Iron Roads of the Monadnock Region: Railroads of Southwestern New Hampshire and North-Central Massachusetts

Growing up in Worcester, Massachusetts, Brad Blodget could often be found trackside along the Boston & Maine Railroad watching trains. After graduating from the Worcester public schools, he received a BA in biology from Clark University and an MS in wildlife biology from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst. He moved on to a career with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, most of it as State Ornithologist, before retiring in 2002. Soon after that, his long-suppressed passion for railroad history exploded. He acquired the train symbol nickname “WX-1” for his frequent research trips between Worcester, Keene, New Hampshire, and Bellows Falls, Vermont. An active member of the Boston & Maine Railroad Historical Society and the Railroad Locomotive and Historical Society, he resides in Holden, Massachusetts. His first book, Marium Foster’s Boston & Maine Railroad, appeared in 2011. Richard “Dick” Richards grew up in a railroad family in Greenfield, Massachusetts—his father was a freight and passenger conductor for the Boston & Maine Railroad. After high school, he enlisted in the US Air Force and served as a security policeman in Southeast Asia, the continental United States, and the Republic of Korea. Upon leaving the service, he worked briefly as a trainman and conductor for the Boston & Maine before moving to Keene, New Hampshire, and embarking on a 30-year career with the Keene Police Department. He earned a BS in management from Franklin Pierce College and retired as a lieutenant before rekindling his interest in railroads and their history, which he pursued as a volunteer at the Historical Society of Cheshire County. A member of the Boston & Maine Railroad Historical Society and the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, he resides with his wife in Swanzey, New Hampshire.