The Boston & Maine Railroad Dowe, NH branch is a small branch line starting off from the end of the Conway Branch in Intervale, NH. The branch was originally constructed as part of the Portsmouth, Great Falls & Conway Railroad in 1874 when it extended its line from Conway to Intervale to meet up with the Portland & Ogdensburg Railroad. Later in time the PGF&C would become part of the B&M and the P&O part of the MEC, with Intervale, NH being the junction point between these two roads, the end of the Conway Branch and beginning of the Dowe Branch for the B&M.

The date is now early December, 1953. While not a heavily trafficed branch, it does see a daily round trip local freight handling loads of fuel oil, linens, furniture and LCL freight to and from local industries and the Dowe team track. The major industries on the line include Sutton Fuel, Joey's Curtains and TE Furniture Inc. Along with the freight there is also a twice daily commuter train originating from White River Jct., VT.

Although slowly being replaced on the B&M as a whole, steam still rules on this branch. The primary power is in the form of the B&M's beloved B-15 Moguls which can be seen on both the local freights and the commuter trains. Due to a shortage in coaches which are often needed on more heavily trafficed parts of the B&M, you will occasionally find an ex PRR gas car or "Doodlebug" handling the passenger work. Recently a borrowed Maine Central GP7 has been seen on the local freights if the Mogul is tied up. Twice a week, the local commuter train will also pick up and drop off milk cans from a local dairy farm in the village of Emmafield which is at the end of the branch.

Dowe Branch System Map:

<Update Needed>

This map was made using Microsoft MapPoint 2006 by importing the names of towns on the actual B&M mainline and then copying it into Adobe PhotoShop to trace out a representation of the line from Concord, NH to White River Jct., VT (this is not quite accurate but gets the point across). Additional editing was then done in PhotoShop to add the box with details of the branch itself.