Boston and Maine Locomotives

Book excerpt: The Boston & Maine Railroad has long captured the hearts of rail enthusiasts, and its locomotives are models of the majesty, power, and romance of American rail. The Boston & Maine was a railroad dynasty running through Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, and many still remember hearing the whistle blow as a Boston & Maine locomotive spewing smoke and steam pulled into the station. Boston & Maine Locomotives, the third volume in Arcadia's trio documenting the Boston & Maine Railroad, is a history of the locomotives that powered New England's most dominant line. The Ten Wheelers, the Mastodons, the Pacifics, and the other classes of locomotive are seen here as they pull passengers and freight throughout the Northeast. The Boston & Maine was one of the last railroads in the area to continue naming its locomotives, and those engines, from nineteenth-century steam to twentieth-century diesel, are recorded here. The Portland, the Newburyport, the General Sherman, and more ride New England's rails once again in Boston & Maine Locomotives.