Worcester Nashua, and Portland Division of the
Boston and Maine Railroad

Updated 9-15-08

I became interested in the WN&P as a result of reading a series of articles published in the Boston and Maine Historical Society Bulletin, written by H. Bently Crouch. 

The WN&P main line ran from Worcester to Nashua, up to Rochester, and then over to Portland. The distance was about 148 miles. 

The line started out as three different railroads.

The Worcester and Nashua ran between those two namesake cities. The Nashua and Rochester continued on up to Rochester, and the last was the Portland and Rochester.

By January of 1900 the Boston and Maine owned all three and a through route between Worcester and Portland was created.

My area of focus thus far has been primarily the Nashua and Rochester. It's the closest to my home and therefore the easiest to get to.

I have strayed into Portland and Rochester territory up to the Saco River but can only speak authoritatively up as far as Alfred.

I have strayed into Worcester and Nashua territory down to Bolton  but am only really familiar down to as far as Groton Jct. AKA Ayer.

I have very much enjoyed going out and finding what is left of the line. Occasionally you'll see a milepost. There are a lot of cement bases for the former block signal system. Here and there you will find a station.

In some places the line has been totally obliterated. Other places a highway was built on it.

There is still enough left to keep things interesting, although things dissapear every year.

Orignal text of this page below is from 2000
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This railroad started in Worcester, ran up to Ayer, where the track is still in use today, then on to Hollis and Nashua. From Nashua it went through Hudson, Windham, Derry,  Hampstead, Sandown, Fremont, Epping, Lee, Barrington, West Gonic, Rochester, and East Rochester. From there the line continued into South Lebanon Maine on it's way to Portland.
My interest is the section of the railroad that was in New Hampshire.

The line was abandoned in pieces after it was acquired by the Boston and Maine RR. The B&M realized that it didn't need three nearly parallel routes to Portland. The WN&P and the Eastern were abandoned and the Western Route survives to this day.

The WN&P was abandoned in pieces. The first of it went out around 1936. This is the stretch between Epping and West Gonic, and the run from Hudson to Fremont .  Route 125 from Epping to Barrington was built on 12 miles of the old WN&P.

The sections from Hollis to Nashua and from Nashua to Hudson survived until 1942 even though service ended 8 years earlier.

The section from the center of  Rochester going into Maine survived until 1952.

Surviving until the early 80's is the branch to Fremont. As the map shows, this is a short little section that ran from Epping where the line used to cross the Portsmouth branch. As you can see from the map below, this line was connected to the Portsmouth branch. It served a lumber company in Fremont up until it's demise. The owner of the lumber company owns and lives in the depot.

Surviving into the 90's is a  small portion of the line in Nashua.. This line served a company just before route three, on the right.
You'll notice on the map that the line went parallel to Hollis Street.

One last small section is up in Rochester, it broke off from the Cocheco Railroad, the line to Dover, crossed route 16b, and crossed over the Cocheco River. This was known as the West Gonic Spur. Originally the main line of the WN&P, in it's later years it served shoe factories near the West Gonic station which was located about where route 125 meets Oak St. According to a Trip Brochure and Route Description published by the Mass Bay Railroad Enthusiasts in 1983, this line served the factories until the 50's. With the building of the Spaulding, it was decided that it would not be worth the cost of realigning the railroad for what little business remained and the line was abandoned west of the Spaulding. The small section remaining served a gas distributor until 1980.

I enjoy going out and finding the remains of this railroad. Fortunately there is still a lot out there. In some sections it's tough to find, in others it's much easier, in a  few areas it appears to be gone, built over, without a trace left.

I'll be putting more information up on a town by town basis. This information will include pictures, and maps.

Rochester, in particular, has been a very interesting town to study. With railroad lines coming in from six different directions there was a lot of activity in it's day. The Rochester Public Library was very generous with the maps and other information that they sent me. I'll scan in as much of this information as I can and will put it online. (Some of it is too big to scan)

Abandonment dates were taken from "Lost Railroads of New England" by Ron Karr. "Lost Railroads..." gives railroad histories as well as maps, and abandonment dates. It's a great reference and it's not an expensive book. Recommend checking out his web site for this and other transportation titles.  His web page can be found at www.branchlinepress.com.