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Former B&M Geep Bound for New Home in New Hampshire

Guilford GP9 72 leads SAPPI-3 near Fairfield, Maine in the summer of 2000. Photo by Justin Franz.

Former B&M Geep Bound for New Home in New Hampshire

By Railfan & Railroad Staff

NORTH CONWAY, N.H. — A former Boston & Maine GP9 is bound for a new home in New Hampshire after it was saved last year by the 470 Railroad Club. 

This month, Pan Am Railways 72 (formally B&M 1741) departed the railroad’s shop at Waterville, Maine, bound for the St. Lawrence & Atlantic interchange at Danville Jct. The locomotive will eventually make its way to Hazens, N.H. (near Whitefield) where it will be interchanged with the Conway Scenic Railroad and brought to its new home in North Conway. The 470 Club has said there is no timeline for its arrival in North Conway. 

The GP9 was one of three locomotives Utah’s Heber Valley Railroad purchased from Pan Am Railways in 2018. However, unlike the other two (Pan Am’s B&M and Maine Central “heritage” units 77 and 52), this one was never sent west. The 470 Club purchased it from the Heber Valley last year. The locomotive last ran in 2017 when it was sidelined by an electrical fire. 

The GP9 will be the third B&M locomotive owned by the club: F7A 4266 is in operating condition at the Conway Scenic and 4268 is currently being restored to operating condition. 

This article was posted on: May 19, 2021