New Locomotive To Run Out Of Boston Bound For Portland

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The Hampton Union & Rockingham County Gazette

Thursday, July 3, 1930

The Flying Yankee was renamed The Mountaineer from 1941-44 and made daily round trips from Boston to Litleton through Crawford Notch. This photo was taken duriing that time period at the Whittier Station in West Ossipee. Duriing the 1935-41 period, it made daily 730-mile runs, starting in Portland, Maine, going to Boston (through Hampton, New Hampshire) then to Bangor, Maine, returning each night to Portland. [Harrison Fisk Photo]

A green and gold locomotive, resplendent with nickel-plated cylinder heads and carrying a brass plate reading "The Flying Yankee" at her front, will, some time this week, add to the distinctiveness of the Boston and Maine Railroad's crack, non-stop express as it races through Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine on its daily run in both directions between Boston and Portland.

The "Flying Yankee," hauled by a locomotive painted in the conventional black has, since April 28, 1929, been making a daily run that has brought the train to the fore among the fastest in the country, averaging 51 miles an hour on it entire trip.

The newly named locomotive, on which two tones of green, broken by the gold stripes and shining nickel replace the sombre black, will be seen at various points on the Boston and Maine system during the next few days, as she is broken in during preliminary runs prior to taking up the more strenuous task of hauling the steel Pullmans and coaches of the "Flying Yankee" over the 114.6 miles between Boston and Portland in the fast time of 2 hours and 15 minutes.

The buff and blue of the locomotives "Paul Revere" and "William Dawes, Jr.," which haul the "Minute Man," Chicago express of the Boston and Maine, pale in comparison with the new motive power of the "Flying Yankee."

The upper part of its great boiler jacket, surmounted by the steel dome, steel turrets and the locomotive bell is painted a green, matching the grass on New England's hills. Below that, the running gear is a darker green, the color of the pines. Both are striped with gold. A stripe of gold barks the running board the entire length of the engine, and the tender, painted the darker green, bears the Boston and Maine Railroad insignia in gold. The wheels are tinged with silver paint. Below the cab window, also in letters of gold, is painted "The Flying Yankee."

The engine arrived in Boston yesterday from the Boston and Maine's Billerica Shops, where the new trimmings were applied. It is of the Pacific type and has formerly been known as "Pacific 3689."

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