Claremont & Concord

[gmpullman]

Back in 1968 we vacationed and rented a cottage at Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire. My dad and I were hiking the old right-of-way in that area and came across this milepost. It followed us home and I still have it today. I got bitten head-to-toe as it sat in a nest of red ants! 

Sunapee_milepost by Edmund, on Flickr

Mount Sunapee is 36.40 and Sunapee is 40.10 miles from Concord, for reference.

Cheers, Ed

[rcdrye]

Here's a picture of Claremont Ry's 32-ton GE steeple cab 18.  The photo was taken at the corner of Main and Lafayette in Claremont. The track cutting across the lower right of the photo leads to the Lafayette St. Carbarn.  The truck in the backgound is at the "Flock Mill" also served by C Ry.  The line serving the large Sullivan Co. Foundry ran along the curb behind the engine's location up Spring Street.

[Fr.Al]

Perhaps you've seen the silent films of the late LeRoy N. Frederick on YouTube. No sound, not the clearest, but C&C and B&M action

[rcdrye]

Went to Claremont this afternoon to do some errands and checked for C&C and CRy remnants.  Eastermost C&C remnant is a grade crossing constructed in the late 1980s in the driveway of the Market Basket plaza along Washington Street.  Rails end either side of the crossing, but the flangeways are still there.  Still a bit of CRy rail here and there along NH 12, along with several sections of the right-of-way.  The line poles are still spaced for bracket arms along a couple of sections, though the process of replacement at more normal utility intervals has begun.

[rcdrye]

Found a photo of a C&C 44-tonner pulling a CN boxcar from Coy Paper on Plains Rd.  The grade seen in the photo is not exaggerated.  At the top of the hill the track crossed NH Rt 12 (rail is still there) and went into a short passing siding with a streetcar-type switch on each end, so the 44-tonner could go around the boxcar.  Operation ended in 1986 when the tongue on one of the switches broke, and Coy switched to trucks, before shutting down altogether around 1988.

 

 

CRy line car #4, rebuilt  in 1905 from a single truck open car, is still earning its keep as a line car at the Seashore Trolley Museum.  It even did a cameo on the T in Boston in the mid 1970s.  It's now painted gray after an underframe up rebuild in the last two years.  Eric Gilman at the controls.

[Fr.Al]

Thank you. My first glimpse of the C&C was as a 16 year kid in the fall of 1968. I was on the way to the private school near Concord, which I attended from 1968-70. Passing through Claremont, I noticed some tracks close to the road. I couldn't possibly remember the route, but it occurred to me back then that it could be some Interurban- like operation. Obviously, it would have been diesel only by then.

     Somewhere, I have the above-mentioned book. There is at least one photo of a steeple-cab electric, dating probably from the 50' s or earlier.

[rcdrye]

The Claremont Junction line of the Claremont Railway ran a little south of the C&C line parallel to Maple Ave.  It served a picnic grove/park (Pine Grove) that is now part of a housing development and ended in the parking lot of today's Claremont Junction Amtrak station. The Junction line of the CRy was passenger-only and was abandoned from the last freight customer (at Main and Water) down Pleasant St. and Maple Ave. through downtown to Claremont Jct. in 1930 after passenger service ended. It crossed the C&C at the C&C depot on Pleasant St.

The freight connection between the CRy and the C&C was at Mulberry Street, one block short of the end of the present CCRR. The CRy went up to Main St (NH Rt. 12) partly on private ROW and partly in the street, then followed 12 out to Coy Paper, at Plains Rd. just a little short of the B&M/CV/NECR High Bridge in West Claremont.  There's still plenty of evidence of the CRy line to West Claremont, including rail under and beside pavement, a concrete underpass and some strange street configurations.  One of the two carbarns on Lafayette St. still exists as well.

A grainy Youtube video of a 1992 excursion in a PBNE gondola on the C&C over the C&C main line from Claremont Jct to the end-of-track on the former CRy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhX7zYNj9ss

My then nine-year-old son and I are in the gondola. Springfield Terminal's 44-tonner 1 makes a cameo near the end of the video, at the C&C shops at Claremont Jct.  C&C lost a couple of 44-tonners to a shop fire about a year before the excursion.  At about 6:10 there's a switch off to the right where the unused but still (at the time) intact West Claremont line heads up the hill to Main St. (about another block or so) behind a retaining wall.

An earlier excursion to Newport that I was NOT on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZONqtBzEIU 

The Springfield Terminal's last carloads went in 1986 behind a leased B&M SW1 (the same year C&C cut back the West Claremont line).  The Railway owned the bridge until the state of NH bought it in 2001, collecting a 15 cent toll.  The state continued the toll until 2005.  There are still wire hangers on a couple of bridge spans, even though the last electric went by in 1956.

[MidlandMike]

Fr.Al

Isn't that remnant in Claremont the part that used to be electrified?

The electrified segment (part of a former trolley line) was a little bit north of the remnant.

[Fr.Al]

Isn't that remnant in Claremont the part that used to be electrified? I passed through Claremont last July and don't recall seeing anything railroad except a sign indicating Amtrak.

      On the other side of the river in Vermont, I noticed the old Springfield Terminal ROW now a rail trail. I last saw a train operating there in the summer of '81.

[rcdrye]

Claremont Concord RR is operated by New England Central.  The original C&C remains from Claremont Junction to just short of Pleasant St. in Claremont, serving LaValley Building Supply and maybe one other customer.  They also operate a short section of the former B&M from the wye in White River Junction VT about a mile or so into West Lebanon (Westboro) NH on NH state-owned track, serving propane and salt transloads witha couple of Trackmobiles.

The former B&M Westboro station has been moved about a mile up the road in West Lebanon and set on a new foundation to become the front office for a mixed-use development.

[Fr.Al]

Ivan, I don't know if you are still out there. We had a discussion about the Claremont and Concord Railroad a few years back on this forum.

     I believe there is currently a successor company , the Claremont Concord. I don't think it follows any of the original route. 

     Your post reminded me that I had an Italian American friend, John Bernardi. He grew up near where the C&C ran, in Bennington, New Hampshire. I grew up in Bennington, Vermont, which is better known. After a successful career in the United States Air Force, John enrolled in the same seminary as I did.  He is now my fellow priest, but retired.

[daveklepper]

Thanks for the good news abou the covered bridges!

[henry6]

UPDATE 1/4/12:  Actual location was at Wendell where 103 and 11 merge.  On New Year's Day I stopped here again to find the equipment gone and the property....old wooden and delapidated buildings, probably some kind of mill...for sale.  I hope someone has information on the cars.

There is a coach at Contoocook as well as a station museum; another station at Newport.  The railroad's covered bridges at Contoocook (Contoocook River), Piers and Wrights (both over Sugar River) have been restored as part of a rail trail...complete with fire stand pipes!  

 

[Dub]

Ivan,

One way to find pictures about RR's is by old postcards. The post card era around 1905 has many train depots. A search on ebay with the town, should give results. I got this first try, Claremont town center with a trolley.

Also there is a picture of a Sullivan manufacturing company.

The books you mentioned probably used postcards as a source of pictures

Good Luck

Bob

[henry6]

Just drove through there last Fri and again Mon.  Found old B&M open vestibule coach at Newport, NH along side the road at the intersection of highways 11 and 103 but on private property.  Do I assume that property, blocked off, with derelect car and derelect buildings, and marked with no tresspassing signs, was the right of way of the B&M branch that became the C&C?  So who owns the car?  What is its planned fate or is its fate the continued deterioration as seen?

[ivanfurlanis]

Thank you very much for the information that you provided.

[daveklepper]

I don't have the books, but I did ride the line twice, both while still owned by the Boston and Maine.   In the summer of 1945 I rode from Concord to Clairmont Junction to connect with the Day White Mountains Express to New York (GCT).   The four coaches were spartenized ex PRR P-54's, and by spartanized I mean traps and vestibule doors were removed and there was simply a gate on each side over the uppermost step, both end vestibules treated similarly, just like the B&M's huge fleet of wood open-platform cars.   Power was a 2-6-0.   The second time was a "round-the-mountain" NRHS fan trip.   About 12 open-platform coaches, a Pacific to Concord, then double-headed 2-6-0's to Clairmont Junction, north to White River Junction, back to Concord, and the Pacific taking us back to North Station.   If you model it in the steam days, 2-6-0's were the regular power on both passenger and frieght, and coaches were wood open platform up to WWII when the ex-PRR stuff arrived.  I think during WWII there were two passenger round trips each weekday.

[ivanfurlanis]

Hi!

I'm an Italian rail enthusiast, very interested to learn about the Claremont & Concord as I'm planning to build, one day or another, a layout based on this very interesting railroad (see: http://cs.trains.com/forums/1526896/ShowPost.aspx#1526896 for the model railroad). I found in Amazon two books about the railroad, both by Edgar Thorn Mead, one called Through covered bridges to Concord;: A recollection of the Concord & Claremont RR and the other The Concord & Claremont Railroad. Has someone read these books and can help me which one to take? I think the second (more pages and more recent). Am I right? Thanks...