Forbidden Files - Family Hike to an Abandoned Train

Some families spend a beautiful summer's day wandering through the mall, while other families spend a beautiful summer's day hiking through the woods in search of an abandoned train.

No need to tell you which category we fall into, I'll just jump right into the story.

From bits of info I gathered off the Internet, including a YouTube video and NPR article, I knew that a half-dozen train cars were abandoned somewhere in the woods of New Hampshire. Their location was never given but I did know what city they were in, so off I went to one of my favorite friends in these types of situations - Google Earth. Three beers later I was confident enough I'd spotted them that I planned a trip with family and friends for that weekend, and on a blistering Sunday morning we made the 2-hour drive to hunt them down.

We met at a railroad crossing nearest to where we planned on entering the woods, gathered up our survival gear (waters for all of us plus goldfish for the youngsters), and feeling much like the kids in the movie Stand By Me we began hiking the tracks.

Unlike the challenge of trying to find something you could walk right past without spotting (like an elusive man-made cave), the only question on this day was whether we were headed in the right direction. As long as we were we'd be guaranteed to find the train.

And in less time than I expected this question was answered.

Six cars made up this abandoned train, with three being open wagons that still had traces of cargo in them. The one below carried both rocks and mischievous boys - one in front of the camera and one behind it. That night I googled the serial number of this car and learned it was built in 1941 and came with the chuckle-inducing name of a "bottom dump".

Besides that tidbit of information I don't know any other history of the train, so instead I'll share some pictures. We climbed aboard a passenger car which in its day must have been state of the art, but was now just a shell of its former glory.

This was Madison walking the aisle of another passenger car as if trying to remember where her seat is. She told me to make her look "wistful" in this picture.

And here's a shot of the overhead compartments. Never mind a suitcase, you'd be lucky to fit just your toiletries into one of them.

With a bit of muscle some of the benches still actually worked. They could either all be facing forward, or you could pull a lever and flip the back so that every other bench was facing each other.

Logan found a seat at the front of the train that looked like it came with some importance, so of course he claimed that as "his spot".

To answer a couple of questions about this trip, yes the tracks we were walking down are active tracks in the summertime, and no we probably should not have been in this area. But we were careful of our surroundings, respectful of the property, took nothing but pictures and left nothing but footprints.

Which made this one of the more memorable ways I've ever spent a beautiful summer's day with the family.