 Windsor VT | Vermonter | Bellows Falls, VT  |
Claremont Junction, NH is the one intermediate station in New Hampshire on the Vermonter when it switches to that side of the Connecticut River between Bellows Falls and Windsor, Vermont. The stop is also called Claremont Junction because it is where the former and now mostly abandoned Claremont and Concord main line joined up with the current Vermonter's tracks. The stop has the dubious distinction of being the only stop in New Hampshire in the Amtrak-era from when it began to be a station stop on the Montrealer on July 18, 1989 when it was added to the schedule of that train restarted after being suspended in 1987 due to deteriorating tracks, until the Downeaster started in 2001. Although the station house is now a bike shop, it was the one station that did not allow bikes in the Vermonter's special baggage car (with bike racks) when it ran from 1995 to 2002.
Amtrak's platform has two tracks for the station and a short side platform north of the grade-crossing with River Road with a small parking lot along it. Along the tracks, coming from the grade crossing, there is first a modern Claremont, NH sign followed by a modern wheelchair lift enclosure (without a sign) and then a simple concrete platform that extends a short ways by two wheelchair parking spaces to the historic Boston & Maine depot built in 1920. The concrete platform has a tactile warning strip for about the first ten feet beyond the wheelchair lift enclosure (that makes it look really silly) and there is also a single concrete block across the track that platforms to allow a train to be boarded on the opposite track farther away. Along this platform is one of the modern Amtrak station information panels with 3 windows showing faded information and facing the street and Thank You for Riding Amtrak facing the platform. At the northern end of the platform is the historic depot that has been converted to the Claremont Cycle Depot, a bike shop, that I guess could make the station be considered slightly intermodal since you could buy (don't know if they rent) a bike there, pity bikes can't be brought at all on the Vermonter. The platform in use ends at a short wooden fence radiating from the depot. On the east side there is another track that is now just a short stub but was once the main line to Concord. It still has a concrete platform with a still visible but fading yellow line. There is another modern sign outside of the northern end of the depot where the track junction is. Along the teal walls of the depot are a few older generation signs which say Claremont Jct.
All photos were taken on 21 November, 2011
