By Brian Solomon Spring Season Debut April 2, 2021 dawned beautiful and clear. It was an auspicious start to our Spring season that began with our annual Easter Bunny Express. We scheduled three trains a day for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, boarding at 11 am, 12:30 and 2:30pm, all operating using a foreshortened streamlined train…
By Brian Solomon 2020 Finale In late December, the big news at Conway Scenic was firing steam locomotive 7470 for excursion service. We made the decision to focus steam operations during the week between Christmas and New Years to get the locomotive ready for its 2021 debut on Winter Steam that was held January 2nd….
By Brian Solomon How’s this for something novel? I’m writing this month’s Wheel Report from the fireman’s seat of Boston & Maine F7A 4266! It’s been a busy December at Conway Scenic, and I’ve been trying to accomplish multiple tasks at the same time. In November, we learned with little warning that the Believe in…
Pumpkin Patch Conway Scenic Railroad’s Pumpkin Patch event was very popular. We operated three trains per day over eight days in the last three weekends in October. Free pumpkins were available for every child, donuts, cider and hot drinks were on sale at the Conway freight house. A variety of equipment was on display including…
By Brian Solomon Foliage and Busy Trains Autumn came early to Conway Scenic Railroad. By the third week of September brilliant colored trees had dotted the Mount Washington Valley. In October, the railroad was experiencing robust patronage, with many trains sold out to the limits of Covid-19 capacity constraints. Our Mountaineer ran 7 days a…
By Brian Solomon Busy Summer Conway Scenic Railroad enjoyed a robust summer season despite restrictions relating to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Although we necessarily needed to limit the number of guests traveling and imposed social distancing and other safety measures, we did our best to accommodate as many people as we could. At peak times many…
By Brian Solomon The good news is that through the summer Conway Scenic has been visited by a rising tide of guests. At times our greatest challenged has been how to handle so many people while safely complying with State of New Hampshire’s protocols aimed at mitigating the spread of Covid-19. To meet rising demand,…
Operations Our big news is that on June 20, 2020 we finally resumed operations and began our summer operating season. We are delighted to be up and running, but achieving this has presented more than its fair share of challenges. We received notice that we could resume operations with very little warning and a host…
By Brian Solomon Manager, Marketing & Events As Spring blossoms on the Conway Scenic Railroad, I have lots to write about and just limited time and space to work with. On June 11, 2020 we finally got the word that we can resume public operations. Our planned 2020 reopening is for Saturday June 20th. Initially…
Introduction Although new to this responsibility, I am following in the tradition of Conway Scenic’s wheel reports. You may be familiar with my railroad writing as I’ve been supplying railroad literature and photographs to a variety of commercial publications since the 1980s. In the mid-1990s, I served as the Editor of Pacific RailNews and as…
Introduction I am following in the tradition of Conway Scenic’s wheel reports, although because I am new to this responsibility, I will approach this in my own way. Some of you may be familiar with my writing as I’ve been supplying railroad literature and photographs to numerous publications since the early 1980s. In the mid-1990s I was the Editor of Pacific RailNews and Associate Editor for Passenger Train Journal and Vintage Rails, all published by Pentrex Publishing. Since that time I’ve authored a variety of books, including several on EMD diesel locomotives and several titles on steam power. Since 2017, I’ve been supplying a monthly column to TRAINS Magazine. Last summer Dave Swirk hired me to help out with some media projects, and brought me on full-time in December to fill Susan Logan’s role as Manager for Marketing and Events….