Local coordination is provided by:
Friends of Pisgah
The rail-trail may be owned by the City of Keene northwest of Joslin Station.
The City Planning Office may be planning to reconstruct this rail-trail as part of its alternate transportation and recreational pathway system in coordination with the NH-DOT plan to reconstruct the Keene Bypass Highway.
Pathways for Keene may be responsible for fund-raising and volunteer support for these plans.
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The location of the Joslin Station was accepted on the basis of the name 'Joslin Depot Road' given to the access street.
A spot check made on July 6, 1998 suggests that the trail is open and usable southeast of Joslin Station only.
Granite Arch River Crossing adjacent to Route 101. Digital photograph by Kenyon F. Karl on July 6, 1998.
Missing railroad overpass at busy Route 101. Digital photograph by Kenyon F. Karl on July 6, 1998.
Although this station clearly served the Joslin settlement of Swanzey, the topographic map suggests that it was located just beyond the town line in the City of Keene. Accordingly the State-owned trail presumably begins at the City line a short distance south of the site of the Station site and runs across the town of Swanzey southwest to Webb Station.
The trail appears to continue north from Joslin across the high Granite Arch Bridge in South Keene into downtown Keene, but overpasses are missing at both Swanzey Factory Road and Route 101 crossings. Furthermore, a spot-check conducted on July 6, 1998 suggests that other sections of the railroad bed between Route 101 and the Keene Bus Station were blocked at several locations in one way or another!
One alternative is to negotiate very steep banks on each side of the two missing bridges to cross the two roads at grade to return to the railroad grade to use the impressive stone arch railroad bridge over the river. Once trail users have crossed the very busy Route 101, they can cross a mound of earth to reach the dead-end of Marlborough Street, which can then be used to reach the Keene State College Campus at Main St. The end of the rail-trail behind the Keene Bus Station is a quarter mile north of that point via Main Street.
The spot check conducted on July 6, 1998 notes the existence of a usable rail-trail at the Thompson Road (?) crossing of the long abandoned Chesham Branch. If this spur trail is indeed usable, trail users might wish to try the following detour between Joslin Station and the Keene Bus Station (described for northbound users):
No trail facilities were observed in this vicinity, beyond trail access at the station site!
Note that trail services may be present on Route 12, about 0.4 mile southwest of Joslin Station!
Local
Services Directory and MapsAny Mapblast Map on this Web Site is a link to the Mapblast Web Site which in turn leads to a Business Directory of the surrounding area.
Sign images are from the Manual of Traffic Signs by Richard C. Moeur.
Updated on February 23, 2001 by Kenyon F.
Karl <[email protected]>.
Unintentional errors are likely!
