The Lakes Region Limited

From Callboy article by John Reading

The Limited came very close to not running, only days ahead of its scheduled May 20 departure. Less than a week before the planned 'all aboard,' managers at the host railroads - Ben Clark of Plymouth & Lincoln, from lincoln to Tilton, and Peter Dearness of New England Southern, from Tilton to Concord - looked at the gray skies, checked their roadbeds, watched The Weather Channel, and wondered. Finally, Mr. Dearness called Trip Chairman Bill Crawford to give him the bad news: there were soft spots in his leased piece of state-owned, ex-Boston & Maine right-of-way, on the part with the rarest mileage! Last-minute e-mails and phone calls by Bill and Ticket Agent Dave Brown to more than 300 riders produced only a handful of cancellations, and a clear day the morning of May 20 gave the stalwarts hope that we would get most (if not all) of the miles.