Flying Yankee train is headed to Conway – not Concord, alas

Flying Yankee train

Flying Yankee train N.H. Preservation Alliance

Flying Yankee

Flying Yankee

By DAVID BROOKS

Monitor staff

Published: 07-30-2024 10:26 AM

Modified: 07-30-2024 10:39 AM


There wasn’t much hope left that the Flying Yankee train would ever return to Concord, where it spent two decades as one of the handsomest passenger trains ever built, but now that hope is officially squashed. 

As expected, the state has transferred ownership of the Flying Yankee train to a group of enthusiasts, the Flying Yankee Association, who plan to move it to Conway for display.

The Flying Yankee was one of a handful of trains with the stainless steel “streamliner” design, which shared wheels among the locomotive and the first two passenger cars.  From 1935 to 1955 it operated throughout the Northeast for the Boston and Maine Railroad under a variety of names, racking up 3.5 million miles carrying passengers and freight.

During that time it was maintained at B&M’s huge South Concord Shops between South Main and Water streets, which at their peak employed thousands of people. 

Streamliners were lighter and more fuel efficient but linking the locomotive and cars made it harder to reconfigure for different jobs and hard to fit into some rail yards, so the design was eventually abandoned.

After it was retired, the Flying Yankee spent years at the Edaville Railroad museum in Carver, Mass., before ending up at the Hobo Railroad in Lincoln. The train, which can no longer travel under its own power, has been stored outdoors in Lincoln since. 

Past years saw efforts by an earlier group to bring the train down to Concord use it as the centerpiece of a transportation museum built around B&M’s history. That effort fell short, leading the state to eventually put the train up for sale. The Flying Yankee Association was the only serious bidder. 

The Conway Sun reported that the group plans to truck the train to Conway and store it on Conway Scenic Railway’s freight yard while money is raised to complete its restoration and create a museum.

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