Abandoned railroad to be restored! St. Johnsbury, VT to Whitefield, NH - January 2025

In April 2024 the Vermont Rail System purchased the New Hampshire Central Railroad, a small shortline that operates in northern New Hampshire. New Hampshire Central, NHCR for short, operates in North Stratford as well as on the line from Groveton to Whitefield, NH. Their freight rights also extend down the former Boston & Maine line to Bethlehem and on the Maine Central Mountain Division to Gilman, Vermont but neither have been used in some time. Until 2019 NHCR delivered plastic pellets to a local manufacturer and since then has only come as far south as Hazens for occasional Conway Scenic equipment moves. Despite this they still have continued to serve customer Rhymes Propane Facility in North Stratford, NH. This lull in freight traffic changed in December 2024 when the first plastic pellet hoppers arrived for the plastic pellet customer in Hazens for the first time in years. On top of this renewed traffic NHCR is continuing to serve Rymes and is also offering car storage in Lancaster, NH. VRS crews are also up to something else, clearing brush on the old MEC Mountain Div in Whitefield. The work starts at the Hazens switch, goes past the famous ball signal, and extends to the old yard near the town center. This work has been ongoing over the past few months and the clearing work is evident even under the snow. Brush around the old track has been cut and piled along the right of way. Seeing this work a number of fans have been questioning as to why this was happening as a large railroad wouldn't purchase a small shortline and then spend money to clear long unused trackage for no reason. On January 10th the plan was officially made public and VRS’s intentions are to bring the railroad back into service, ultimately connecting to their active line in Saint Johnsbury, Vermont. A local newspaper, Caledonian Record, published the announcement with info directly provided by the VRS. Quoting the article “The Burlington-based Vermont Rail System (VRS) plan involves eventually connecting to St Johnsbury to move commodities such as timber and wood products, and tap into the Class 1 railroad”. They went onto explain “there’s a grant application to get the old yard area cleaned up and get some transloading going out there as well” which explains the current ongoing work that was visible in the old Maine Central Whitefield Yard. “Currently VRS has the operating rights from Groveton, down to Gilman, and to Wing Road in Bethlehem. Some customers are interested in moving both inbound and outbound lumber and log type products, and as the project advances VRS would move that product and others if asked”. Currently Vermont Rail doesn’t have access to the whole line from St. Johnsbury to Whitefield and that track hasn’t been used and maintained since 1999. To change that VRS is looking to purchase the 21 miles of line from Gilman to St. Johnsbury from current owner CSX. CSX ended up with this piece of railroad when they bought out Pan Am Railways and being disconnected from their network I’d say they’d probably give it up pretty easily. There is some damage from deferred maintenance on the track in Vermont but VRS plans to repair it to get trains moving. In addition to just moving more freight Vermont Rail wants to connect their preexisting operations at St. Johnsbury to their new purchase instead of taking a roundabout route through Quebec. VRS already operates about 400 miles of trackage handling 25,000 carloads of freight and also offers passenger excursion trains on their trackage. Connecting the NHCR to their preexisting network opens up new connections for freight and can increase competition among their connecting railroads. It of course also makes rail more competitive with trucking. Seeing this route restored would be awesome but that’s not the only part of the plan. In addition to the Mountain Division, what is left of the old Boston & Maine line past Whitefield to Bethlehem is eyed for reactivation. To quote the article again “The plan also calls for VRS leasing from the state the railway spur that comes across Route 116 at the Whitefield town line and extends a quarter mile to Wing Road in Bethlehem for freight car storage. Storage is one possibility for the spur. We have had some inquiries about possible trans-loads down there as well, and at times there could be some cars stored down there”. “But if we do transload operations around Wing Road, we wouldn’t be able to store cars there. All options are on the table and there’s a lot of speculation out there”. The end of this video shows the current conditions of the rail lines in Whitefield as they were during my visit in January 2025. https://www.trains.com/trn/news-revie... https://www.caledonianrecord.com/news... Whitefield, NH 1/11/2025 ©2025 South Coast Rail Videos