According to their facilities map, Eastern Propane still
maintains a storage facility in Gonic. They must truck
the product in and out. I do not know if the rail line
was gone or not when they wanted to expand storage
capacity in Rochester, but I doubt the City or the state
would have allowed expansion at Gonic, due to its
proximity to a residential area and an elementary school.
Hence, they built the large new facility in North Rochester,
known as Tri-City on the NH Northcoast line.
Further south in Newington, the rail line serving Pease Air
Force Base crossed the turnpike about 1/4 mile south of
the Little Bay Bridges and had only flashers for protection.
However, there was an extensive layout of trackage on the
base and the locomotive would be leading in both directions
crossing the turnpike. Interestingly, there is a $270 million
(that is not a typo) six year project getting underway to widen
the turnpike to six travel lanes and a breakdown lane in both
directions from Exit #2 to the Dover toll house, with a new
bridge, expansion of the existing bridge and even rehabilition
of the old General Sullivan Bridge for pedestrains, bicycles, etc.
As part of the expansion, they will be making provisions for an
overpass in the area of the former right of way for possible
future reinstatement of rail service to the Pease International
Tradeport. While I am not familiar with all the layout of the
former air base, I would have thought a new line off Portsmouth
branch would have been better. It could have began east of the
former Greenland station and paralleled Rt. 33 south of the
Portsmouth Country Club and the south end of the runway and
entered the tradeport in the area of the Bus Terminal. At any
rate, I know of no current plans to return freight service to
Pease or any commuter rail service to Portsmouth. The state
of NH can't even get its act together on returning commuter
rail service to Nashua, never mind Portsmouth.