On June 27, 1835, New Hampshire chartered the Boston & Maine Railroad, and a juggernaut was born. By 1900, the B&M operated some 2,300 miles of track in northern New England, having taken over an astonishing forty-seven different railroads since its inception. The B&M loomed particularly large in the Granite State, where it controlled 96 percent of all tracks and was the primary conveyance through the rugged heart of New England s most formidable mountain range.From the gravity-defying Mount Washington Cog Railway to logging transport trains to the famous Depression-era Snow Train, A History of the Boston & Maine Railroad traces the fascinating history of New England's most renowned railway.

All the romance of early railroading in northern New England pervades Boston & Maine in the 19th Century. This fascinating journey begins in the 1830s with an 8-mile line that just kept growing. By the end of the century, Boston & Maine was traveling over 2,324 miles of track. This first pictorial history of the Boston & Maine explores the heyday of an enterprising railroad. Using spectacular images, most of which have never before been published, the book takes us along scenic stretches of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.