Milford-Bennington Railroad | Summer 2019

The Milford-Bennington Railroad (MBRX) is a shortline company based in southern New Hampshire. It operates on 5 miles of the former Boston & Maine Railroad’s Hillsborough (Keene) Branch. The trackage is leased to them by both the State of New Hampshire and Pan Am Railways. MBRX operates Monday through Friday between Spring and Fall and usually makes around 1-3 round trips per day. The railroad hauls crushed stone between a crushing plant in Wilton to a concrete processing plant in Milford (Granite State Concrete). They have been operating stone trains since the summer of 1992.

For motive power they use a former Canadian National SW-900 numbered 901 (formerly CN 7250). For equipment they use an ex-Delaware & Hudson 2 bay open hopper car numbered MBRX 196 and 9 very unique ex-CN 2-Bay covered hoppers numbered 1001-1009. Finally they use an ex-Conrail bay window caboose 21288 for another set of eyes on the other side of there train since the MBRX does push-pull service between Wilton and Milford. The MBRX also has another SW-9 formerly B&M 1228 and ST 1423 and up until October of 2019 sat in Greenfield by the former B&M freight house. From what I have heard there is talk of restoring the locomotive for which currently is not in operating condition.

On very rare occasions the MBRX does make an appearance on the far end of the Hillsborough (Keene) Branch. They have made several appearances in Greenfield for work trains and for special events like the Wool & Arts Fest at Spring Pond Farm and for the Greenfield Train Show (both events are usually in October). Check out my other video chasing the Milford-Bennington between Greenfield and Wilton.

In this video you will see several chases I made over the summer on June 7, June 14, July 18 and August 2. I made an effort of chasing them at least once a week during the summer but did not film every chase. The Milford-Bennington Railroad is my personal favorite railroad because of the great and kind people who keep the train rolling and their efforts to be a good company.