Silver Lake Railroad, Madison, NH

A few months ago, I was up in the North Conway area and returned to Boston following the B&M Conway Branch. When I reached the restored station in Silver Lake NH, I noticed that the station has been repainted a nice shade of green and the platform has been given a fresh layer of asphalt, What I found more interesting, however, was the freighthouse which looked drastically different from the last time I had seen it. It has recently been restored, repainted the same color as the station, a window has been added to the side of it, and much of the brush that was obstructing the building and the tracks, has been cleared. There were also three speeders parked on the tracks, and a crossbucks next to the tracks read "Silver Lake Railroad". Is this a new organization? Can anyone tell me when the freighthouse was restored and repainted? Are the tracks between Madison and Conway now being used by speeders? Thanks for any info.

From what I understood speeders are only allowed to operate between the end of the NHN operating track and the Rte. 16 crossing but are not allowed to proceed north of Rte. 16... So I have been told.
I was up there the last weekend of September of 2005 and that was one of the places me and my girlfriend had stopped at. The station looks very nice, even the freight station too. I do have pictures of that weekend that I still have yet to place on NErial. The last time I had seen the station it was white and run down and you couldn't even see the tracks, in fact the last time I was up there before this past September they had just removed the tracks at that crossing.
As far as the speeders running from the Conway Station to Madison Station... well it can't happen. A lot of the track has been removed about a mile or two south from where the Conway Scenic ends its operation. The tracks were removed from my understanding because the ROW is used as an access road for an industrial company that I believe makes cement. When the B&M abandoned the line from Intervale to Ossipee in 1972 it left the Cement Company (which was a B&M customer) stranded with no road to get trucks to the facility. Instead of building a road they used the ROW. I'm not sure how much track was removed but I’m guessing somewhere between a quarter of a mile to a mile. If they were to run speeders out of Madison I would think they have a better shot at running them south from Madison Station to the Mt. Whitter Station (also known as West Ossipee Station). They would have to put the tracks back down at the cross and remove the pavement at the other two crossing and due a lot of brush clearing, but unlike to the north the tracks are still there between Mt. Whitter and Madison.

It is not unusual to see speeders on this section of track. They are from the CVRTC in Wolfboro, and although I don't think they have official permission to use the tracks above Rte. 16, this in the 'Live Free or Die' state.

Lack of track across a highway crossing in no impediment to riding with a motor car. The cars are light enough to wrestle them across a paved crossing. I have run from Fryeburg, ME down to Sebego Lake, and I don't think there was a single open crossing.

Engineer999

b&m 1566 wrote:From what I understood speeders are only allowed to operate between the end of the NHN operating track and the Rte. 16 crossing but are not allowed to proceed north of Rte. 16... So I have been told.
I was up there the last weekend of September of 2005 and that was one of the places me and my girlfriend had stopped at. The station looks very nice, even the freight station too. I do have pictures of that weekend that I still have yet to place on NErial. The last time I had seen the station it was white and run down and you couldn't even see the tracks, in fact the last time I was up there before this past September they had just removed the tracks at that crossing.
As far as the speeders running from the Conway Station to Madison Station... well it can't happen. A lot of the track has been removed about a mile or two south from where the Conway Scenic ends its operation. The tracks were removed from my understanding because the ROW is used as an access road for an industrial company that I believe makes cement. When the B&M abandoned the line from Intervale to Ossipee in 1972 it left the Cement Company (which was a B&M customer) stranded with no road to get trucks to the facility. Instead of building a road they used the ROW. I'm not sure how much track was removed but I’m guessing somewhere between a quarter of a mile to a mile. If they were to run speeders out of Ossipee I would think they have a better shot at running them south from Madison Station to the Mt. Whitter Station (also known as West Ossipee Station). They would have to put the tracks back down at the cross and remove the pavement at the other two crossing and due a lot of brush clearing, but unlike to the north the tracks are still there between Mt. Whitter and Madison.

b&m 1566:

Are you fairly familiar with the train opperations in New Hampshire.. the limited ones their are?

GP40MC 1116... I don't like to think so but some may think I do. The information I try to share is how I understand it. Sometimes I'm corrected by individuals on here which in turn gives me a better knowledge. I get a lot of my information by talking to people, asking them questions and what not and by reading a lot. If you ever have a day where you have some spare time... an hour or two of railroad researching via the internet... you can learn a lot.
The best resources come from talking to other people that work in the field of railroading. Individuals who have helped me get a better knowledge are employees of the Conway Scenic Railroad, New England Southern Railroad, and the trolley operators for the Lowell National Historical Park and yes even the MBTA; the MBTA as gone great lengths to give me information via email a bunch of times.