With his operations in Vermont now more secure than ever before, Nelson Blount and his personal engine, #127, went abroad powering excursions on railroads throughout the Northeast. Among these were a series of trips in the spring and early summer of 1967 over the New Haven Railroad which had first introduced him to railroading. One trip, on May 13, 1967, ran Boston-Walpole (MA)–Putnam–New London and back to Boston. Another, on May 21, ran Boston–Walpole (MA)–Framingham–Concord–Chelmsford–Lowell–Boston. A trip on May 28th ran from Providence to Attleboro, then to Yarmouth on Cape Cod and back. Meanwhile, site development at Riverside continued to progress and by the fall a number of pieces had been moved from North Walpole.
Passenger excursions departed Riverside for Chester on weekends only from the last of May until the end of June, with three trips per day. From June until Labor Day it was three trips per day, seven days a week departing at 11:00 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. From Labor Day to Columbus Day weekdays were downgraded to one trip, at 1:30 p.m.. On three-trip days one could board at Chester at 11:45 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. Ticket prices for the Monadnock Northern remained the same as in 1966, but admission to Steamtown, U.S.A. increased slightly from $0.50 to $0.90 for adults, and from $0.25 to $0.50 for children.
The plans of F. Nelson Blount and the Steamtown Foundation would come to a halt on August 31, 1967. After running a day of excursions with Green Mountain Railroad #89, Blount climbed into the cockpit of his small Maule Rocket airplane to fly from Riverside to his home in Dublin, NH. The plane’s engine quit near Keene, later determined to be a result of fuel exhaustion; there is some discussion as to whether the switch to an auxiliary fuel tank failed. Blount looked for a place to make an emergency landing, selecting a small field near Old Chesham Road in Marlborough. Unfortunately, the incline of the field was greater than anticipated and the landing gear buckled upon touchdown. The plane was thrust back up into the air, flying down the length of the field into a tree. Blount was killed instantly, at only age 49.
In the wake of Blount’s tragic death, his various railroad enterprises struggled to pick up the pieces. The Green Mountain Railroad took on excursion duties from the Monadnock, Steamtown & Northern; the latter becoming essentially a real estate holding company until its dissolution in 1971. Edgar T. Mead assumed the Foundation chairman seat following Blount’s death, with Robert W. Adams helming the Green Mountain Railroad. The Steamtown Foundation took over excursion duties from the Green Mountain in 1971 but, having lost its chief financier, struggled to maintain and exhibit the massive collection and operate seasonal steam excursions.
It had been a long and fateful journey for Blount from his time as a childhood railfan to his railroad career and securing the largest collection of steam railroading equipment the world had ever seen. Sadly, his vision for Steamtown, U.S.A. would never fully materialize, but his contributions created chapters in history that would not have existed otherwise. “If it hadn’t been for him, there would have been a lot more steam locomotives scrapped”, Green Mountain Railroad employee Peter Read once said.
Click the gallery below to view photos from 1967
Steamtown Historical Collective 