By Justin Franz
The Boston & Maine’s Flying Yankee is being sold by the State of New Hampshire to a non-profit organization that hopes to restore and run the historic train in the Mt. Washington Valley. On April 6, the Flying Yankee Association announced it had been selected by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation to become the streamlined train’s new caretaker following a comprehensive and competitive review process.
“We are both honored and thrilled to be receiving this historic train from the State,” said Brian LaPlant, President of the FYA. “The Flying Yankee has languished for far too long, and we look forward to preserving, relocating and restoring the train, thanks to the State, as well as our friends, partners, and supporters that will help make this dream become a reality. A beautiful piece of New England history has been saved today.”
The non-profit expects to meet with state officials later this month to sort out the details and the transfer of ownership could happen as early as this summer.
The Flying Yankee was built by the Budd Company in 1935 and ran in New England for 22 years until it was retired in 1957. It was privately owned and displayed at the Edaville Railroad for 40 years until it was acquired by New Hampshire in 1997. Since then a non-profit group has been trying to restore the train, first at the Claremont & Concord and most recently at the Hobo Railroad. However, in recent years, those efforts have collapsed and little has happened with the train, only the third of its type built in North America.
Starting in the spring of 2021, volunteers updated and filed all the required state and federal documents to bring the group back into good standing and established a new name, the Flying Yankee Association. Along with that came a brand new board of directors, including several members with business and management experience. The group’s new leaders said that past decisions like only using contractors to restore the train hampered progress and now they plan on using a mix of contractors and volunteers to get it done. The Flying Yankee is presently in a “partially restored state.”
The group has said in the past that they would like to relocate it to the Mt. Washington Valley for restoration and have already spoken to the Conway Scenic Railroad about the possibility of running it there.
Updates will be posted to the group’s website, flyingyankee.org, as well as its Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.
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