I really didn’t know exactly where I’d end up. I spotted the train and asked one of the passengers who was milling around the Crawford Notch Station when the train was scheduled to depart.
I knew the route of course. A train can only travel along a set path from point A to point B and besides the mountains on either side determine the only possible route through the valley.
The road squeezes through the pass going up and down with the terrain while the train tracks punch through a relatively flat path punching through rock and held aloft by skinny trestles.
This was a spur-of-the-moment trip so I was playing it by ear without and guidebook. See train. Photograph train.
Guessing that a rough unmarked pull-out held some kind of secret way to the Frankenstein Trestles, the most dramatic point in the Conway Scenic Railroad’s journey.
The Frankenstein Cliff Trail in Crawford Notch is a must-do hike in NH that offers a unique view of the famous Frankenstein Trestles, which the Conway Scenic Rail train passes over. This trail also leads to the famous Arethusa Falls, the tallest waterfall in NH.
I pull in, start to follow something that appears to be a path. Could it just be an animal trail? I second guess myself, turn back and then meet two railfans coming up the trail. One works for Amtrak and is railfanning with his buddy on a day off. Drove all the way from Connecticut just to catch a glimpse of the train and the fall foliage.
They know the area so I follow. We walk across the trestle “Stand By Me” style knowing the train is A. Twenty minutes from the trestle and B. Bound by tourist train rules, the train is slow. It takes 5 to 6 hours to travel 60 miles.
This area is in the town of Hart’s Location, population 41, the smallest town in New Hampshire and also the first in the nation to vote in elections. In 1875, the Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad completed its line up through Crawford Notch. Passengers thrilled to traverse the Frankenstein Trestle, 520 feet (158 meters) long and 85 feet (26 meters) above the ravine floor, and then the Willey Brook Bridge, 400 feet (122 meters) long and 94 feet (29 meters) high. Later part of the Mountain Division of the Maine Central Railroad, the route is still traveled by the Conway Scenic Railroad.
They scramble up some rocks to get a certain Instagram vantage point that appears to be well known among the railfan community. Me? I’m past the time of being young and stupid. I take up a safer vantage point and wait.
Soon the train comes slowly to the edge of the trestle and stops so the passengers can lean out and get a nice shot of the span they are about to cross. Then the whistle blows and the train makes its way across the spindly bridge.
I see my error of not joining my new mountain goat acquaintances. They have the view with the low afternoon sun hitting the train while I have the shadow side of the train.
Oh well, I’m not here to copy some Instagram shot and I manage to compose some shots of the train from the back squeezing through the rocky channel with wonderful fall foliage in the background. Perfect for my book cover portfolio on Arcangel Images.
Edward Fielding is a New England-based artist living in the Upper Valley Region in the foothills of the White Mountains along the Connecticut River but travels extensively around the USA, Canada and beyond.
Fielding’s work has appeared in magazines, TV commercials and graced the covers of novels around the world. Edward Fielding’s photography is available for purchase here as well as offered by select fine art retailers. There are also several books of Fielding’s work available on Amazon and rights managed licensing via Arcangel Images.