Wilton Scenic Railroad

The operating schedule for the Wilton Scenic Railroad was updated for 2004. Take a look and see you this summer!

Matt
Wilton Scenic Railroad Conductor
http://www.wiltonscenicrr.com

RDC's in New Hampshire are great!

-otto-

You have to give Mr. Draper credit for coming up with some imaginative "theme" train rides on his line. Lacking a "boffo" destination, the railroad is giving people something to do ON the train. Specials include "Blues Music", "Ham & Bean Suppers", and more! Publicity is sent via emailings and local coverage. We suspect that if all this succeeds, more RDCs will be needed, or some other means to increase capacity. WS thus joins Conway Scenic, Hobo, and Winnipesaukee railroads as a fixture in northern New England tourist trains. If you've not been up there yet, we recommend it.

And we're not specifically targeting adults with these special trains. Coming up sometime in September is a Magic Train some Sunday morning. I have to talk with the magician tomorrow to pick a date. Fun for the whole family!!!

Eddie Motto will be on the train September 11th. He does folk music and he has played with Peter, Paul & Mary. I believe this is a 7 pm train.

Also targeting the kids, we do a Halloween Train in October, but this hobo won't be around to partake in it.

Besides email and newspaper coverage for special events, keep an eye on our website. Flyers are posted on the site.
http://www.wiltonscenicrr.com

This was emailed to Stuart from a rider last Saturday. A must read!
http://www.sisterbetty.org/wsrr/index.htm

See you on the train!

Matt
Wilton Scenic Railroad Conductor
http://www.wiltonscenicrr.com

It is with great sadness to announce that the Wilton Scenic Railroad will not be running in 2006.

On January 31st, the owner and founder of the WSRR passed away from a heart attack. This past weekend, it was announced that the train is up for sale.

Thank you to everyone that rode the train during its 3 year operation.

Matt

Former WSRR Conductor

LIke so many things in railroading, it was great while it lasted! Hopefully either someone will run it again where it is, or the equipment (and crew) will be back on the rails in some other place soon.

-John

Is there a listing for the sale of equipment?

I was saddened to hear of the loss of Mr. Draper. My condolences go out to his family and the Wilton Scenic crew. I thought he was pretty creative in creating a "buzz" to get people to ride the Wilton. I am thankful to have had a ride on the Wilton two summers ago.

I have heard a "rumor" that the Wilton was going to try and make a go of it this summer after all. Is this just hopeful thinking (boy am I hopeful) or is the "real" truth being that the railroad has ended operations.

It's sad that the family doesn't want to try and run the railroad themselves. The family that loved him won't try to keep it going so his dream can live on... but I guess they have there reasons.
Wilton Scenic RR I guess can join the Wolfboro RR in the "Once Upon A Time"

With the economic downturn a lot of Rail ventures are not seeing the amount of riders they saw a few years back, there have been quit a few tourist railroads that went belly up.
Knox and kane for example and one or two in pacific northwest.

The reason I inquired about the "rumor" of the Wilton going on was that I read that the B&MRR Historical Society had a planned outing this coming summer and that it was still going to happen. Is this true?

I can't imagine the RR keeps doing inspections etc up to date and maintenance expenses just for one trip.
They probably officialy took the cars out of service to preserve inspection days for possible ale and movement.

There was a good article about the train in the Manchester Union Leader. This pretty much answers most questions people probably have about what has happened and what lies ahead for the train.
Death of owner means sale of Wilton Scenic Railroad

Matt

Hi Everyone,

Please remember that the the Wilton Scenic Railroad was created because it was Stuart's dream, it was his hobby. The reason why the family isn't taking care of it was that Stuart was also the owner of Draper Energy, a fuel company for the region and was his main business. The family is taking over that operation. In order to keep up with work on the train and the fuel company, Stuart would often spend countless hours in his office on weekends, of course taking the occasional break to ride his train. Since the train was his dream, he devoted the time to keep it running. It will be hard enough for the family to take over operations of Draper Energy. The Milford-Bennington Railroad (small operation) decided not to take over full operation of the Wilton Scenic, mainly because they would be unable to handle both freight and passenger business.

The Wilton Scenic will NOT be running any trips this season, even considering there were already 2,000 reservations for 2006. Unless the new owner of the train decides to keep the train in Wilton AND comes up with an operating agreement with the State of New Hampshire (owner of the tracks) and the Milford-Bennington Railroad (operator of the line), you won't see the train running again. As the article in the Union Leader said, if the new owner did try for operating agreement, it could take months before it would be approved.

As far as inspections go for the train, they are done normally as if you were on any other railroad. Because the train only is used 6 months of the year (May thru October), the length the inspection is good for is doubled. Since I don't keep track of mechanical of the train, I couldn't say where the train stood as far as being ready for 2006.

For the listing of the train, I do not know where it has been advertised. If someone does find anything online, I would be interested to see the ad.

And what will happen with the crew? Well, we all came from different jobs, drawn by one man and his dream, wanting to either work on a train or work with people. We'll probably all go our own separate ways. But there will always be a WSRR crew, and I can bet that we'll meet regularly, bringing up the many memories that we had while working on the train.

It was an enjoyable three years working with Stuart and everyone else. The WSRR was really a dream come true for Stu. Rest in peace good friend.

Matt

Former WSRR Conductor

This truly is sad news all around. I rode the train early on the first year, when it only crawled part way to its later destination, due to ongoing track rehab work. I was fortunate to obtain permission from Stuart to ride the head end and shoot video. I'll always remember that trip as one of those rare mileage events... riding an essentially abandoned B&M "up-country" branch line through "Mogul country" on Buddliners, no less! It was like going back to some of the 1960s fan trips up that way.

I rode the WS several times after that, and was looking forward to the time when they'd get all the way to Bennington. Now that probably never will happen.

What a shame. Unfortunately this is what happens when one man's hobby is not set up to carry on in the event of his demise. It happened with Nelson Blount, who's locomotive collection at Bellows Falls became "orphans" upon his death in 1967. And it happened to Paulsen Spence down in Louisiana when his huge steam engine collection was cut up by his family after his sudden death in the early 60s.

It would be nice to have the Wilton Scenic RR carry on under a new owner. It seems that most of the really hard work of establishing the railroad has been done. Seems like a ready-made market, considering the reservations which already had been made for this season.

Barring that, I'd like to see the RDCs stay in New England. Maybe they could go to the Maine Eastern to add some flexibility to that operation, in the form of mid-day shuttles to Wiscasset, etc.

Like the Wolfeboro Railroad and more recently, Edaville, nothing is forever. Ride these lines while you can because they can disappear overnight!

Thank you to Stu Draper for this opportunity to ride up "Wilton Hill" one more time.

RWS