past that it cuts in and out in pieces and that’s as far as it goes. The farthest out I have seen the rail still in place is by the Granite State Potato Chip Factory. In fact I believe the line is double tracked behind their.

As for your friend’s in Methuen, have them drive to Haverhill or Lawrence or Andover and take the MBTA Commuter Rail to and from town. Only $ 7.25 from Haverhill, $ 6.75 from Lawrence and $ 6.25 from Andover

W Rising Gas Prices.. it's alot Cheaper

Once you get past Dodge Grain, the bed narrows down to only wide enough for single track through the swamp area.
Between Rockingham rd. and 111, there is a cut through rock, only wide enough for single track, and the same deal again on the next stretch.
We were bad as kids, hanging around the train/tracks all the time, but the regular crew was all ok with it, actually interacted with us . The 70's were a different time.
I still get out on the bed from time to time, biking or walking, but I wish that the train was still running for sure.
Once Salem paves the row, derry will only have a short section to pave to connect the new Windham trail to their trail that's partially paved, and the bed will be trail from pretty much the Mass border,to the Derry/Londonderry town line.

There were a couple of covered hoppers at the plastics place in Lawrence when I went by a couple of weeks ago.
John (the guy in the white car with the wing on back)

I've heard about this canobie lake train before. Used to come up for the day and then head back to boston I think. It used to park on a siding at the Rt 111 intersection, correct? So here's my question, how did a train full of people get from there, TO canobie lake? Its actually a pretty good hike to get over there. Looks like its about a mile walk down various side streets. Did they have canobie busses too?

The answer is street cars . In fact that is who built Canobie Lake Park was the street car company (Mass. Northeastern St. Ry. I think). It was a way to utilize their lines on the weekend when people weren't using the trolleys to go to work. In fact Whalom Park in Leominster was a street car amusement park and even Salem Willows in Salem, Mass was grown to provide the Eastern Mass. St. Ry. with passengers.

I'm sure that street car service for Canobie Lake Park went out in either the 1920's or 1930's and most of those trolley lines were replaced by bus. I asume that the B&M would dump off Canobie Park bound people at the depot in Salem, which is still there.

well, you learn a few things every day.
I'll post a couple of pics, lovingly ripped-off from:
"Images of America, Salem, NH Volumes I & II"

the pics are wicked small,but they'll have to do, because I'm resize challenged, but I think that you can make out at least some of it....if you squint enough

OK, about canobie people getting off the train at salem depot, and taking the trolley to the park.
here is a pic from just north of the station. you can see the train, and the trolley tracks .
http://photos.ar15.com/ImageGallery/Att ... eUnq=53136
Main Street in Salem looking east from Pleasant Street.

Note the passenger train at the Salem Depot Station (currently the law office of James A. Sayer).

Also note the trolley tracks on the right hand side of the street and the overhead electric line for the trolleys.


a shot of the canobie entrance
http://photos.ar15.com/ImageGallery/Att ... eUnq=53140
By 1929, the trolleys were gone and Canobie Lake Park was closed.

The park was soon auctioned - for $17,500 - and reopened in 1931.


and then a pic of canobie station, which was located by rt.111.
a copy/paste from the website said salem did have 4 stations....who knew.
http://photos.ar15.com/ImageGallery/Att ... eUnq=53139
Salem had four railroad stations.

One was at Hampshire Roads, another at Rockingham Park, the main station at Salem Depot and this one called Canobie Lake Station.

It stood in the space between Old Rockingham Road and the railroad tracks at the intersection of Rockingham Road, Route 111 and Route 28.

The building in the distance is the former Mason's and later, Canobie Market.

This view is looking northwest from today's Route 28 approximately in front of Victorian Park Miniature Golf.

i botched posting pics, trying as a hotlink to my photos