Western Route, Atkinson or Plaistow?

Hello all, I am new here... I am making my own website about the Boston & Maine Railroad in southern New Hampshire, somthing I have wanted to do since I was younger (I am 19 now)... You can see my site here, although I just got started not that long ago... If you want to see the goods (like all the pictures I have taken), check back tomorrow night to see the completed Derry and Windham sections of the M&L Branch...

Anyways, back to my question... It seems by looking at this map that the Western Route enters NH through Plaistow, then cuts through the side of Atkinson, then returns to Plaistow... So now was the Atkinson station actually located in Plaistow?

Also, I took some pictures (seen below) of the line in-between the Mass border and the new Route 121 bridge... On my site, do you think I should I enclude these under the Atkinson section or the Plaistow section, I just can not decide

Oh yea, maybe someone can point out where the "Atkinson" station was located in these pictures... I know it was to the east of the rails, based on the perspective of my pictures at least... I saw a picture of the collapsed freight station on Gary LaPointe's website, and I noticed the red garage of the old State Line Pets store in the background...

IIRC, the pile of debris behind the dirt road and between the trees is the Atkinson station's foundation.

The truth is out - the Atkinson station was actually located in Plaistow, roughly to the right of the lead locomotive in your pix, or across the tracks from the cut-down telegraph pole in the same pix. It probably extended as far as the pile of debris jbvb mentioned, because it was a combination passenger and freight station. For that matter, it was also the town post office for several years.

A word of caution relative to the presumed location of Route 121 - Check out this pix at Gary LaPointe's website:
http://www.lightlink.com/sglap3/newhamp ... olpost.jpg

The road crossing the tracks beyond the station is the original alignment of Route 121. In the 1930s, a WPA project built an overpass along the same alignment. However, two years ago a new overpass was built just east of this original alignment, so your pix taken from the present day bridge are about 100 feet east of the original bridge location.

Also, you may find this interesting:
http://www.thesignloft.com/atkinson.htm

PBM
Atkinson, NH

That is very good and helpful information, thank you... Yes, I remember the old route 121 bridge, and I also remember driving under it to get to the old State Line Pets store...

Ok then, so in that picture with the train in it, there is that white sign right about where you say the station was... It says "Atkinson" on it, so is that a representation of the old station? I thought it was the town line, although I never looked on the other side to see if it said Plaistow...

>>is that white sign right about where you say the station was

Ayuh.

Some time when you're in the area, try to find the remains of the old siding that ran from (roughly) the Wal-Mart on 125 in Plaistow to the Coach Company bus garage, when that building was a spring water bottling plant.

PBM

Will this site be for all of Southern NH or just Southeastern NH? Branching out to the Monadnock regions history of B&M activity in Southwestern NH could be interesting and would include the Peterborough, Cheshire, Ashuelot branches and the long gone Keene and Nashua line in addition to the Conn river line through Dole Junction in Hinsdale etc.

NRGeep wrote:Will this site be for all of Southern NH or just Southeastern NH? Branching out to the Monadnock regions history of B&M activity in Southwestern NH could be interesting and would include the Peterborough, Cheshire, Ashuelot branches and the long gone Keene and Nashua line in addition to the Conn river line through Dole Junction in Hinsdale etc.

Right now it is only going to be south-eastern New Hampshire... I do not have time to take a bunch of trips over there, especially with gas being so pricey... After I finish all of the SE NH lines, and I expect that to take a while, I will may continue over to SW NH or follow the lines I am covering now into northern MA...

It really depends on how much spare time I have; college, work, and friends takes up a lot of that, LOL...

Good luck finding that siding to the water company on Wentworth St. I spent quite a bit of time looking. Behind Walmart you can see where it might have been but after that it's gone.

After comparing the map with aerial photos, I came to the conclusion that the plaza where Kohls is now was built on top of it.

I tried looking behind the water company which is now The Coach Company and didn't see anything there either.

I hope someone has better luck than I did.

I have not looked for that one yet... I remember though when looking over the north side of the Route 125 bridge, I saw a siding going off the left set of tracks... It was not on this map originally, so I had to add in that little black line... Anyone know what that was for?

That was suburban propane. Kidder Wrecking came down and demolished the remains of it circa 1999, just before I started taking pictures on a regular basis so I never got a chance to get a picture of the siding and the remains of the former consignee.

As you probably know other consignees in the area include Westville Homes, the former Process Engineering, and north of the route 121a crossing there was a company listed in the timetable as Sabbath York. I saw a car one day near the crossing filled with logs from that company. The siding is gone and aerial photos show where it was but that it was removed. You used to be able to see it from Cranes Crossing on the Plaistow / Newton line.

Hmm, this looks like another situation like what my original post was about, but this time it is on the WN&P... So the line never actually went through Hollis, NH, and the Hollis, NH station was located in Nashua, NH? That is what I am getting from this map: http://docs.unh.edu/MA/grtn36ne.jpg

I just so happened to look at an older topographic map and apparently Atkinson Station was originally located within the Atkinson town lines... For some reason that stretch of town line between Atkinson and Plaistow shifted like 250 feet west sometime between the 1880's and 1930 :-|

http://docs.unh.edu/NH/hvrl93se.jpg

I had a look at the perambulation book in the Atkinson town clerk's office. In the 1890 Plaistow-Atkinson joint perambulation report, the town line is exactly where is is today. Eight new granite boundary posts were set. The 1893 topographical map is incorrect. Atkinson Depot has always been in Plaistow.