Finally spotted the B&P from Holiday Valley.

It has been many many years since I've tried to catch the B&P from HV. The best lookout has always been from the top of The Wall. After getting off Cindy's Chairlift I actually went west to a different trail. But then I stopped to look at the view. My instincts kicked in and told me to go back the other way. Go to The Wall-The Train! So I did.

The snow was falling moderately so visibility was not great. But 30 seconds after I dot the the fence I see the crossing signals light up. Here comes the train. I'm laughing cuz it's taken so long to catch it. At 8:05 pm the train passes Holiday Valley. By the time I post this it should have passed east aurora.

Two locomotives pulled the train. Could not make out the cars they were pulling. And, I never saw FRED. Visibility wasn't that bad.

As I walked into the elicottville depot for a snack I see 4 snowmobilers hauling ass on the row. They slow to exit the row and stop. One guy gets off his "mobile" and steps on the wire fence so the other 3can cross it. Then they step on the fence to get the first guy across it. Thought that was pretty bad.

This reminds me of my ski trips to Vermont way back when, seeing the last couple of months of CV steam in St. Albans, White River Junction and of course my favorite place Brattleboro with friendly folks everywhere and still some really great steam power. In the 1960's my vacation was the Green Mountain Inn in Stowe with great food and a very friendly St Bernard. An evening ride down to the CV station at Waterbury provided at two SB passenger trains, maybe more. Yes by then it was all diesel but their engines were spotless still friendly people and train information was always readily available. Oh the memories, a great day of skiing during the day and trains in the evening. It didn't get any better than that.
Noel Weaver

Moderators and others, please feel free to re-locate this stuff if you need to, I simply added it to a New York thread although my memories are from New England and mostly the CV in Vermont. Here is some more:
Brattleboro was my HQ for southern Vermont where I used to love to sky Hogback, anybody remember that? It was the only place where I ever skied where down, the parking was closer to the top than the bottom. Big plus here, it was a small area, family owned and there was the Skyline Restaurant which could always be counted on for good food. Hogback was great for the intermediate skiers. It closed in maybe the late 60's or early 70's. I always stayed In Brattleboro when I went to Hogback, the old Hotel Brooks loved skiers, had a water powered elevator (the only one I ever saw or rode in), good food and best of all in the lobby behind the staircase there was a huge timetable rack with railroad timetables from all over the US. Best of all in Brattleboro was the CV roundhouse about a half mile south of the station. It was maybe 7 or so stalls and populated at least in the winter of 1957 by a 0-8-0 (usually 501) for the day yard job (the CV did all of the switching in Brattleboro), a 460 class 2-8-0 as a protect engine if need but kept under steam, and a 450 class 2-8-0 for the Palmer wayfreight which ran south on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Sometimes they would have a large number of cars up at White River Junction for Brattleboro (there was a lot of freight business in Brattleboro in 1957) and a second section of one of the through jobs would run as far south as Brattleboro with these cars. That train could have almost anything for power but it was steam. I saw GT 2-8-2 3432 on that job more than once. One Friday night while visiting with the hostler he said the 602 (a 4-8-2) had come down on that job the night before but Fridays was my ski day and Friday evening was my roundhouse evening. White River Junction was another hot spot in the winter of 1957 with activity 24/7 on both the B & M and the CV. both railroads had full time 24/7 yard engines working their yards there. The B & M engine terminal was across the river in Westboro, NH but by then it was all diesel but the CV engine facility had a decent size roundhouse, long electric turntable so they could turn the 700's (2-10-4's) and a decent size yard too. Best of all in WRJ was the passenger station which was at the crossroads of the B & M and the CV and it was always busy with passenger trains, yard switchers and freight too. Railroaders could be counted on to clue you in when something was in the works. Neatest thing about WRJ was the Hotel Coolidge which was right across the street from the railroad station, good rooms, good food, fair prices and fantastic location, friendly folks there too. The Hotel Coolidge is still in business there too but the trains are much fewer and far between these days.
Another thing about both White River Junction and Brattleboro was when you walked into the door of the roundhouse you could always enjoy the sweet smell of soft coal that went with steam engines. White River Junction was strictly railroad though, no really great skiing close by in this case, at least not my kind of skiing.
I could probably come up with lots more here later.
Noel Weaver