Backlit Bartlett
Here's another from this fun day out chasing the 470 Railroad Club special from Conway to Fabyans and back with 9 cars behind Boston and Maine F7s 4266 and 4268.
I didn't like this image at first given that I'd set up on this side of the tracks because it had been cloudy and flatly lit until right at train time when the sun broke thru a slim break in the cloud cover. I'm not usually one for harsh backlit shots like this, but it's grown on me over time and now I kind of like it with the vibrant late fall foliage and dramatic storm clouds. What do you think, does it work?
On the return trip east they are seen passing the former Maine Central freight house which is estimated to date from around 1887-88 when the roundhouse was also constructed. Located at MP 70.5, Bartlett was once a very important location on the Mountain Sub, but with the end of steam the helper terminal and roundhouse were closed in 1958, the same year the last regularly scheduled passenger train ran. A freight agent would remain in this building until June 30, 1962 (having moved out of the depot when it was sold in 1959) when that position would be abolished.
Surprisingly, the agency would open again here briefly in the line's waning years as a thru freight route. From June 1, 1981 to May 10, 1984 this was an active agency reestablished after the position at South Windham, ME was moved here upon that agent's retirement. And for a time in that same era this was even a terminal again when from November 9, 1981 to May 11, 1983 local freight ZO-2 was based here to serve the mill in Gilman, VT after the St. Johnsbury to Crawford Notch local was abolished.
As for the Fs, both units are owned by the 470 Railroad Club and are original Boston and Maine locomotives wearing their as delivered EMD designed scheme. 4266 was built in Mar. 1949 and was acquired for preservation in 1981 off the Billerica deadline. Restored a couple years later, she has called North Conway home ever since and has been operational off and on for the past four decades.
4268 was built in Oct. 1949 and ran for the very first time in almost a half century just earlier this year. I'm not sure when her last run was, but I can find no photos of her in service after about July 1974. She languished for a decade behind the Billerica shops after being stripped of all major components including prime mover, main generator and traction motors. In 1986 she finally left Billerica by truck after being acquired by George Feuderer who displayed her in a field in East Swanzey, NH until acquired by the 470 Club and trucked to North Conway in October of 1991.
She received a cosmetic restoration in 1993 and had been prominently displayed at the Conway Scenic in the company of her operational sibling ever since. After years of planning, the club began restoration in earnest in 2018 with the full support of the railroad and its shop using ex New Hampshire Northcoast GP9 1757 (ex PRR) as a major parts donor for the four year long restoration project.
Addendum: thanks to Carl Byron for supplying the fascinating historical information below that I'd never read about before.
The 4268A was actually built in March, 1949 as Engineering Test Dept Locomotive #930. Used for high altitude component testing on the DRGW's Soldier Summit among other locations. It spent some of that summer masquerading as a CB&Q locomotive leading their passenger car display at the 1949 Chicago World's Fair. It was then was cleaned up, re-engined, and made into to a standard F7A and offered for sale at a slightly used demo price. The B&M bought it and it was renumbered and painted into the B&M livery and shipped east, so while the builders plate may well say 10/49 but it certainly had a prior interesting career.
Bartlett, New Hampshire
Saturday October 28, 2023
Backlit Bartlett
Here's another from this fun day out chasing the 470 Railroad Club special from Conway to Fabyans and back with 9 cars behind Boston and Maine F7s 4266 and 4268.
I didn't like this image at first given that I'd set up on this side of the tracks because it had been cloudy and flatly lit until right at train time when the sun broke thru a slim break in the cloud cover. I'm not usually one for harsh backlit shots like this, but it's grown on me over time and now I kind of like it with the vibrant late fall foliage and dramatic storm clouds. What do you think, does it work?
On the return trip east they are seen passing the former Maine Central freight house which is estimated to date from around 1887-88 when the roundhouse was also constructed. Located at MP 70.5, Bartlett was once a very important location on the Mountain Sub, but with the end of steam the helper terminal and roundhouse were closed in 1958, the same year the last regularly scheduled passenger train ran. A freight agent would remain in this building until June 30, 1962 (having moved out of the depot when it was sold in 1959) when that position would be abolished.
Surprisingly, the agency would open again here briefly in the line's waning years as a thru freight route. From June 1, 1981 to May 10, 1984 this was an active agency reestablished after the position at South Windham, ME was moved here upon that agent's retirement. And for a time in that same era this was even a terminal again when from November 9, 1981 to May 11, 1983 local freight ZO-2 was based here to serve the mill in Gilman, VT after the St. Johnsbury to Crawford Notch local was abolished.
As for the Fs, both units are owned by the 470 Railroad Club and are original Boston and Maine locomotives wearing their as delivered EMD designed scheme. 4266 was built in Mar. 1949 and was acquired for preservation in 1981 off the Billerica deadline. Restored a couple years later, she has called North Conway home ever since and has been operational off and on for the past four decades.
4268 was built in Oct. 1949 and ran for the very first time in almost a half century just earlier this year. I'm not sure when her last run was, but I can find no photos of her in service after about July 1974. She languished for a decade behind the Billerica shops after being stripped of all major components including prime mover, main generator and traction motors. In 1986 she finally left Billerica by truck after being acquired by George Feuderer who displayed her in a field in East Swanzey, NH until acquired by the 470 Club and trucked to North Conway in October of 1991.
She received a cosmetic restoration in 1993 and had been prominently displayed at the Conway Scenic in the company of her operational sibling ever since. After years of planning, the club began restoration in earnest in 2018 with the full support of the railroad and its shop using ex New Hampshire Northcoast GP9 1757 (ex PRR) as a major parts donor for the four year long restoration project.
Addendum: thanks to Carl Byron for supplying the fascinating historical information below that I'd never read about before.
The 4268A was actually built in March, 1949 as Engineering Test Dept Locomotive #930. Used for high altitude component testing on the DRGW's Soldier Summit among other locations. It spent some of that summer masquerading as a CB&Q locomotive leading their passenger car display at the 1949 Chicago World's Fair. It was then was cleaned up, re-engined, and made into to a standard F7A and offered for sale at a slightly used demo price. The B&M bought it and it was renumbered and painted into the B&M livery and shipped east, so while the builders plate may well say 10/49 but it certainly had a prior interesting career.
Bartlett, New Hampshire
Saturday October 28, 2023