REASON FOR HOPE:

Flying Yankee rolls into Hobo Railroad (LORNA COLQUHOUN, 8/11/05, Union Leader)

In the hours before a railroad legend rolled back into the White Mountains yesterday, people, some with cameras and others with memories, patiently waited under a hot summer sun for a look at the Flying Yankee.

The legendary train, which plied the rails from Boston to Bangor and all over New England, has spent the past eight years undergoing extensive renovations in Claremont. It now will begin a second phase of renovations at the Hobo Railroad, and eventually ride the rails again.

"I rode the Flying Yankee when I was 10," said Pat McIsaac of Plymouth, one of several hundred people who turned out to see the three gleaming rail cars come into the railyard. "It was my first train ride and I remember it was February or March when my grandmother told me she was going to take me on it."

They boarded it in Warren, for a short jaunt up to Woodsville, where it was turned around for the ride home. He recalls sitting by the window in the first car.

The Flying Yankee was one of three diesel electric streamlines and the only one that will ever run the rails again. In 1935, the train ran 750 miles a day, from Boston to Bangor. Over the next 22 years, it went all over New England.

In New Hampshire, it was known by other names — the Mountaineer when it ran up Crawford Notch, and the Cheshire when it flew over the western part of the state.

The train, which could reach speeds of 100 mph and ran much quieter than its steam cousin, was an inspiring sight in the Depression era.

"It signified a reason for hope," said Paul Giblin, a consultant for the restoration project.