Overview

The last passenger train departed Keene, New Hampshire nearly sixty-five years ago and all of the railroad branch lines that once threaded their way through the river valleys and rugged hill country of the Monadnock Region felt their last trains almost forty years ago. Today, the old roadbeds that were once busy arteries of daily life and commerce, resonant with the sounds of trains, are quiet places but for the wind and the calls of birds. While a fascination with the region's railroad past is almost tangible, the importance of railroads to the region from the 1840's through the mid-twentieth century is just unimaginable to most people today. Iron Roads Volumes I-III are the complete set of the stunning and meticulous work that Brad Blodget and Dick Richards have done, chronicling the mostly by-gone railroads of the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire. These three volumes contain more than 1000 images as well as detailed information about every town from Worcester, MA to Concord, NH to Bellows Falls, VT.

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9780872333697

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"Growing up in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the 1950s, author Brad Blodget could often be found on his bicycle, trackside along the Boston and Maine Railroad, watching trains. After graduating from the Worcester public schools, he received his BA in biology from Clark University and later earned an MS in wildlife biology from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst. He moved on to a career with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, most of it as State Ornithologist, before retiring in 2002. Soon after that, released from his professional career, a long-suppressed passion for railroad history exploded. He acquired the train symbol nickname ""WX-1"" for his frequent research trips between Worcester, Keene, New Hampshire, and Bellows Falls, Vermont. Brad, is an active member of the Boston & Maine Railroad Historical Society and the Railroad Locomotive and Historical Society. He resides in Holden, Massachusetts. His first book, Marium Foster's Boston & Maine Railroad, appeared in 2011. Richard ""Dick"" Richards grew up in a railroad family in Greenfield, Massachusetts--his father was a freight and passenger conductor for the Boston & Maine Railroad. After high school, he enlisted in the US Air Force and served as a security policeman in Southeast Asia, the continental United States, and the Republic of Korea. Upon leaving the service, he worked briefly as a trainman and conductor for the Boston & Maine before moving to Keene, New Hampshire, and embarking on a 30-year career with the Keene Police Department. He earned a BS in management from Franklin Pierce College and retired as a lieutenant before rekindling his interest in railroads and their history, which he pursued as a volunteer at the Historical Society of Cheshire County. A member of the Boston & Maine Railroad Historical Society and the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, he resides with his wife in Swanzey, New Hampshire."

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