TRAIN TRIPS RECALL NEW ENGLAND RAIL HERITAGE.Byline: Jim Landers Dallas Morning News When the 20th century began, wealthy tourists came up the Crawford Notch Crawford Notch, water gap in the White Mts., N central N.H., through which the Saco River flows. It is named for Abel Crawford, an early settler. The area is a state park (est. 1911). of the White Mountains White Mountains, part of the Appalachian system, N N.H. and SW Maine, rising to 6,288 ft (1,917 m) at Mt. Washington in the Presidential Range and to 5,249 ft (1,600 m) at Mt. Lafayette in the Franconia Mountains. Crawford Notch separates these two main groups. to this sylvan sylvan emanating from or pertaining to woods. See also sylvatic. setting. They arrived in Pullman coaches pulled by whistling steam locomotives. The trains hissed to the doorsteps of grand hotels with enormous columned porches looking out to the summit of Mount Washington Mount Washington is the name of several mountains in North America:
The last in his Vietnam War trilogy that began with The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel and Sticks and Bones of steam puffed up the slopes of the mountain beneath tiny engines climbing the world's first cog railway. Come today and you'll see history repeat itself. The cogwheel locomotives still rattle up a three-mile climb to the top of Mount Washington, at 6,288 feet the highest peak in the Northeast. After a 12-year silence, train bells and clacking wheels can be heard along the rails up the Crawford Notch. A pair of diesel locomotives in the service of the Conway Scenic Railroad The Conway Scenic Railroad (CSRR) is a heritage railway in North Conway, New Hampshire. The excursions are of varying duration - either one of the Valley routes to Conway or Bartlett, or the Crawford Notch excursion. pulls modern-day tourists in refurbished Pullmans up the Notch, across the narrow Frankenstein Trestle and into Crawford Station. On Sept. 1, the trains are scheduled to pull all the way from North Conway to Fabyan Station, jumping-off point for the Mount Washington Hotel The Mount Washington Hotel opened in 1902 near Mount Washington, in the town of Carroll. The area is better known as Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, and includes the Bretton Woods ski resort nearby. and the Cog Wheel Railway. New England autumn will make the 65-mile round trip a brilliant color burst through the White Mountains National Forest. The railroads opened the White Mountains to 19th-century tourism. President Ulysses Grant was one of the first passengers on the cogwheel railway when it opened in 1869. Philadelphians and New Yorkers rode the trains north and joined Bostonians in New England's mountain playground. Car touring remains the way to see New England's landscape. But scenic railways and museums are springing up throughout New Hampshire New Hampshire, one of the New England states of the NE United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts (S), Vermont, with the Connecticut R. forming the boundary (W), the Canadian province of Quebec (NW), and Maine and a short strip of the Atlantic Ocean (E). and Maine to remind us of our railway heritage and deepen the richness of this cool-weather region. The Conway Scenic Railroad's Crawford Notch route and the Mount Washington Cog Railway The Mount Washington Cog Railway was the world's first mountain-climbing cog railway (rack-and-pinion railway) with a Marsh rack system. It climbs Mount Washington in New Hampshire, USA. are the two best lines for scenery and reliving history. The Conway also uses a steam locomotive for shorter runs from North Conway to Bartlett, N.H. Maine's Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad operates a steam locomotive built in Sweden in 1913. The locomotive sat wrapped in plastic in a warehouse for 40 years before making a U.S. comeback in 1994. It's housed in a rebuilt depot in Unity, Maine, and pulls Swedish passenger coaches through the hills above Penobscot Bay. It's true that steam locomotives are often more fun to look at than to ride. But on a sunny day, the scenery in Maine and New Hampshire runs from restful rest·ful adj. 1. Affording, marked by, or suggesting rest; tranquil. See Synonyms at comfortable. 2. Being at rest; quiet. rest woods and lakes to exhilarating valleys and high mountain vistas. The Mount Washington Cog Railway runs whether it's sunny or not. Each trip up the mountain at 4 mph is like the anticipation side of a roller coaster. The little steam locomotives pushing the passenger coaches consume a ton of coal and 1,000 gallons of water each trip. But at prices of $35 per ticket for adults, wait for the sun before boarding. In Mount Washington's frequent cloaks of fog, there's not much to see but old railroad ties and bits of forest blackened black·en v. black·ened, black·en·ing, black·ens v.tr. 1. To make black. 2. To sully or defame: a scandal that blackened the mayor's name. 3. by stray cinders cin·der n. 1. a. A burned or partly burned substance, such as coal, that is not reduced to ashes but is incapable of further combustion. b. A partly charred substance that can burn further but without flame. . Rainy days are made for railroad museums, and there are plenty in New England. An eight-day car tour north from Boston took us past museums in Maine in Kittery, Boothbay and Portland; in New Hampshire in Gorham, Bethlehem, Lisbon, North Conway and Intervale in·ter·vale n. New England A tract of low-lying land, especially along a river. [Variant (influenced by vale1) of interval. . They are a mixed lot. We dubbed one in Bethlehem, N.H., the Norman Bates toy-train museum. Spread over the third floor of this former boardinghouse is an American Flyer O-scale train layout; the owner turns off the lights for night-running effects. The outstanding museum of the region is the Hartmann Model Railroad complex in Intervale, N.H. It contains 14 train layouts, 820 model locomotives of all scales and sizes and more than 4,600 passenger coaches and freight cars. Featured are two layouts of the Crawford Notch, one in N scale and one in HO scale. New England steam and diesel motive power is represented on eight layouts of U.S. rail lines. Lionel and American Flyer antique trains are in abundance. On Location The Belfast & Moosehead Lake steam locomotive runs weekends during the summer, then daily from Sept. 20 through Oct. 20. Fares are $14 for adults, $7 for children. Information: (800) 392-5500. The Conway Scenic Railroad's Crawford Notch train runs daily Sept. 1 through Oct. 18. Adult tickets start at $31.95, children's tickets at $16.95. Information: (800) 232-5251. The Mount Washington Cog Railway runs daily from early May through October, with as many as seven trips a day. Adults, $35; children, $24. Information: (800) 922-8825. The Hartmann Model Railroad Museum is open 361 days a year, closing only for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and Mother's Day. Admission is $5 for adults. Information: (603) 356-9922. CAPTION(S): Photo, PHOTO The Mount Washington Cog Railway's Col. Teague begin s its ascent of 6,288-foot Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Jim Landers/Dallas Morning News Box: On Location (see text) |
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