7 May 2008 Update

Lowell National Historic Park

Lowell offers attendees at the 2008 NASG Convention a wealth of attractions just steps away from our hotel.  The major one, of course, is the Lowell National Historical Park (LNHP), which presents the story of cotton textile manufacturing utilizing water-powered machinery.  In the 1800s, Lowell and a few other towns in the valley of the Merrimack River became the center of textile production in America.  Mass production through the use of cheap waterpower and a progressive factory system propelled New England to the zenith of the industrial revolution.

Your convention registration includes a week long pass to the Lowell National Historical Park.  With this pass you can enjoy unlimited rides on the Park’s 3 trolleys and entrance into all of the Park’s sites.  The Park includes operating mills, 2.5 miles of operating trolley tracks, 5.6 miles of canals, operating gate houses, worker housing, and a new exhibit featuring a working water-powered turbine (circa 1850).  Private guided walking tours of the National Park just for NASG Convention registrants will be offered Wednesday morning, Thursday morning and Thursday afternoon, or you have the choice to do the prepaid standard tour on your own, space permitting.  The trolleys traverse much of the downtown area and thus convention attendees can leave their cars at the hotel and go back in time to simpler days. 

On the LNHP trolley line you’ll find stops for easy access to the Boott Cotton Mills Museum, New England Quilt Museum, the Boston & Maine Railroad Exhibit featuring the B&M steam locomotive #410 and a B&M combine car (includes additional exhibits staffed by the B&M Railroad Historical Society), the National Streetcar Museum (a satellite of the Seashore Trolley Museum), Boarding House Park, America Textile History Museum and the Revolving Museum. Lowell just exudes that feeling of living in bygone days, with the architecture of converted mill buildings, the canals, outdoor events of all kinds in the summer time and the ease of walking to restaurants and shops.  For more information on the Lowell National Historic Park, visit them online at: www.nps.gov/lowe

The Notch Train

Passengers on this tour will travel by motor coach through the sea coast towns of New Hampshire to historic Portsmouth where the tour will then travel inland paralleling the Boston & Maine Railroad's (B&M) Conway branch to the White Mountains. Arriving at the North Conway depot of the Conway Scenic Railroad, we will, if time permits, tour the yards, rolling stock, turntable, buildings, etc. 

We will then board our train and depart for Intervale and Bartlett before beginning our steep climb up the mountain. Traveling over Frankenstein and Willey Brook trestles, our train passes the historic Evans family section house site on the way to Crawford Notch Depot with views of the Presidential Range and Mount Washington. Our train continues to Fabians RR station, with a view of the magnificent Mount Washington Hotel Resort, where the engine swaps for the ride back to North Conway.

For more information on the Conway Scenic Railroad, visit them online at: http://www.conwayscenic.com/

Mount Washington Cog Railway

This tour departs early Wednesday morning to the NH White Mountains, passing through Franconia Notch. Turning eastward soon afterward, you will pass in front of the historic Mt Washington Hotel which was opened in 1902. Just after the hotel we reach the entrance to the Base Station of the famed Mount Washington Cog Railway, in Bretton Woods, NH, the world's first cog mountain-railroad, dating back to 1869.

Our tour will arrive in time for you to browse through the Base Station Museum, view artifacts from the earliest days of the Cog, and then have lunch, on your own, in the Base Station Cafeteria. You will even see "Old Peppersass"....the original 1869 cog locomotive!

Boarding the noon train we depart for the summit of Mount Washington, highest peak in eastern United States. As it did 140 years ago, today's cog locomotives still burn coal for the steep journey to the summit. The three-hour round trip, averaging 4 MPH, takes us to the 6288' summit of Mt Washington. There you'll have a chance to see the Mt Washington Weather Observatory, site of the world's highest recorded wind speed (231 MPH; April 12, 1934), and the Tip-Top House, a stonework hotel built in 1853. Hopefully, we'll experience a clear (though windy!) day, so that you can have views into four states, Quebec, and the Atlantic Ocean. After our summit visit, we board our rail coaches for the return trip to the Base Station and our motor coach.

Considering a journey on the Cog Railway -- visit them online at http://www.thecog.com/

Hobo and Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroads
  and the Flying Yankee Restoration

At the 2008 Nation convention we will feature a special convention tour that is an excursion over former B&M trackage now operated by the HOBO RAILROAD and WINNIPESAUKEE SCENIC RAILROAD between Meredith, NH and Lincoln, NH. Traveling by motor coach to Meredith, we will start our rail tour at the Meredith railroad station on the shores of majestic Lake Winnipesaukee where we will tour the yard.

After partaking of the hospitality table, we board our train and travel past Lakes Waukewan & Winoa, and up & over the Ashland summit and high trestle to the newly restored Ashland Depot. We stop for a tour of the depot and photos before proceeding to Plymouth along the Pemigewassett River passing Bonnie Brae Deer Farm, where if possible, the farm owners will board and speak to our group.

We continue along the river to our terminus in Lincoln where we tour the restoration of the famous FLYING YANKEE Streamliner passenger train, scheduled for completion & return to tourist operation in 2009.

For more information on this trip, please visit:

• Hobo & Winnipesaukee Railroads
• Flying Yankee Restoration

Some more pictures from past excursions on this route -- click any for a larger version.