"Nashua, City Station", as it appeared on timetables by the Boston & Maine Railroad, was built in 1848 at the corner of Main and Canal Streets at Railroad Square. It was originally part of the Nashua & Lowell Railroad, which was the first steam railroad in the state of New Hampshire. The two story brick passenger station served as the Nashua terminal for the Nashua & Lowell, home of the Franklin Opera House, and the home of the Indian Head Bank. Nashua had a unique situation where it had multiple railroad companies constructed before a "Union Station" was built. This led each of the three big railroad corporations to have their own "Nashua" station. For the Nashua Street Railway to identify which station a streetcar was heading to, it developed a naming convention using the railroad's name. Thus, City Station became locally known as the "Lowell Depot". The Concord Railroad's station situated at Nashua Junction became Nashua's Union Station once all the rail lines were under control of the Boston & Maine, and this is when City Station was given the name "Nashua, City Station".

In 1931, the downtown landmark at Railroad Square was lost when it was gutted by fire, a common tradegy for many of Nashua's historic downtown buildings. The location continued to serve as a rail stop for trains heading to Milford and Wilton. The empty lot where the station stood was utilized by the Boston & Maine Transportation Co. as its Nashua terminal, with the office in the old car shop, which was located across the tracks from the station. Today the footprint of City Station is occupied by Dunkin' Donuts and a small parking lot. The car shop and the freight station are the only remnants, besides the railroad tracks, of the once bustling railroad center at Railroad Square.

The WEBSITE Nashua City Station

Nashua City Station is a personal website promoting the history of railroading in the Nashua (New Hampshire) region, and has been on the web in one form or another since April 2001. The website was originally named Trainman's Web Site, which originated as a place to display a small number of photos. In 2002, the website was redesigned and Nashua City Station was born. The name 'Nashua City Station' was chosen because, in French, the name is "la gare centrale de Nashua" (the station in the center of Nashua). The plan was to have the website all about railroading in Nashua, and this name was perfect. Expanding its territory, the website added the Manchester area and eventually southern New Hampshire in 2007. With the expansion, it was decided to formally change the name on the home page to Nashua City Station Railroad History to better represent what the website is about.

The Person behind the Website

The creator of this entire website is a certain railfan named Matt Cosgro. Besides being the creator of Nashua City Station, he's a volunteer at the Seashore Trolley Museum, frequent guest of the Train Station Inn in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, supporter of the Flying Yankee Restoration Group, and webmaster for the New Hampshire Railroad Revitalization Association as well as the Seashore Trolley Museum.

Matt's interest in (or love for) trains began when he was around two years old. His father used to take him to the original Edaville and to the Seashore Trolley Museum during the summer months. At age six, things got a little "worse", the first electric train set. In elementary school, he was given the nickname 'Trainman' by his art teacher and his friends.

The year 2001 marked the start of active involvement at the Seashore Trolley Museum, this happening after years of participating in the Be-A-Motorman program. The winter of 2002 was marked with excitement as Matt had heard of two Budd cars coming from Canada headed for Wilton. After contacting the owner, he became a conductor on the new Wilton Scenic Railroad. Serving as conductor for all three years of the railroad's existence, he then went on to write a book about the railroad in 2006.