No Longer in Service

The train on the front of this post card is Boston & Maine Railroad’s locomotive Number 1402. It was a class B-1 5b Mogul Type of locomotive

(2-6-0) dashing south on the Morning of January 8, 1956 out of Peterborough, New Hampshire with a local freight. I wrote about the Boston & Main Railroad, in general, a few months ago. I have cut and pasted that information here: The Boston & Maine (B&MRR) came into existence on March 15, 1833 when the Andover and Wilmington Railroad received a charter to build a railroad joining the two cities to each other. On June 27, 1835, the Boston and Maine Railroad of New Hampshire was chartered. The B&MRR no longer operates as the namesake railroad. At the time, it was the largest of New England's railroads and for over 180 years has served the territory well. During the company's height it maintained more than 2,000 miles with 25,000 employees. Its by-line was “Route of the Minute Man”. This was a reflection of the civilians who were at the ready to defeat the British in the Revolutionary War. It covered the state of Massachusetts north and west from its home base of Boston. Today's B&MRR is much different than the one of last century. What is left of its historic network is operated by Pan Am Railways, previously known as Guilford Rail System. That would make the railroad over 188 years old. I was able to get more specific information about the Boston & Maine in Peterborough, New Hampshire from this part of Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monadnock_Railroad The Monadnock Railroad was one of many extension line railroads built to help expand the Fitchburg Railroad/Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad into New Hampshire. This line was to serve the New Hampshire towns on the eastern side of Mount Monadnock, mainly Jaffrey and Peterborough. The Monadnock opened from Winchendon to Jaffrey, New Hampshire in December 1870 and then to Peterborough by late spring 1871, from which the Peterborough and Hillsborough Railroad could take traffic further north to Concord. The Boston, Barre and Gardner Railroad, running south from Winchendon, leased the Monadnock in 1874 in order to have a line to Concord. In 1880, the BB&GRR fell on hard times and transferred the lease to the Cheshire. The Monadnock became part of the Fitchburg, along with the entire Cheshire, in 1890 and then to the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1900. As a line of the Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M), the Monadnock served as part of a long through route between Worcester, Massachusetts and Concord under the name of the Worcester and Hillsboro (sometimes Worcester and Contoocook) branch. In the 1940s, the line was one of the most scenic, rural Yankee branch lines. Through service ended on the line after the floods caused by the 1938 Hurricane, but local passenger trains continued to run until 1953. The line survived intact until 1972 when the B&M abandoned the line between Jaffrey and Peterborough. The remainder of the line continued until 1984 when Guilford abandoned it. This website has a timeline related to the history of the Boston & Maine Railroad. I provide the first four entries below. There is a total of 159 dates and events listed at this website: http://www.nashuacitystation.org/history/boston-and-maine-corporation/ Here are the first 4 entries in the Corporate Timeline: June 5, 1830 Boston and Lowell Rail Road Corporation incorporates by special act of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. March 15, 1833 Andover and Wilmington Rail Road Corporation incorporates in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. June 23, 1835 Nashua and Lowell Railroad Corporation [New Hampshire] incorporates by special act of the State of New Hampshire. June 27, 1835 Boston and Maine Railroad [1835] incorporates by special act in the State of New Hampshire.

The post card was published by Mary Jaynes’ Railroad Specialties, Inc. I have 243 of her post cards in my collection. This post card was published after 1979, which was the 25th anniversary of something. Here is a close up of the logo at the bottom of the post card. Maybe you can figure it out!!