The New England Southern Railroad is a Class III shortline railroad that operates out of Canterbury, New Hampshire, and serves industries in central New Hampshire, in the United States. History In 1975, the Boston & Maine Railroad Corporation filed to abandon its "White Mountain Branch" stretching between Concord and Lincoln. Recognizing the need of the on-line customers and the potential of the line for a sewer right-of-way, the State of New Hampshire purchased the branch and sought a shortline railroad to carry out operations. The first to assume this responsibility was the Wolfeboro Railroad, which operated the line as their "Central Division" in 1976, but soon thereafter ended operations. The Goodwin Railroad, an extension of Weaver Bros. Construction, was created in 1977 to operate the trackage, and did so until it too ended operations in 1980. Following the demise of the Goodwin contract, the North Stratford Railroad stepped in as an interim operator until the state could find a dependable and permanent long-term operator. Peter Dearness, a businessman, educator, and shortline railroader, who had a hand in founding the Massachusetts Central Railroad in 1975, approached the State of New Hampshire with a bid to operate the trackage with his newly formed New England Southern Railroad. The railroad was incorporated first in Nevada on December 22, 1981. (Dearness had been out of state working with Kenneth Coombs on the Cadillac & Lake City Rwy. (CLK) harvest season's grain operations, between the UP and BN in CO and KS.) --and then in Massachusetts by Ch. 32, Acts of 1981 on April 12, 1982. Dearness had originally imagined this new railroad as a shortline system with operations only in Western Massachusetts, before learning of the NH White Mountain Branch situation, for which he submitted a bid. Dearness' railroad won the contract, and in 1982 the operating contract was awarded to the New England Southern, which began freight operations on September 3, 1982, using State of New Hampshire-owned ALCO S1 1008. The railroad also leased a GE 44-ton switcher, #2, also state-owned. The first freight run consisted of a tanker for Home Gas in Northfield, a boxcar for Blue Seal Feeds (H.K. Webster) in Lakeport, and another boxcar of casting sand for Arwood Manufacturing in Tilton. The railroad made regular trips to Rochester Shoe Tree in Ashland, Quin-T Corp. in E. Tilton, Blue Seal Feeds in Plymouth, Gerrity Lumber in Meredith, and a number