Concord and Portsmouth Railroad

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The Concord and Portsmouth Railroad is a former railroad company in New Hampshire ( United States ). It existed under different names from 1845 to 1945.

Prehistory and construction

The state of New Hampshire was opened up by 1845 by three north-south routes, which led from Massachusetts to the capital Concord , through the southeast of the state via Dover to Maine and along the coast via Portsmouth to Maine. In particular, the area between the Boston Concord line and the Boston & Maine via Dover was not accessible by railways. Two railway companies were therefore founded on July 1, 1845, the Portsmouth, New Market and Concord Railroad and the Portsmouth, New Market and Exeter Railroad . Both were granted the concession to build and operate a railway line from Portsmouth to a point on the Concord Railroad between Manchester and Concord, which was called Bow Junction. The companies merged on December 23, 1845 to form Portsmouth and Concord Railroad . This received by supplementary contracts of July 10, 1846 and June 23, 1848, concessions for branch lines from Suncook to Hooksett and from Candia to Manchester.

The construction of the standard gauge railway line Portsmouth - Bow Junction began in the summer of 1847 from Portsmouth. In August 1852, the approximately 63-kilometer route was completed. The two branches were initially not built.

Further development

The route fell short of expectations in terms of revenue, so that bankruptcy had to be filed in 1855. On May 1st of that year the company took out a mortgage on its route. The property went to the creditors of the railway. They founded the Concord and Portsmouth Railroad on July 14th of that year . The new company was only able to take over the railway on September 1, 1857.

Since the financial situation did not improve significantly, the financially strong Concord Railroad leased the railway company for five years on September 11, 1858, which was extended to 99 years on January 1, 1862. This railway company enforced that the Candia – Suncook section was closed and the two already licensed branch lines were built instead. In 1862 this shutdown took place at the same time as the opening of the line to Manchester . The remainder of the route from the Bow Junction to Suncook junction and the concession for the Hooksett junction was acquired by Concord Railroad.

When Concord Railroad merged with other companies to form Concord and Montreal Railroad on September 19, 1889, the leasing contract with Concord & Portsmouth was also transferred to this new company. On June 29, 1895, management finally went to Boston & Maine, which had meanwhile leased Concord & Montreal. In 1940 Boston & Maine bought the majority stake in Concord & Portsmouth and finally acquired the entire railway company four years later. In 1945 the company was dissolved. The line of the company was closed in 1982 between Rockingham and Manchester, the remainder of the route is now used by Pan Am Railways .

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