The Maine Central Railroad Mountain Division

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone.

Nice! Thank you!

Neat!

Where was that photo taken? I don't recognize the location which makes me think it's somewhere past Fabyans ...

It's me!

Haha ... Exactly!

The slide was labeled "MEC 407 YR-1 Carroll, NH Feb 1979"- I don't see any evidence of the siding so I'm
thinking it's probably at Evans Rd. I started scanning slides in earnest last winter and I find my lax note-taking
back in the day is coming back to bite me. 40 years later things don't always look the way I remember them.

I think you were at the Mount Deception Road. The siding would be obscured further back in the powder.

Notice matching slanted double peak mountain profile.

https://earth.app.goo.gl/eDRvB3

You may me right- I scrolled around in Google Earth for a while trying to come to some sort of a conclusion.
I was pretty certain it was between Carroll and Twin Mountain and there are only a few access points in that area,
but with tree growth, road changes and construction over the years, I was doubtful of the location. It was routine for
me to go to go upcountry in the AM to meetup with the Whitefield or East St.J section gangs to change out a rail ahead
of YR-1, have lunch at Whitefield and then work my way back to Bartlett with the train passing me somewhere and
I often had a camera with me the first couple of years I worked there.

When I was kid growing up in the Boston Area there were still Snow Trains running out of North Station. I remember seeing the ads in the newspaper and on TV (IIRC). I wasn't a skier but it would have been fun going up there just for the ride. By the time I got out of the military in 1970 I think they had discontinued that service. Now I understand a portion of the line has been torn up so it is physically impossible for a train to make it from North Station to North Conway.

Last summer my wife and I took Conway Scenic Railroad up through Crawfords Notch and really enjoyed the ride. So I was wondering if there's any chance the state of New Hampshire might ever replace the missing link and get the line from Boston up and running again. What are the issues? How much track has to be replaced? Is anyone working on it? This has probably all been covered here before. If you could please summarize I would appreciate it.

The missing link was removed by Guilford, just before they sold the ROW to NHN (late 80’s early 90s?). The missing link is still owned by NHN, so it will be on their dime (minus and transportation grants they can get). However, right now there are no plans to restore it that I'm aware of but if the right consignee, shipper comes around that can justify the expense of rebuilding it, I’m sure they would have it up and running in relatively short order. On the contrary, there's bound to be environmental and NIMBY lawsuits to try and stop it, so: time, money & patience, would have to be factored in, to withstand the onslaught of those and the long drawn out court process and appeals that goes with each and every lawsuit, plus the STB challenges & rulings that just naturally take time. As for the state owned portion of the Conway Branch (which is north of the missing section), the state has made it very clear, there's no money available from the state to rehab any rail line that they own, so at this time the lease holding railroad would be 100% responsible for the cost. If rail customers help pay, then that would likely be worked out with the railroad during negotiations.

I disagree there are any legal implications at all for NHN on their segment. Certainly no environmental and the NIMBY's would have virtually no recourse at all since it probably wouldn't require a filing with the STB.

The state owned section is another matter entirely.

Yeah, I didn't do a good job clarifying that, I was referring to the state owned portion. The NHN section is still active, even with missing rail.

I don't believe there would be any legal or environmental implications for restoration of service since nothing was abandoned.

Won't stop people from suing anyway. Numerous instances of NIMBY's suing to get rid of a railroad that had been there for over 100 years.

Just need to get a politico to side with them to start getting the government to ban them from reinstalling the rails.