Sanbornville – Wolfeboro railway line

Sanbornville NH – Wolfeboro NH, as of 1999
Society:	most recently Wolfeboro Steam RR
Route length:	19.5 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Tracks:	1
Legend by Jewett 0.00 Sanbornville NH (formerly Wolfeboro Junction) after Conway 3.12 Brookfield NH 9.29 Cotton Valley NH (formerly Cottonboro) 14.16 Fernald NH 16.99 Lake Wentworth NH Lake Wentworth Lake Wentworth 18.51 Wolfeboro Falls NH (formerly Mill Village) 19.28 Wolfeboro NH approx. 19.5 Wolfeboro Lake Station (only in summer)

The Sanbornville – Wolfeboro railway is a disused railway line in New Hampshire ( United States ). On July 1, 1868, the Wolfeborough Railroad Company was founded and they built a 19.3 kilometer long standard-gauge branch line that branched off the planned route of the Portsmouth, Great Falls and Conway Railroad and led to Wolfeborough (now Wolfeboro ) on Lake Winnipesaukee . The hub station was initially called Wolfeborough Junction , but renamed Sanbornville on March 27, 1895 .

Passenger traffic was opened on August 19, 1872, after freight trains had been running since 1870. The subsequent line in Sanbornville was not completed until 1871. On January 6, 1872, the Eastern Railroad leased the railway company for 68 years. On June 30, 1892, the railway was bought by the Boston and Maine Railroad together with the Eastern Railroad.

In 1900, Boston & Maine extended the route by about 200 meters to the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee. The new terminus was only served in summer. On April 8, 1911, the engine shed and workshops were destroyed by fire. B&M did not rebuild the systems, but instead repaired the vehicles in Dover . During this time, the name was changed to Wolfeboro Railroad . Operation with railcars began in 1927, but on May 16, 1936, B&M ceased all passenger traffic on the route. As early as 1935, the section from Wolfeboro station to the Seebahnhof was closed, but not dismantled. Mixed trains ran until around 1950 . From the 1960s onwards, only commodity trains ran.

After the freight traffic on the route became more and more deficit, Boston & Maine wanted to stop operations. However, private operators were found who founded the Wolfeboro Rail Road Company (WRR) and acquired the route on December 19, 1972. On the one hand, the new owners continued the sparse freight traffic, but on the other hand also operated a tourist steam train that ran regularly on the route. They also reactivated the sea station in Wolfeboro. On January 28, 1976, the WRR also acquired the Concord - Lincoln route and operated a tourist train on this route. For economic reasons, however, all traffic on this line had to be set on November 10, 1977 and it was sold to the New England Southern Railroad . At the end of the 1978 driving season, operations on the main line of the WRR to Wolfeboro were also discontinued and the train was sold in July 1979 to the Wolfeboro Steam Railroad Corporation , which resumed operations on May 31, 1980. However, the situation worsened more and more, so that at the end of the season in October 1985 the route was closed. The route was acquired by the state of New Hampshire to keep it free for later reactivation. The station building in Wolfeboro burned down in 1987 after a lightning strike, but was repaired by the municipality. The tracks from Sanbornville to Wolfeboro Falls are kept intact for trolley rides. The route also serves as a hiking and cycling path and, in winter, as a snowmobile piste.

Sources and further information

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mike Walker: Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America. New England & Maritime Canada. SPV-Verlag, Dunkirk (GB), 1999.
2. ↑ Distance kilometers from www.trainweb.org

literature

• Robert M. Lindsell: The Rail Lines of Northern New England. Branch Line Press, Pepperell, MA 2000, ISBN 0-942147-06-5 .

Web links

• Detailed and well illustrated history of the railway