Frankenstein Magic
This was such an awesome scene so here's another frame (2 of 3) I'm posting since I couldn't decide which I liked best!
After getting epically CFed here on Thursday the railroad gods showed mercy on Saturday and this was the result. Was I glad we made the decision to spend a night in Littleton and reprise our day on the Mountain Sub? Oh yeah!
Instead of running all the way to Fabyans as in prior fall seasons, this year the Conway Scenic is running two daily round trips between North Conway and Crawfords with the addition of a third 'bus train' for passengers arriving by motor coach from Portland off a cruise ship as a day shore excursion. That means there are six trains running through the Notch with a scheduled meet at Bartlett and Sawyers River...it truly is astonishing and a joy to see this line so busy!
The 9 AM Mountaineer is on its way back east to North Conway as it rolls out over the 500 ft long and 80 ft high Frankenstein Trestle near MP 79.5 on the former Maine Central Railroad Mountain Subdivision. Once they reach North Conway they will have descended some 1400 ft over the course of 25 miles by way of the 2.2% grade through the notch from the 1900 ft crest of the line at Crawford Depot.
Leading the train are GP38s 255 and 252 which are right at home here having been built in November 1966 for the Maine Central Railroad as part of an order of 13 of the model which were the first batch of second generation diesel locomotives purchased by the road. They both regularly operated here for the first 17 years of their lives until the last thru freight ran in 1983 after Guilford purchased the MEC and shuttered the Mountain Sub. In fact 252 had the ignominious duty of leading the final YR-1 from Saint Johnsbury on September 2, 1983.
255 came to Conway Scenic in 2022 and wore her Vermont Rail System red paint until just this past June when she received this new 'old' dress. The VTR red was from her nearly two decade second career as Clarendon & Pittsford 203 after having being sold by MEC successor Guilford Transportation in the early 1990s. 252 meanwhile was the last of her class in service on Guilford, lasting more than three decades, and having seen her other dozen siblings retired and scrapped or sold. She came to Conway Scenic in March 2010 along with GP35 216 in a trade with Pan Am Railways for FP9s 6505 and 6516 that would become Pan Am's OCS power.
In the upper right of the frame some 9 miles away is the barren rocky 6288 ft alpine summit of Mount Washington. Located in the Presidential Range, it is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States and the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River. The summit is probably most famous for having the highest wind speed ever recorded on earth (not associated with a tornado or tropical cyclone) of 231 mph recorded on April 12, 1934 by the observatory located there!
Crawford Notch State Park
Town of Hart's Location, New Hampshire
Saturday October 11, 2025
Frankenstein Magic
This was such an awesome scene so here's another frame (2 of 3) I'm posting since I couldn't decide which I liked best!
After getting epically CFed here on Thursday the railroad gods showed mercy on Saturday and this was the result. Was I glad we made the decision to spend a night in Littleton and reprise our day on the Mountain Sub? Oh yeah!
Instead of running all the way to Fabyans as in prior fall seasons, this year the Conway Scenic is running two daily round trips between North Conway and Crawfords with the addition of a third 'bus train' for passengers arriving by motor coach from Portland off a cruise ship as a day shore excursion. That means there are six trains running through the Notch with a scheduled meet at Bartlett and Sawyers River...it truly is astonishing and a joy to see this line so busy!
The 9 AM Mountaineer is on its way back east to North Conway as it rolls out over the 500 ft long and 80 ft high Frankenstein Trestle near MP 79.5 on the former Maine Central Railroad Mountain Subdivision. Once they reach North Conway they will have descended some 1400 ft over the course of 25 miles by way of the 2.2% grade through the notch from the 1900 ft crest of the line at Crawford Depot.
Leading the train are GP38s 255 and 252 which are right at home here having been built in November 1966 for the Maine Central Railroad as part of an order of 13 of the model which were the first batch of second generation diesel locomotives purchased by the road. They both regularly operated here for the first 17 years of their lives until the last thru freight ran in 1983 after Guilford purchased the MEC and shuttered the Mountain Sub. In fact 252 had the ignominious duty of leading the final YR-1 from Saint Johnsbury on September 2, 1983.
255 came to Conway Scenic in 2022 and wore her Vermont Rail System red paint until just this past June when she received this new 'old' dress. The VTR red was from her nearly two decade second career as Clarendon & Pittsford 203 after having being sold by MEC successor Guilford Transportation in the early 1990s. 252 meanwhile was the last of her class in service on Guilford, lasting more than three decades, and having seen her other dozen siblings retired and scrapped or sold. She came to Conway Scenic in March 2010 along with GP35 216 in a trade with Pan Am Railways for FP9s 6505 and 6516 that would become Pan Am's OCS power.
In the upper right of the frame some 9 miles away is the barren rocky 6288 ft alpine summit of Mount Washington. Located in the Presidential Range, it is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States and the most topographically prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River. The summit is probably most famous for having the highest wind speed ever recorded on earth (not associated with a tornado or tropical cyclone) of 231 mph recorded on April 12, 1934 by the observatory located there!
Crawford Notch State Park
Town of Hart's Location, New Hampshire
Saturday October 11, 2025