Plans for restoration of ‘Flying Yankee’ train move forward
Published: 04-10-2024 4:55 PM |
The nonprofit Flying Yankee Association will soon own the historic Flying Yankee train with plans to relocate, preserve and restore it with the hope of someday running it again.
The group announced Monday that the state had chosen its proposal as the winning bid for ownership of the silver-colored streamliner, which ended passenger service in 1955. The state has been reviewing proposals since a Jan. 4 deadline.
“We are both honored and thrilled to be receiving this historic train from the state,” Brian LaPlant, the organization’s president, said in a press release. “The Flying Yankee has languished for far too long, and we look forward to preserving, relocating and restoring the train. … A beautiful piece of New England history has been saved today.”
Jacob Eidsmoe, marketing director for the association, said back in February that the association will have to figure out what shape the train is in, and sift through the sizable collection of parts packed away in crates.
The plan is to use the train’s original parts while also updating it – it will need new windows, new electrical, and will need to meet current code. The train chairs they hope to keep as close to the original ones from 1935.
From 1935, when it first hit the tracks, to when it retired in 1955, the Flying Yankee traveled a total of 3.5 million miles, carrying passengers and towing freight throughout the Northeast as part of the Boston and Maine Railroad. It was maintained at B&M’s South Concord Shops, where thousands of people worked between South Main and Water streets.
Following its retirement, the train spent years as part of the Edaville Railroad museum in Carver, Mass. before making its way to the Plymouth and Lincoln Railroad, or Hobo Railroad. Since then, the train has been biding its time outside. The Hobo Railroad, meanwhile, was bought last summer by Patriot Rail, a national operator of short line and regional freight railroads and rail services companies.
The association is a non-profit that has worked to develop a group of supporters. It has delayed fundraising until finding out if it would own the train and is a remake of the Flying Yankee Restoration Group that pushed for years for the train’s future.
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Eidsmoe said the plan is to keep the train in New Hampshire.