#conway branch

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Christmas Decorations on the Conway Branch

Christmas Decorations on the Conway Branch

Before Thanksgiving, Conway Scenic operated a Work Extra to Conway and back to help decorate for Christmas. This included placing Christmas decorations along the line for the treasure hunt in Santa’s Holiday Express. In addition to helping selecting locations for the decorations, and assisting with placement, I also photographed the Work Extra along the course of its season journey. All photos…

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Morning Light at Conway, NH.

Morning Light at Conway, NH.

Among the challenges of summer photography on a tourist railroad is that train operations tend to be focused during the middle of the day when the light is comparatively harsh. Generally speaking, the passengers appear to be more focused on eating breakfast during the early morning, so we schedule the trains for later in the morning. The first train boards at 9:15 am. The other day, we sent out…

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Opening the Line to Conway

Opening the Line to Conway

On Wednesday April 6, 2022, I traveled with Train Master Lacey and Conductor Weimer on GP38 255 from North Conway to Conway, New Hampshire and back. This was the first locomotive over Conway Scenic Railroad’s Conway Branch since the end of the 2021 Holiday season. My last trip over the line was a test run with steam locomotive 7470, where I used the opportunity to videotape the engine crossing…

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Holiday Decoration Work Extra.

Holiday Decoration Work Extra.

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving—November 24, 2021, Conway Scenic called a work train for the Conway Branch to put up decorations for upcoming Santa’s Holiday Express Christmas themed trains. I was on-board to assist with decorating while documenting the run. It was a perfectly clear bright sunny morning. At Moat Brook I organized a special photo stop. At Conway we held for the regularly…

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May 6th Conway Branch Work Extra.

May 6th Conway Branch Work Extra.

It was a great day for a work train! We had beautiful clear skies with fluffy fair weather clouds. It was warm with a slight wind, and the trees were just beginning to leaf out. I traveled on the train, primarily riding in the caboose, and made photographs when it stopped to perform maintenance along the line. I made these digital photos with my FujiFilm XT-1 with 16-55mm zoom lens. All of the…

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Clear Day at Moat Brook

Clear Day at Moat Brook

Among the most pictured locations on Conway Scenic’s former Boston & Maine Conway Branch is the wooden pile trestle at Moat Brook. This stream is named for the Moat Mountains compass west of the railroad. A few weeks ago during my bridge inspection with Wayne Duffett of TEC Associates, I carefully studied the bridge and its environs, considering how to best find a different angle on the…

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Bridge Inspection

Bridges fascinate me. I wrote about them in a book in 2007. Kris Sabbatino has called me a ‘Bridge Goob’ (which translates to ‘rabid bridge enthusiast’. Trusses are my favorite. Of all the trusses, I think I like the Whipple Truss the best. But these have become exceedingly rare. Earlier this week, I joined Conway Scenic’s bridge inspector Wayne Duffett on the annual inspection of the…

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Setting up the Photo Freights.

Setting up the Photo Freights.

Most of the year, Conway Scenic Railroad’s historic freight cars quietly reside in the railroad’s North Yard, although few cars, such as our ballast hoppers are assigned to maintenance service.

Today, Saturday September 5th, we plan to operate a pair of demonstration photo freights for our scheduled Railfan’s Day event.

In preparation, we needed to spot cars at key locations in order to…

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