Visitors to downtown Keene, NH today would have a hard time realizing that there was ever a railroad there, despite the heavily yuppified B&M roundhouse and backshop that still exists as a shopping facility. For a brief time in the early 1960s, however, steam trains returned to Keene, courtesy of Nelson Blount's Steamtown operation. Trains left from near the roundhouse (then a screw factory, but retaining the turntable), proceeding north to Westmorland, NH. The following year, they left from the North Walpole, NH roundhouse and went south instead. Here's the much-traveled 2-8-0 15 in downtown Keene, in 1962:

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo=2004021022192615313.jpg&bydate%3A7
ryarger@rypn.org

> Visitors to downtown Keene, NH today would
> have a hard time realizing that there was
> ever a railroad there, despite the heavily
> yuppified B&M roundhouse and backshop
> that still exists as a shopping facility.
> For a brief time in the early 1960s,
> however, steam trains returned to Keene,
> courtesy of Nelson Blount's Steamtown
> operation. Trains left from near the
> roundhouse (then a screw factory, but
> retaining the turntable), proceeding north
> to Westmorland, NH. The following year, they
> left from the North Walpole, NH roundhouse
> and went south instead. Here's the
> much-traveled 2-8-0 15 in downtown Keene, in
> 1962:

Based on other photos in the Nerail series taken the same day, I'm sure the coach directly behind #15 is M,S&N #243, Mt. Sunapee now going under its original B&M number 1246. Rebuild progresses.


davidwoodbury@adelphia.net

> Visitors to downtown Keene, NH today would
> have a hard time realizing that there was
> ever a railroad there, despite the heavily
> yuppified B&M roundhouse and backshop
> that still exists as a shopping facility.
> For a brief time in the early 1960s,
> however, steam trains returned to Keene,
> courtesy of Nelson Blount's Steamtown
> operation. Trains left from near the
> roundhouse (then a screw factory, but
> retaining the turntable), proceeding north
> to Westmorland, NH. The following year, they
> left from the North Walpole, NH roundhouse
> and went south instead. Here's the
> much-traveled 2-8-0 15 in downtown Keene, in
> 1962:

Did number 15 ever have her headlight centered on the smokebox door? Seems to me I recall seeing such a photo years ago. Or maybe not...


midlandblb@cs.com

As for the 15's headlamp...

I can add a little to this. I have a postcard of the 15 on its "Final Run" during a railfan weekend in 1973 and it does indeed have a center mounted headlight. Its crudely lettered "Steamtown RR" as opposed to the "Monadnock Northern" and "Green Mountain" lettering she wore in years previous. I may be mistaken, but the 15 I believe was out of service a few years before this event and suffered some sort of mechanical problem when returned to service in '73. I remember one of the Steamtown folks telling me about it, it might have been a dry pipe collapse or a tube let go, somehting like that ended its operation.

While eventually re-lettered "Rahway Valley" it retained the low headlamp until approximately 1996 when the good folks at the Steamtown restoration shop did a nice job in returning the engine to a more accurate appearance including the high mounted light. For the longest time the engine still retained a severley mangled back up light on the tender, damaged during the colapse of one of the Steamtown shop/sheds in VT. I'm sure others (Mr. Pincus perhaps?) can add more definitive information.

Dave Crosby

bing@epix.net