In 1904, the Boston & Maine Railroad found themselves in the Electric Trolley business here in Concord. Around the year 1902 the Concord & Montreal Railroad, a leased line of the Boston & Maine Railroad, obtained a charter to build a new line to Manchester, New Hampshire. During the same period, the Boston & Maine Railroad found themselves in control of the Concord City Street Railway, in prior years known as the “Concord Horse Trolley.”
It was the Boston & Maine Railroad shops located in the south end of Concord that built the new electric trolleys for Concord. A building and crew that previously constructed only steam locomotives found themselves in the electric trolley business. Under control of the Boston & Maine Railroad in 1902 the city of Concord also witnessed road construction on the local streets when the standard gauge tracks for the new electric trolleys replaced the original eighteen miles of narrow-gauge tracks used previously by the Concord Horse Trolley.
As the summer of 1904 arrived, many tourists visiting Concord found it a novelty to see the new electric trolley cars traveling the streets of our city, lettered with the same Boston & Maine Railroad signage that was also boasted on the steam railroad cars.
