Dwight A. Smith, founder of the Conway Scenic Railroad, died on August 8, 2025. He was 100 years old.

Smith was on a Boston & Maine “Snow Train” excursion in February 1968 when he arrived at the railroad’s small terminal in North Conway, N.H., in the heart of the Mount Washington Valley. He was immediately captivated by the station, roundhouse, and yard there. “When I got off the train and looked at that station, and the roundhouse, and the turntable, and the views… I thought ‘Oh my God, what a great place for a tourist railroad,’” he would say years later.

Smith was born in 1925 and later served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the war, he started working for the Boston & Maine. Following that 1968 visit to North Conway, he became involved in an effort to bring an excursion train to Mount Washington Valley. However, the B&M was initially uncooperative about hosting excursions on its soon-to-be-abandoned branch. Despite this, Smith and his business partners persisted and spent five years trying to buy the railroad from the B&M. Confident he would succeed, Smith purchased a steam locomotive: Canadian National O-18s 0-6-0 7470, which had been stored in a roundhouse in Ontario since the end of steam. After buying it in early 1968, Smith moved the locomotive to Maine Central’s Rigby Yard in South Portland, Maine.

Persistence paid off for Smith and his partners. On August 4, 1974, the Conway Scenic ran its first revenue excursion between North Conway and Conway, N.H. Over the years, the railroad expanded to include the former MEC Mountain Division. Today, it’s the premier tourist railroad in northern New England.

Smith would go on to sell the railroad but would remain connected to it long afterwards. In 2019, the Conway Scenic named 7470 the “Dwight Smith.”

“Conway Scenic Railroad mourns the passing of its founder and visionary, Dwight A. Smith, who passed away last week at the age of 100 years old,” the railroad said in a statement. “Dwight will always be memorialized by steam locomotive 7470, an engine that he purchased in 1968 and restored to service in 1974 to begin excursions on the Conway Scenic Railroad.”

—Justin Franz