NORTH CONWAY, N.H. – Cruise-ship passengers will soon be riding Conway Scenic Railroad’s trains over its Mountain Division through picturesque Crawford Notch in New Hampshire’s 6,000-foot-high White Mountains. Service is expected to begin in June.
The railroad will offer ship patrons another option for shore excursions when they debark at Portland, Maine, a popular port of call for at least 75 domestic- and foreign-based vessels each year. Seeing growth potential, Conway Scenic has geared up by purchasing a tour-bus company to handle ground shuttles, and by beefing up its passenger-car fleet.
In Portland, ship passengers spend from 8 to 14 hours on layover, taking in such activities as bicycle rentals, lighthouse and brewery tours, a tall-ship voyage, narrated historical bus tours, and the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad. This pause allows enough time for a 1 hour, 45-minute bus shuttle to North Conway (about 50 miles), a one-way 25-mile train ride, local shopping, and a return to the Portland dock before sailing time.
Conway Scenic’s marketing manager (and Trains columnist), Brian Solomon, said the railroad bought VIP Tour & Charter Bus Co. last month, and purchased three former Canadian National coaches from Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum in Ohio.
The two firms partnered last fall for a limited trial, he said, the success of which led Conway Scenic to buy the bus operator and seek more and stronger ties with cruise lines. Last year’s cruise passengers were booked aboard the railroad’s scheduled Mountaineer train, but this season, they will ride either in a separately scheduled dedicated six-car, locomotive-hauled trainset or, depending on operating needs, the dedicated cars may be joined to the consist of the Mountaineer.
Expanding business
The 2023 experiment was “our foot in the water,” said Solomon. “The reason we acquired [VIP] is we wanted to assure that we’d have sufficient motor coaches to transit [cruise passengers] from Portland to Conway Scenic and back. It was deemed a smart business decision and an opportunity to grow both companies.
“Importantly, the acquisition will allow us to create [tour] packages throughout the White Mountain region, not just for Conway Scenic.”
Assigned to the shuttle service will be buses from the company’s fleet of five 55-passenger luxury Prevost coaches. The firm also owns other buses of varying sizes.
Conway Scenic, Solomon said, “does a robust business in autumn,” with its heaviest bookings running August through October. The new partnership will also enable the railroad “to grow our shoulder season – May, June, July and November,” he said.
“Both the bus company and the railroad are expanding, and we’re hiring,” he said, noting that full-time and seasonal openings exist for mechanics, train-crew members, station staff, and ticket agents.
For proprietary reasons, he declined to name the cruise lines involved, but Portland is served by leisure-class vessels that range from the cozy (316 passengers) to those with a capacity rivaling the population of small towns (5,386 passengers). Among the best-known brands calling at the city are Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, and Norwegian Cruise Line.
Two other American railroads, both in Alaska, rely heavily on cruise-ship business: the narrow-gauge White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad and the Alaska Railroad. Solomon said Conway Scenic hired a consultant to ARR to advise it on practical aspects of the rail-ship connection.
Dedicated set of ex-CN coaches
Joining the company’s two other passenger consists are a group of three 1954-built ex-CN Canadian Car & Foundry coaches with comfortable seating and large windows. They’ll be operated with a matching ex-CN car now in service, the Carroll P. Reed, named for one of the railroad’s founders. The three coaches will remain in their current former Ohio Central colors of brown and maroon, with the Carroll P. Reed repainted to match. A buffet-snack car and a power car to be converted from an ex-Amtrak baggage car will fill out the cruise consist, creating a capacity of 250 seats.
With rugged and spectacular vistas, the Mountain Division passes through both state and federal forest lands. The line was part of Maine Central Railroad’s 131-mile-long Portland, Maine, to St. Johnsbury, Vt., route, which once handled passenger service (in connection with Canadian Pacific Railway) to Montreal.
Two of the line’s highlights are Frankenstein Trestle, a 500-foot-long, 80-foot high steel trestle on a 4-degree curve, and Willey Brook Bridge, a steel deck plate girder span measuring 240 feet long and 94 feet high.
Because it will climb 2.2% grades, the cruise-ship train will be powered by units drawn from Conway Scenic’s fleet of dynamic-brake-equipped diesels, of which it owns four: Ex-MEC GP38 units Nos. 252 and 255; ex-Norfolk & Western high-short-hood GP35 unit No. 216; and an ex-Chessie System/Buffalo & Pittsburgh/Finger Lakes GP9 unit numbered 1751. Solomon notes that using dynamics on heavy grades conserves fuel, improves ride quality for passengers, cuts brakeshoe wear, and eliminates brakeshoe smoke, which entertains railfans but annoys general-public riders.
Also available for trains using level stretches, or for charters or special occasions, are three non-dynamic-brake diesels – ex-MEC GP7 unit No. 573; ex-Boston & Maine F7A units Nos. 4266 and 4268, owned by the 470 Railroad Club of Maine. Conway Scenic also owns ex-New Haven Budd Co. RDC-1 car No. 23, and former Grand Trunk Railway (CN) 0-6-0 steam engine No. 7470 (GT Pointe St. Charles Shop, 1921), out of service but under repair in anticipation of an August celebration for the 50th anniversary of the railroad’s founding.
Conway Scenic is one of several tourist railroads in New Hampshire, the oldest of which is the nearby Mount Washington Cog Railroad, opened in 1869.
Having run rail/bus tours for over 30 years I certainly applaud this innovative effort. To make the dedicated train-set work there must be riders both ways. The WP&Y does this on some trains by trading off with buses just before the Canadian border and presumably that is what the CSRR intends here. One group would go Portland-North Conway, then ride the train t Crawford Notch and return by bus to the boat with time to sight-see and shop enroute. The balancing group would go by bus ship to Crawford Notch and return by rail to North Conway to rejoin the bus back to the vessel. This is practical, because a bus can do the North Conway to Crawford Notch drive (traffic permitting–which can be awful in the Conways–in about half the time it takes the train). Rail Travel Center (my tour company) did this for decades on the Conway Scenic, typically going up by train and then on-ward (often to the Cog) by bus.
This should be very successful. Cruise ship passengers love this kind of stuff. The COG would be another very desirable option but that is a different story unless CSRR sells out and they make arrangements for additional packages with the COG people. Of course future reactivation of the Mountain Division has to be in the back of every railfan’s mind.
Excellent. I always said that there should be a tight marketing deal between coastal tourist lines and cruise ships. The Skagway port uses a large number of college students for the summer travel season to handle the bulge of traffic, I can’t see it much different in this location either. It’s an hour and a half bus drive from the port to East Conway which is reasonable for an excursion. I am sure the consultant covered it, is access to cheap housing for the seasonal workers. However, last season even Skagway couldn’t get enough help. Seems many college kids thought it was “too much work”.