Concord Tram, New Hampshire

The city of Concord in the US state of New Hampshire had a streetcar operation from 1881 to 1933 . The approximately 46 km long network consisted of city lines and an interurban line to Manchester , where it had a track connection to the Manchester tram network .

history

Horse and steam train

After the city of Manchester had horse trams since 1877 , the citizens of the capital of New Hampshire also wanted a tram. Politicians, including the former mayor Moses Humphrey , and industrialists received the concession for rail operations as the Concord Horse Railroad Company on June 26, 1878 , which was formally established on July 12, 1880. Humphrey became the first president of the railway. As with all horse-drawn railroad operations in New Hampshire, Concord also chose the three-foot (914 mm) gauge.

The first line went into operation on April 25, 1881. It led from South Main Street / West Street through South Main Street, North Main Street, Fiske Street (now Bouton Street) and North State Street past Blossom Hill Cemetery and the State Prison to West Concord, where the Hutchins Street was the terminus. The depot of the railway was created in Fosterville on North Main Street. The initial schedule was 27 trips Monday through Saturday from West Street, of which only seven went to West Concord, one to the prison, eleven to the cemetery and eight to the depot. On Sundays 15 cars drove to West Concord.

The line was extended in Concord on April 22, 1882 on Turnpike Street, which is now part of South Main Street, to the corner of South State Street. In the north, the trains ran from May 17, 1884 beyond the previous terminus West Concord through North State Street, Fisherville Road and Main Street (today Village Street) to the then still independent Penacook , where the new terminus on Washington Square ( Corner of Washington Street). On weekdays 13 cars drove to Penacook, on Sundays 18. More cars ended up in West Concord.

After the travel time for the entire route was 75 minutes and the horses were heavily used due to the length of the route and the gradients to be overcome, the railway company acquired two box steam locomotives in 1885, which from April 17th of that year the horse-drawn carriages between Blossom Hill cemetery and Penacook pulled. Horses were still in use from the southern terminal to the cemetery. A small depot was opened in Penacook on what was then Pleasant Street for one of the steam locomotives and a car. At the horse-drawn railway depot in Fosterville, a small locomotive shed was built right next to the wagon hall, where the second steam locomotive was housed. This burned down on the morning of November 14, 1889 with the locomotive inside, which meant that the train sequence between the cemetery and Penacook had to be halved. The rest of the horse tram depot also burned down, but residents and staff were able to bring the wagons and horses to safety in good time. The depot was not rebuilt, but instead opened a new one on North State Street near what is now Hillcrest Avenue in 1890.

Electrification and network expansion

As early as 1888, plans to electrify the line were made. Due to the steam locomotive lost in the depot fire and the resulting operational restrictions, the railway company pushed this project forward. As early as November 21, 1890, electric vehicles were driven between St. John's Church (South Main Street / Thorndike Street) and Penacook, and the rest of the route to South State Street followed in the same year. The Concord tram was the second electric tram in New Hampshire after the Dover tram. The electric railcars were significantly heavier than the previously used horse-drawn carriages and within a few weeks the tracks were so damaged that operations had to be stopped in January 1891 and the track systems had to be completely renewed, which was only completed in February. On March 25, 1891, the railway company was renamed Concord Street Railway Company . In the same year, the company was given permission to extend its route to Boscawen and to re- track it to standard gauge . However, both projects were not implemented at this point in time.

After another railway company, the West End Railroad Company, applied for a permit to build a tram route into the West End in early 1891, the Concord Street Railway asked for one and quickly got it. The first section of the new line went into operation on October 26, 1891, and the rest followed on November 12 of the same year. The new route began at Pleasant Street Junction, which from then on served as the end point for all other lines and was located at the intersection of North Main Street / Pleasant Street. From there it looped through Pleasant Street, Liberty Street, Center Street and Merrimack Street back to Pleasant Street. The travel time for the entire route was 15 minutes and a single car could handle a 15-minute cycle on the route.

In 1892 the main line was extended south through South Main Street to Margaret Pillsbury Hospital, where the terminus was south of the intersection of Pillsbury Street. In the north, the main line was extended on July 4, 1893 through Washington Street and its own railroad tracks (now Electric Avenue) to the newly opened Contoocook River Park. The park belonged to the railway company and offered numerous amusement facilities, especially in summer, which brought so many passengers onto the tram line that every 15 minutes had to be set up on Sundays. The terminal was in the park area. Exactly one year later, on July 4, 1894, another new line went into operation in Concord. It branched off the West End Line at the corner of Pleasant Street and South Street and ran through South Street and Broadway to Rollins Park. Like the West End Line, it was served by a single railcar every 15 minutes from Pleasant Street Junction.

On August 27, 1901, a new branch line was used for the first time, which led from the corner of South Street and Broadway through Clinton Street to the exhibition grounds. It was only driven on for events on the exhibition grounds, particularly the New Hampshire State Fair, which was held here annually for one week in August / September. Here, too, a single railcar that produced a 15-minute cycle was sufficient. This resulted in a route network of 18.68 kilometers and 1.77 kilometers of sidings and depot tracks. Of the mainline tracks, the main line from the hospital to Penacook was 13.36 kilometers, the West End line 1.75 kilometers, the branch line to Rollins Park 2.40 kilometers and the route to the exhibition grounds 1.17 kilometers. The line to Penacook ran every 15 minutes in summer and every 30 minutes in winter, and carriages ran every 15 minutes between the hospital and West Concord all year round. The other three lines ran every 15 minutes from Pleasant Street Junction.

Re-gauging and further network development

In early 1901, the Concord and Montreal Railroad (C&M) received a concession to build an interurban line from Concord to via Manchester to Nashua . The C&M had been owned by the Boston and Maine Railroad since 1895 . Board members of both railway companies bought shares in Concord Street Railway as private individuals on June 22, 1901 until they held over 75% of the total shares. On June 30th of that year, Lucius Tuttle , President of B&M, was elected new President of Concord Tram, which became the property of Boston & Maine. The Interurban line was now being built quickly and on August 11, 1902, the newly acquired Interurban cars drove on the first section of the line from Pleasant Street Junction to the city limits of Manchester, where it was possible to change to the Manchester tram . A track connection was not initially installed here, as there was still no concession for the urban area of Manchester. This was only installed on February 9, 1903 and the Interurban cars now drove to the Transfer Station in Manchester (corner of Elm Street and Lake Avenue). Unlike the Concord tram, the new line was built in standard gauge . A three- rail track was installed from Pleasant Street Junction to the branch .

The line branched off at South Main Street / Water Street from the existing main line of the Concord tram and initially ran through Water Street and Hall Street. There were once two level crossings at the south end of Hall Street. The first was part of the now disused railway line Portsmouth – Bow Junction of the Boston & Maine, which crossed the Merrimack River here on the Turkey Falls Bridge . Since the tram line also had to cross this river, a track loop was built with the railway line and it was also led over this bridge. Directly behind the bridge, the tram line turned onto its own railway body and ran alongside the railway line. Shortly before the Soucook River , the route turned off the railroad and crossed the river on its own bridge. Shortly thereafter, today's Whittemore Road is on the former tram line that turned off its own route onto Pembroke Street and led through Pembroke .

In Pembroke, the route continued through North Main Street and crossed the Suncook River and thus the city limits to Allenstown . There it ran through Main Street, where it crossed the Suncook – Center Barnstead railway at the same level . From the city limits to Hooksett , the route led through Pleasant Street and River Road (now Merrimack Street). In River Road, the train crossed the Portsmouth – Bow Junction railway line at the same level, which since the 1860s had only been used as a rail for Suncook station to push the trains back to Center Barnstead. The tram continued along the Merrimack River on River Road and in South Hooksett through South Main Street and Hooksett Road until it reached the Manchester city limits near what is now Interstate 93 . From February 1903, the trains in Manchester continued through Beech Street, Bridge Street and Elm Street.

From the beginning of 1903 to the end of October of the same year, the long-planned changeover of the Concord tram to standard gauge took place. At the end of the line at the hospital, a new depot was built for the overland route, on the site of which a track connection to the railway was also created. On December 1 of the year, the Concord Street Railway Company was dissolved, the operator of the entire network was anyway the Boston and Maine Railroad, which operated the tram as the Concord and Manchester Electric Branch . A final expansion of the network took place on November 29, 1909 with the opening of the Franklin Street line. Like almost all lines, it began at Pleasant Street Junction and initially ran on existing tracks to North Main Street / Center Street. The new line led from there through Center Street, Union Street, Washington Street, White Street, Beacon Street, Charles Street and Franklin Street back to North Main Street. The line was served by a single railcar every 30 minutes. With 47.36 kilometers, the maximum length of the route network was reached.

Decline and shutdown

The annual exhibition was last held in Concord in 1908. The route to the exhibition grounds was therefore used for the last time on September 12, 1908. It was shut down and dismantled in 1912. With the reorganization of Boston & Maine after bankruptcy, the streetcar was run from January 1, 1919 under the name Concord Electric Railways as a division of Boston & Maine.

In August 1930 the Contoocook River Park was closed and the track located in the park area was shut down and dismantled in 1931. The regular cars now ended again at Washington Square in Penacook. On April 29, 1933, the tram went to Manchester for the last time, after the new highway had been built a few years earlier, which acted as a bypass of Pembroke and Allenstown and significantly shortened travel times on the road. The railway was now no longer competitive. The entire overland route from South Main Street to the Manchester city limits was closed the next day and buses took over the transport duties. A week later, on May 5, 1933, the last train also ran on the city lines in Concord and on the following day tram traffic in Concord was history.

vehicles

When the railway opened in 1881, three closed (No. 1-3) and three open (No. 11-13) horse-drawn carriages were procured from Concord-based carriage builder Abbot-Downing, who thus entered the rail vehicle business. One year the railway bought another closed (No. 4) and an open (No. 14) car. Cars 11-14 were redrawn as 5-8 shortly thereafter. Car 9 (open) and car 10 (closed) were purchased in 1884. The two steam locomotives from Baldwin Locomotive Works , which were added to the fleet in 1885, were again given the numbers 1 and 2. By 1889, two more open wagons (11-12) were purchased.

The four closed electric railcars that were put into operation in 1890 were given the numbers 14-17. There has never been a car with the number 13. The seven existing open horse-drawn tram cars were used as sidecars after electrification and were used on the Penacook line when there was a lot of traffic. The closed horse-drawn wagons were scrapped. The remaining steam locomotive was still used for shunting for some time. Two more closed railcars (No. 21 and 22) were purchased in 1891. In 1893 four open railcars (No. 23-26) were added, in 1898 the closed railcars 27 and 28 and the open railcars 30 and 31. It is not known when the closed railcars 18 to 20 and the open railcars 1 to 4 were purchased. Car 29, a convertible car with bogies, entered service in late 1896. In 1899 there were still six of the sidecars.

When the railroad was taken over by Boston & Maine, the cars were renumbered and given three-digit numbers. In 1902 the new cars 101 to 108 were procured for the route to Manchester. From 1903 to 1904, the 111 to 126 cars were added, replacing most of the older closed railcars and the sidecars. As early as 1910 two cars (101 and 102) were sold to the Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Railroad (there nos. 90 and 91), and in 1911 cars 105-108 were sold to the Montpelier-Barre tram (nos. 50, 52, 54 , 56). Carriages 103 and 104 were used on the Portsmouth Tramway, which also belongs to Boston & Maine, while railcar 7 from Portsmouth was used in Concord in 1914. Car 104 returned to Concord in 1926. From 1921 to 1925, wagons 119 and 121 were also stationed in Portsmouth. Most of the railcars built before 1902 were scrapped in 1924/25.

In 1929 two used Birney Safety cars were procured from the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway (there previously no. 5155 and 5189), which were given the numbers 5 and 6 in Concord. In 1930 there were still 20 closed and one open railcar in use. Nothing is known about the whereabouts of the wagons after they were closed in 1933.

In 1914, working railcars comprised a sand railcar (formerly Railcar 28), a main line car (No. 195) that had been procured in 1902, two snow plows (No. 196 and 197) that were built in 1895 and another (No. 198) from the Year 1902, and a flat railcar from 1903 (No. 199). A scissor snow plow (# 200) was purchased second-hand from the Bristol and Norfolk Street Railway in 1920 . In 1921 the sand railcar 28 and in 1926 the route car 195 were scrapped and the passenger railcar 121 was converted into an all-purpose work railcar in 1926.

literature

OR Cummings: Capital City Streetcar Days. Forty Fort PA: Harold E. Cox, 1996.