The 12’x44′ HO scale proto-freelanced Amoskeag Northern, set in June 2008, focuses on the 30-mile long Ammonoosuc Branch that runs from Mandrake Falls, NH to Wing Road, NH over mostly former B&M Railroad trackage in Northern New Hampshire. The modeled portion of the layout covers the south end of the branch from Mandrake Falls, NH to Mittersill, NH where the AN serves White Mountain Paper’s, Franconia Mill.  At this point, the railroad is experiencing steadily increasing traffic, and interchanges with PanAm Railways and Vermont Railway are very busy. A single staging yard provides staging for eastbound and westbound trains while also allowing continuous running in the event of a show or open house. Control for the layout is via Digitrax DCC integrated with JMRI allowing the layout to be locally controlled for a few operators or via a centralized dispatch center.  Layout operations during a session are conducted in a prototypical manner and follow NORAC rules and regulations.

1980’s

In the early 1980s a group of investors in Manchester, NH formed the Amoskeag Northern Railroad Company with the goal of purchasing and operating branch line trackage in Northern New Hampshire to serve the forest industry after several of Pinsly’s New Hampshire and Vermont operations were slated for sale. In 1982 the newly formed company purchased Pinsly’s Profile & Franconia Notch Railroad which consisted of 26 miles of trackage from Mandrake Falls, NH, east to Mittersill where the railroad served White Mountain Paper’s pulp and finishing mill. Trackage rights over 1 mile of track from Woodsville, NH to Wells River, VT were granted for interchange with Canadian Pacific. Paying homage to the railroads past, the Amoskeag Northern adopted the orange and cream scheme of the Salzberg Company which had owned the railroad prior to being absorbed into the Pinsly family.

Several former B&M andMEC GP9’s were purchased as the main road power, with mill switching duties being assigned several of the S1 and SW1 switchers that were acquired during the purchase of the mill railroads. 

Grandview Shops, constructed in Easton,  serves as Amoskeag Northern’s main freight car and locomotive servicing/repair facility.

1990’s

The mid-1990s saw significant traffic increases as the region’s paper mill production grew to record numbers. Traffic from mills in neighboring Maine also provided an influx of traffic via the Allagash Railway’s connection at Bethel, ME. In 1994 the Amoskeag Northern took over plant switching operations of the Berlin Mills Railway at International Paper’s mill in Simonds, NH which allowed the AN to direct outbound interchange via their CP/Guilford interchange instead of via the SLR at Berlin.

Ski Train service to Mittersill Ski Area began with the 1993 ski season and continued until April 19, initially utilizing two former Boston & Maine RDC-1’s purchased from MBTA. The Ski Train would depart the station at Mandrake Falls where it would meet special MBTA trains the left Boston earlier that morning. After initial success to Mittersill, Ski Train service was expanded to Bretton Woods in Carroll, NH at the start of the 1995 ski season. The RDC consist, not being able to meet demand was expanded to a traditional 8 car locomotive-hauled consist that made stops at Mittersill and Bretton Woods. Both Ski Trains would be suspended at the end of the 2003 ski season due to increasing operating costs and low snowfall in the last years. In April 1999 the Amoskeag Northern assumed all operations of the New Hampshire & Vermont Railroad over their former Maine Central’s Mountain Division trackage and a section of B&M’s Berlin Branch after CFS Acquisitions, which owned NHV,  did not renew their contract for the State of NH owned trackage. The remainder of  NHV’s former Boston & Maine trackage was later leased to the New Hampshire Central Railroad by the State of New Hampshire. NHV’s sister Lamoille Valley Railroad operations were not included due to severe washouts and the State of Vermont began turning the former LVR St. Johnsbury, VT-Swanton, VT mainline into a rail-trail in 2002.

2000’s

The Amoskeag Northern saw a steady increase in forest product carloads during the remainder of the 1990s and into the early 2000s. Carloads to and from New Hampshire’s paper mills went from approximately 200,000 tons at the end of 1999 to well over 450,500 tons in 2003.  As the railroad continued into the 2000s the paper industry in New Hampshire saw drastic changes as a result of the collapse of the paper mill industry after the 2003 peak production. In 2001 American Tissue, which had purchased International Paper’s Berlin Operations, filed for bankruptcy, leading also to the sale of their Gilman Paper facility in Gilman, VT on AN’s Mountain Division. The Berlin facilities were purchased in early 2002 by Fraser Paper and the Gilman facility in 2004 by Dirigo Paper, but the Berlin operations soon closed in March of 2006 with the Berlin Pulp mill being torn down in October of that year. The Gilman Paper mill would shutter its doors forever in July 2007 citing the rising cost of pulp; laying off 115 workers. Amoskeag Northern continued to serve Fraser’s mills in Cascade and Simonds but by 2007 the majority of Amoskeag Northern’s operations on the Cascade Branch had been reduced to as needed compared to the twice-daily service in the 1990s and early 2000s.  Draper Corp, who had purchased the Lincoln operations from Marcal Manufacturing in 1989, announced their withdrawal from New England, shutting down their operations in Campton and Lincoln in May 2007. No buyer for the Draper Corp operations materialized and the Amoskeag Northern saw to explore new revenue options and re-introduced Ski Train service to Loon Mountain(also ran during the 1994-2003 ski seasons) utilizing a 4 car train on the Lincoln Mainline. Service was short-lived;  With no large customers on the Lincoln Mainline to support the infrastructure, the cost to maintain the line was deemed too high and Ski Train service ended in April 2008. In July  Amoskeag Northern filed to abandon the 26 mile Lincoln Mainline, suspending operations on the branch later that month. Sale of the Lincoln Mainline to the US Forest Service (State of NH waived Right of First Refusal) was completed in February 2009, with rail removal beginning that spring. The former Lincoln Mainline is now known as the Lincoln Woods Trail. 2010 saw significant changes to the paper industry again as Fraser announced the indefinite shut down of their New Hampshire operations in October. Ethan Allen, which produced sizable shipments of furniture and raw goods via it’s Beecher Falls plant (brought in via the NH Central at Whitefield, NH), also announced that it would be closing their facility that year. The Amoskeag Northern suspended operations on the Cascade Branch indefinitely.  In 2011 Gorham Paper & Tissue, an investment company announced their purchase of the Cascade and Simonds Mills from Fraser; Limited service was restored by the Amoskeag Northern to the Cascade Branch as the mills began their restarts. 

In an attempt to capture business from increasing truck traffic now preferred at the mills, Amoskeag Northern opened a transload facility at the former Berlin Mill site at the end of the Cascade Branch providing transload services for lumber, logs, plastic pellets, and paper rolls.  However, the economy and an increasingly digital world continued to prove difficult for the forest industry and in March 2013 Gorham Paper & Tissue announced periodic shutdowns for the remainder of the year at their Cascade mill. Simonds Mill, which had been sold to Verso in 2012 announced the shutdown of 2 of 3 machines, laying off 200 employees. Gorham Paper & Tissue would later in the year-end rail shipments from the Cascade mill.  In November 2013 the Amoskeag Northern filed for abandonment of the Cascade Branch with the removal of the rails beginning in spring 2014. In August, MacMillan Paper announced the purchase of the Simonds mill from Verso and reactivated machines 2 and 3. While service to MacMillan’s Simonds mill increased and provided much-needed business to the AN, the paper industry in northern New England had declined significantly. Amoskeag Northern’s eastern interchange with Allagash Railway had dropped 66% from its peak in 2004 as Maine’s paper mills suffered the same fate as those in New Hampshire. The Allagash Railway ended their interchange with Amoskeag Northern at Bethel, ME in the fall of 2014, instead choosing an SLR routing, which resulted in the Amoskeag Northern filing for the abandonment of the Berlin Mainline from Simonds to Bethel in November.

Today

2016-2018 saw additional hardship on the paper industry in New Hampshire, closing the MacMillan Paper mill at Simonds, and the White Mountain Paper mill in Profile, resulting in the abandonment of the Ammonoosuc Branch between Wing Road and Profile. In November 2012 Kingdom Pellets, a wood pellet manufacturer announced plans to build a new $5 million facility at the former Gilman Paper site. The facility, which estimates to produce 30,000 tons of pellets a year, is expected to begin construction in 2017 and utilize rail service upon completion for shipping and deliveries of finished pellets and raw material. In July 2016 PSNH, under pressure from outside interest groups and a significant cost associated with updating smokestack scrubbers, announced that it would be closing/selling all coal-powered generating stations in New Hampshire within two years. Jefferson Power plant, which the AN served, was closed in April 2018. In May 2018 the Amoskeag Northern Railroad Company was sold to Vermont Rail System, which continued to operate the railroad under the Amoskeag Northern name. Today the Amoskeag Northern provides daily service to several feed and plastics companies in the Mittersill and Mandrake Falls area. Transload operations that were located on the Cascade Branch were re-located to a new facility in Moore, NH

Time Line