Southern Division
The Southern Division main line of the Boston & Maine Railroad passed through nine New Hampshire towns and cities. They were Nashua, Merrimack, Bedford, Manchester, Hooksett, Allenstown, Pembroke, Bow, and Concord. In 1908, fifteen train stops were located along this line in New Hampshire, as can be seen on this section of timetable.
This division originated as three separate railroads. The first of those was the Boston & Lowell Railroad, which was one of the first three railroads in New England. It ran between the two cities it was named after and opened on June 24, 1835. The next part of this division was the Nashua & Lowell Railroad, the first railroad to lay track in the state of New Hampshire. As it was such a short route, construction did not take long and it was completed in 1838, extending the B&L line to Nashua, NH. The last component of the Southern Division was the Concord Railroad. A single track from Nashua to Concord was finished in 1842, and the laying of a second track was completed in 1848. All three railroads operated independently for several years, until in 1857 when the N&L entered into a joint agreement with the B&L. Eventually in 1880 the B&L leased the N&L, but seven years later in 1887 the Boston & Maine Railroad stepped in and leased both lines. The Concord Railroad ended up changing owners multiple times over the years, and in 1889 it was finally merged into the Concord & Montreal Railroad. Six years later though in 1895, the B&M took over the struggling C&M.
The Southern Division is still used today by New England Southern Railroad and Pan Am Railways. The only section to be abandoned was called the Suncook Loop. It branched off from the main line just north of Hooksett Station, crossed over the Merrimack River, traveled near the east side of the river bank stopping at Suncook Station in Pembroke, and then rejoined the main line at Bow Junction. The stretch from Hooksett to Suncook was officially deemed abandoned in 1943 after the bridge had been washed out in the 1936 floods. The section from Suncook to Bow Junction, remnants of the original Portsmouth & Concord Railroad (see the Portsmouth Branch), was abandoned ten years later in 1953 as a result of the Suncook Valley Railroad closing down.