The railroad in ashland

Flagpole:  When the town flagpole on Flag Island, the triangle of land at the intersection of Routes 3 and 132, was replaced by the present pole, the old flagpole was moved here.   

State Historical Marker for BC&M RR: The marker was petitioned by Ashland Historical Society members in 1990 and erected by the state in the summer of 1991.  

Kiosk:  Ashland middle school students erected a number of kiosks in Ashland and other area towns. In 2012, they built the kiosk on the station grounds. However, it was not until 2015 that we installed the display on Ashland's railroad history and our other museums, and a bulletin board in the kiosk.  

Telephone box:  We were given a telephone box, which would have been used when a train stopped at a closed station. The box was mounted on a wooden post just north of the platform, but both the post and the box rotted and had to be taken down. Recently, Brian Dame gave us another telephone box and a genuine railroad concrete post from the Nashua railyard to mount it on. They were installed in 2018.  The station did once have such a box, but it was mounted on the south end of the building, according to an old photo dated 1965.  

New Hampton shanty: The origins of this small building are obscure. From its appearance, it seems to be a gatekeeper's shanty, like those found at major road crossings not near stations. There is general agreement that it was used as a shelter for passengers after the Winona station in New Hampton was abandoned and demolished in 1941.  This left passengers standing out in the open while waiting for the trains, prompting complaints in the winter of 1943, when gas rationing increased the use of trains, about how cold it was.  The railroad promised to provide a shelter, so in the spring of 1943, the Meredith newspaper announced the building of a shelter. The B&M RR seems instead to have moved the shanty from somewhere else, but we are not sure where. There was some speculation that it came from Ashland, but there is no evidence that there ever was a gatekeeper’s shanty in Ashland, and it seems unlikely given the proximity of the freight station and railroad employees that there would be a need for one here.  In 1956, the railroad received permission from the state public utilities commission to take the Winona shelter out of service which happened on September 10. The small building was sold to Clancy Jordan, who moved it to his nearby camp on Lake Winona, where it was used as a storage shed. The camp was later bought by Michael and Elizabeth Fleming, who built a new house there. The Flemings donated the shanty to the Ashland Historical Society in 2013. We had Buskey’s Auto move it to the railroad station property. It has been moved twice since then to what we think will be its final location. In the last few years, it has been restored by volunteers particularly the roof and floor. It has just been painted to match this station.  A dedication was held on Saturday, September 14, 2019 as part of the 150th anniversary celebration for the station, although the interior still has to be completed.  

Section house:  This small building was used by the crew that maintained the local section of the track. It is shown on the other side of track opposite passenger station on the 1893 map and in photographs. The section house was later moved or replaced by another section house on what is now the Town Garage property near the freight house, but on the opposite side of the track. It appears there on the 1912 Sanborn fire insurance map and was still there on the 1946 Sanborn map.  In 1915, that section house was demolished in a train wreck, so a new one must have been built at that time.  

Part 6:  This presentation of The Railroad in Ashland was delivered by David Ruell to the Ashland Historical Society on September 12, 2019 in the Ashland Railroad Station Museum.