Dion Remembers the Cheshire Railroad

Walpole Historical Society Presentation

By Chuck Bingaman, Contributing Writer

            “I’ve always had this love affair with railroads,” Walpole’s Joe Dion confessed at the Walpole Historical Society annual meeting last week.  “I just like to hear them around!”

            With that disclosure, Dion entertained the Society with a short history of railroading in Walpole featuring the Cheshire Railroad that served the town—and the area—for nearly 110 years. 

            “Railroads once held a much bigger place in our society than they do now, although they may well make a comeback,” he noted.  “Railroads made it possible to sell things we made here at places all over the country and around the world.  They were the ‘high technology’ of the day.”

            “Railroad fever” grabbed the entire country in the 1830s and 1840s, according to Dion, when it became obvious that trains could provide economical passenger and freight hauling in the rapidly growing nation with few good roads.

            Several Keene, New Hampshire businessmen chartered the Cheshire Railroad in 1844 and construction began in 1845.  The original line was to run from South Ashburnham, Massachusetts to Bellows Falls, Vermont, a distance of 54 miles. 

            Service from its Massachusetts origin to Keene, NH began on a regular basis in the summer of 1848 and reached as far as Bellows Falls the next year.  Along the way stations were built in 15 towns including Fitzwilliam, Troy, Keene, Westmoreland—two stations there!—and Walpole at mile 50.  Dion noted that it was unusual for a 54-mile long railway to run through three states.

            The Walpole railway depot was, Dion said, the “nerve center” of the town.  “That's where the telegraph was, where the big news of the day first arrived, and where you met friends and family members traveling from far away.  The station agent was an important and highly respected town official and often served the town for many years.”

            Walpole’s station sat at the bottom of Westminster Street near where the current bridge spans the Connecticut River. 

            Rail service in Walpole grew steadily from the beginning.  By the 1890s ten-passenger trains per day passed through Walpole, most going to and from Boston.  Some of the trains had their own names, including the “Mt. Royal” that went as far north as Montreal, “the Green Mountain Flyer” that traveled as far northwest as Rutland, Vermont, and the Yankee Flyer, one of the first streamliners.  An even larger number of freight trains added to the traffic on the rail bed that still serves hikers, bikers and snowmobilers in the town. 

            With the advent of family cars and, later, popular air travel, passenger trains declined in usage.  By 1954, only 5 passenger trains per day passed through Walpole, and passenger service ended altogether in 1958.  Following an accidental derailing that obliterated the Walpole Depot building, train service to the town came to an end.

            But it’s not forgotten!  Walpole resident and Historical Society member, Jerry Galloway, recalled that he and friends, as children, took the train from Walpole four miles north to Bellows Falls for a nickel, attended the movies for a nickel and road the train back to Walpole afterward for another nickel. “It was a great night out,” he said!

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