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Boston & Maine Trains and Services (Images of Rail)

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From Boston to points north, the Boston & Main was the dominant railroad serving New England for many years. By any standard the B&M was a nice little regional railroad. While the overall track mileage was much less than the big national roads, they made up for any shortcomings by the population density they served and by the willingness of the road to experiment.

One task of the road was to provide commuter service in the area surrounding Boston. This called for self propelled cars, not unlike the commuters of today. On the B&M these cars could be electric, gasoline or diesel. They tried them all. Sometimes these cars were used as locomotives to pull a passenger car or two.

The cog railway up Mt. Washington is one of the few (if not the only) like it in the country. The B&M even ran boats. And to keep pace with the times, in 1933 they began an airline using a Stinson trimotor - it was advertised as being well ventilated. In the cold New England winter that must have been brisk.

The B&M was also in the resort business. They built hotels on the seashore and in the White Mountains and of course ran the trains to bring the tourists to the hotels.

This is one of the Images of Rail series. The book is mostly pictures, probably about 200 of them collected together to provide a visual history of the road.