Wolfeboro Railroad

Wolfeboro Railroad
Steamboat Mt. Washington pulling alongside Wolfeboro's lakeshore railroad station, early 20th century
Overview
Type	Heavy rail
Status	Defunct
Locale	New Hampshire
Termini	Sanbornville Wolfeboro
Operation
Opened	1870
Closed	1985
Operator(s)	Wolfeborough Railroad Co. (1870-1872) Eastern Railroad (1872-1884) Boston and Maine Railroad (1884-1960s) Wolfeboro Railroad Co. (1972-1978) Wolfeboro Steam Railroad Co. (1980-1985)
Character	shortline railroad (1870-1936) heritage railway (1972-1985)
Technical
Line length	12 mi (19 km)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge

Wolfeboro Railroad
to Somersworth 0.00 Sanbornville to Conway 1.94 Brookfield 5.77 Cotton Valley 8.80 Fernald 10.56 Lake Wentworth Lake Wentworth Crescent Lake 11.50 Wolfeboro Falls 11.98 Wolfeboro Wolfeboro Lake Station(summer only)

The Wolfeboro Railroad or Wolfeborough Railroad (later the Wolfeboro Branch of the Boston and Maine Railroad) is a former short line that provided service to the summer resort town of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire (formerly spelled "Wolfeborough") on Lake Winnipesaukee. Wolfeborough Railroad Company was founded on July 1, 1868, and it built a 12-mile-long (19 km) standard gauge short line from the Portsmouth, Great Falls and Conway Railroad's tracks in Sanbornville, New Hampshire (formerly known as Wolfeborough Junction) to Wolfeboro.

Construction on the line began in November 1871, and the line was open for traffic on August 19, 1872. On January 6, 1872, the Eastern Railroad leased the Wolfeboro Railroad for a period of 68 years. In 1884, the Boston & Maine took over operations on the Eastern, including the Wolfeboro Railroad.

The tracks in Wolfeboro were extended across Main Street to a dock on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee for easy connections to lake steamboats, with a waiting room on the first floor of a factory. On Christmas Eve, 1899, the building burned down, and in 1900, the B&M built a new Lake Station.

On June 30, 1892, the Wolfeboro Railroad was acquired by the Boston & Maine as part of its purchase of the Eastern Railroad, and it continued operating the line as the Wolfeboro Branch. Also in 1892, the first post office for Wolfeboro Falls opened in the B&M station there. By 1903, the B&M had headquartered its Eastern Division in Sanbornville, running a large maintenance facility there. On April 8, 1911, the Sanbornville shops were destroyed in a fire. The B&M did not rebuild the facilities, sending trains instead to Dover for repairs.

In 1927, the B&M began using railcars on the line. In 1935, the lakefront station was closed, and on May 16, 1936, the B&M stopped running trains for passengers only, although it continued running mixed passenger and freight trains until about 1950. By the 1960s, only freight trains were running on the track.