A pint-size Porter. White Mountain Central's tiny Porter #1 kicks off the 2014 celebration of "Railroad Days", leading the early morning parade of trains up the mile and a half mountain railroad at Clark's Trading Post, in North Woodstock, NH.
Clark's Trading Post is a sort of theme park, featuring a variety of attractions and activities for families, such as trained bear shows, bumper boats, Segway tours, and it's centerpiece, a steam railroad. Back in the mid-1950s, when steam locomotives were rapidly being retired, brothers W. Murray and Edward M. Clark decided to try and save a few of these machines from the scrapper's torches. They established what they called "Green Pastures for Iron Horses", which eventually morphed into what is now the White Mountain Central Railroad. The track only goes about a mile and a half up a nearby hill, but it features some significant grades, and gives park patrons an idea of what it was like to work on many of the logging railroads that dotted the New Hampshire countryside. The Clark's ended up accumulating a collection of 5 steam locomotives, including a 2-Truck Climax, a 2-Truck Heisler, a 2-Truck Shay, a Baldwin 2-4-2T and the little Porter 0-4-0T that you see here. All of these locomotives have New Hampshire roots, and some of them literally spent their entire working careers within miles of their current home in North Woodstock.
WMCRR Porter #1 was built in 1931 by the H.K. Porter Company and served as a switch engine at the Koppers Tie Treatment Plant in Nashua, NH for about 23 years. When she was retired, she was purchased in 1954 by the Clarks for a mere $300. After all these years, little #1 is still operable, burning wood just like all of the other engines on the WMCRR. Because of her small size, her utility is rather limited, so she is typically brought out only for the "Railroad Days" event in mid-September, when everything that runs runs.
Beautiful mountain scenery has made this small state a draw for rail buffs to ride the Mount Washington Cog Railway and the Conway Scenic, among others.
From a hint of "Bee" (NKP 765), colorful "Bees" (KCS), "Bees" w/ "attitude", to "Bees" that "sting" your eyes, in their own way they have "Bee" on display! Equipment that "Buzzes" with Yellow & Black colors! ("Bees" can still "Bee" entering this "hive"!)