The Cocheco Railroad revisited

This is another photo essay similar to the one I did for the Eastern. I did a lot of hiking with my camera of the old Cocheco from Dover to Alton and here are the results.


I won't go into the history of the Cocheco as that can be found elsewhere. Suffice to say that the Cocheco Railroad was chartered on July 2, 1847 with construction beginning in 1849. The line opened from Dover, NH to Farmington in September of 1849 and then on to Alton Bay in August 1851. The last passenger train ran in 1935 and the section north of Farmington was closed in 1941 and finally abandoned a year later.

I assumed that the ROW past the old Davidson Rubber Plant in Farmington to Alton was paved over as Rt. 11. But after a careful comparison of modern maps with vintage topo maps, to my surprise, it appears with one exception that the Cocheco ROW is intact from Rochester to the Farmington/New Durham border.

The Cocheco branches off the B&M mainline near Second St. in Dover, crosses Fourth St., then heads north-west, paralleling the Cocheco river. The first station is, appropriately enough, Cocheco although I've been unable to locate a map that shows its location.

The Cocheco crosses Whittier St. and proceeds down what is now Whittier Falls Way, heading toward Rt. 16.


I don't know for sure but that looks like a mile post.

Whittier Falls Way

Cocheco ROW looking west towards Watson Rd. Rt. 16 is right behind me.
Standing on the ROW on the west side of RT. 16, looking east towards Dover. RT. 16 has bisected the Cocheco.

Past Rt. 16, the Cocheco continues to parallel the Cocheco river as it heads toward Watson Rd. then County Farm Rd. Here is the County Farm Rd. crossing.
A different shot taken in 2005.

Once past County Farm Rd., the Cocheco enters farm country and heads toward Blackwater brook near the Dover/Rochester line.

I wanted to find out how the Blackwater brook, which had last seen a train during WWII, was crossed. Plan A was to go to a local farmhouse, ask for permission to walk behind their house, find the Cocheco then hike towards Blackwater brook. That fell apart when I couldn't get anyone to answer the door. So that left plan B - bushwhack off of Sixth St.

I figured I could find the ROW easily enough as a railroad ROW would stand out from the forest floor even if it was a century or so old.

The woods off of Sixth St. were basically level replete with pine and birch trees. I'd been walking for a while, weaving between trees and deadfall as there was no trail. Luckily for me there was no underbrush - no brambles or bushes. Then I saw it - an embankment.

I climbed to the top and saw that, indeed, this was the old Cocheco ROW.

I walked west towards Blackwater brook, expecting to find 2 abutments and a missing steel girder bridge but instead found an arch.

Great essay, thank you! The stone arch bridge was a real find!

On to Pickering station and the Pickering Rd. crossing in Rochester. 1892 map showing Pickering Crossing and the Pickering Station location.
The Cocheco crossed Pickering Rd. here and disappeared into the brush across the street (red square). Better seen with a picture I took in 2005. Pickering station was to my left.

Pickering station. Actually "station" is bit generous. Garden shed is more appropriate.
Past Pickering Crossing, the Cocheco parallels Pickering Rd. on its way towards Rochester.
The following pictures were taken on a short stretch of the ROW off of Pickering Rd (indicated by the section of the road highlighted in yellow above). I walked in the woods for a short distance until I found the ROW.

Remains of a telegraph pole.

A section of ROW from Tebbetts Rd. to Nadeau Rd. near the Gonic area of Rochester. From Tebbetts Rd. to the center of Rochester there are only short sections of the Cocheco left as industrial parks have obliterated much of it.

Not sure what it is (boxcar?) but it seems appropriate.

A land owner has borrowed a few used ties to build a fence.

Approaching Nadeau Rd. the ROW has been dug out and removed to create a sand pit.

In the Tebbets to Nadeau Rd section, it looks like that is a B&M piggyback trailer. When those trailers were obsolete they were frequently sold to outfits that used them for storage purposes. At $250 each, scrap price it was much cheaper than constructing a storage building; if the neighbors complained just register it and put on plates.

Thanks edbear. I thought it was being used for storage too. Quite a surprise when I came upon it and I liked the fact that it was right beside a railroad once owned by the B&M.