Wayne Johnson did this nice Before & After piece...Ken Borg passed it along to me and I thought this would be something you might be interested in...love to see more of Wayne's "Then and Now"...George Dutka
It has been quite awhile, so here's another
"Then & Now" as we visit Hinsdale, NH on the former Ashuelot Branch.
On May 26, 1961, noted photographer Don Robinson captured East
Deerfield local E-9 passing the former Hinsdale depot as they pull East
towards Keene. Back in March 2021, I captured the same view of the
depot, which was converted to a beautiful residence with many railroad
artifacts preserved.
In 1851, the Ashuelot Railroad completed their
mainline between East Northfield, MA and Keene, NH which was operated by
the Connecticut River RR until 1860. The line became part of the
Cheshire Railroad system in 1860 and then back to the Connecticut River
RR in 1877 and finally the Boston & Maine in 1893. Fast forward to
1977, the Green Mountain Railroad received trackage rights over the line
and was the sole operator until abandonment in 1983. Many large
papermills along the line warranted rail service.
Today, the line is merely a railtrail although a few depots survive.
Excellent article about the Ashuelot Branch:
Info from:
David Hutchinson photo collection
"Lost Railroads of New England" by Ronald Dale Karr
B&MRRHS Abandonment archives
Thanks for sharing the picture and the links, Scott Whitney wrote a 2 part article on the history and modelling possibilities of the Ashulot branch for the May & June 1997 editions of RMC.
ReplyDeleteHi Nick Thanks for reminding me about that article in RMC...George
DeleteYou’re welcome, it’s an interesting line, just once of the mills would make a nice apartment sized switching layout. As an aside, my godparents moved to a place between Keene and Chesterfield NH so we’ve visited the area but never explored the railroads
ReplyDelete